My first exposure to Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development didn’t involve reference to it by name. I was in a new role listening to a leader talk about team development and he casually mentioned how teams tend to form, storm, norm, and then perform. This raised the curiosity flag in my brain and I jotted down those simple terms thinking, “That sounds like something I should know more about.”
Sure enough, Tuckman’s model has existed for a long time, first described in the 1965 paper “Developmental sequence in small groups.” In it, Tuckman shares his observations based on anecdotal evidence limited to group therapy sessions and training groups ranging in size from 5 – 30 members. He was hesitant to claim his model applied beyond therapy settings; yet over time, his model has been adopted by and applied to team formation and effectiveness in business. As always, team dynamics are messy and can never be fully encapsulated by a model. At the same time, Tuckman’s phases offer a vocabulary and structure to help us understand how to move forward to more productive work.
I’ll briefly describe the 4 stages. If you want to know more, Google is your friend. Be aware that, although all four stages are required for effective teams, the process is not always linear.
In the forming stage, team objectives are defined, members gathered, and general procedures are determined. If you’re an individual contributor, this phase may be transparent. The team’s objectives are usually defined when you join. In other situations, if you work in a highly meshed organization, in a services organization, or for a vendor, you may join a team that is still forming. If you don’t have clarity on the team’s purpose, ask for it. Your request can help accelerate the forming stage and make the entire team more productive more quickly.
In the storming phase, the team learns how to work together. While necessarily tumultuous, this phase must happen. In storming teams, conflicts emerge. Team members test boundaries, learn strengths and weaknesses, and iron out challenges. Communication problems and vocabulary mismatches reveal themselves. Teams will experience an expected drop in productivity when storming, as significant energy is consumed as the team organizes.
Storming can be uncomfortable for the conflict-averse. At the same time if leaders or team members short-circuit the healthy conflict, they will delay or even stunt team growth. Understanding storming as a normal and healthy part of team development can help us manage the discomfort of the storming phase and advance to productivity.
I’ve noticed patterns in my own behavior including frustration during the storming phase. In my daily work, I often move between teams – jumping into specialized projects across multiple teams. Before I internalized the importance of storming, I perceived early team conflict as the sign of an unproductive team. I overlooked the value of other team members, or considered a team unproductive and then disengaged, only to watch the team move forward to become productive. Now, I have a written reminder to myself in my daily task management system, “Don’t give up when storming.”
For leaders of storming teams, the effectiveness of this phase will shape the overall health and productivity of your team. Some team members will naturally be more vocal than others. Find ways to right this imbalance. Make room for the more reserved on your team to speak. If they won’t speak up in the group, connect with them one on one. Your quietest team members may observe dynamics others are too busy to notice. Keep the team focused on the objectives identified in the forming phase, redirect when necessary. Otherwise your loudest people will have outsized influence.
Once the team reaches the norming phase, most of the conflict has been resolved. Formal and informal leaders establish their place and begin to offer effective guidance. Team members begin to work together and share common practices and procedures. The team makes decisions and increases productivity. Habits form alongside a shared vocabulary that builds mutual trust required to move forward. Team habits and norms will shape the long term culture of your team. Healthy, inclusive, productive habits will reap outsized rewards. As always, the leader is responsible to keep the team aligned to objectives and be sure the habits and patterns allow everyone on the team to thrive.
Finally, if the previous phases have been navigated successfully, the team will begin performing. When a team reaches this phase, they will feel like they’re “firing on all cylinders.” Team members will know their place and will be able to work with energy, excitement, and effectiveness. Members will bring creativity to their work, will engage inside and outside of their team to meet objectives, and will feel a sense of belonging and purpose.
It’s important to note that teams do not indefinitely stay in the performing phase. Changes in leadership, team members, or objectives could move the team into a prior phase. For example, a company reorganization will force many teams back into a forming or storming phase, causing a dip in productivity while the team acclimates to new leaders or responsibilities. The loss of an informal leader, a team member with no official leadership title who nonetheless provides steady direction, may cause internal angst and realignment. Teams are living organisms that change over time and will inevitably cycle through iterations of development.
Why Does This Matter?
First, if you’re new to a team, or part of a new working group, it’s important to understand the building blocks of a successful team. If it’s early days, confusion and conflict are normal. Endure, listen, and work to resolve issues. If you join a group and discover the objectives and goals are unclear, ask questions and push the group to formulate their purpose in tangible written words.
As the team norms around a set of procedures and practices, make note of them. Build a user guide for the team that articulates the team’s objectives, the critical decisions reached while storming, and the processes and procedures around which the team coalesced. These artifacts will be helpful not only when you gain a new team member, but when you need to re-form or re-storm the team due to changing dynamics.
Where Do Leaders Fit?
I’m convinced one of the most important roles of all leaders is to help teams advance through the forming stage with clearly defined goals and objectives. Teams can get stuck before they reach the performing phase. If the team continually re-evaluates its goals and mission, it’s stuck in the forming phase. Leaders need to provide guidance.
You can tell a team is stuck storming when they’re trapped in endless cycles of conflict and power struggle. Leaders must allow room for the storming process with the right balance of patience and direction. If the team cannot self-organize and resolve conflicts, a leader must step in and help by making decisions, even if those decisions are unpopular with some. As teams norm and then perform, leaders must steward the processes, systems, and interactions that fuel the team.
