Before we explore how to launch teams, it's useful to take some time to examine how teams actually evolve over time. We're going to call this our model of group development. This model is originally proposed by Tuckman in 1965 and consisted of four stages of forming, storming, norming and performing stage. In our text, the Whetten and Cameron textbook, that we're using for this course, they've slightly altered that order to put to reverse storming and norming. There are good reasons for doing this based on their observations of how groups actually evolve. I don't think it's especially important which order they're in as long as we understand which stage we're in and what the characteristics are. In the context of engineering teams, I've added a fifth stage that is representative of how temporary teams might be formed and conduct their work as they execute projects. And we call this the adjourning stage. This is used where teams have a finite lifetime and are not permanent teams. Let's begin then with the forming stage. When groups of people are initially brought together, for the most part they're polite, they're cordial, but they may not know the other members of the team. This is particularly true when you bring multi-disciplinary teams together from different parts of the organization. In this environment, typically as the new participants are getting involved in the project they're high on enthusiasm, but they're a little bit low on trust because they don't know the other members of the team. Getting a team productive at this stage can be a little bit difficult because of the lack of established relationships. One of the primary concerns of the team in the forming stage is to start building that understanding one team member for another so that they can build trust and ultimately move towards an interdependent way of operating. In this stage, the team should be looking at establishing what its group norms will be. Frequently, it's best to do this in the form of the team charter or terms of reference, whatever phrase you use to describe the document that organizes the team and sets expectations and roles. But part of that forming stage should include a description of behaviors that are acceptable and not acceptable in the group, establishing work processes that will be helpful in delivering work, and in particular those processes that the team might want to use and consider using and in times when they experience conflict or encounter obstacles to their work. The amount of time that team takes in this forming stage, we're going to talk about in a little bit more detail later but it's not unusual for this to take between 20 and 40% of the lifetime of the group that it might take in this forming stage. Moving out of that forming stage as quickly as possible to the next stage is going to be important for overall success. In the Whetten and Cameron model, this next stage is what we call the norming stage. In this stage the participants in the team have adjusted to their roles. They have a better, deeper understanding of what their roles and expectations are in the team, and the team is actually delivering some work product. Here the team members have gotten to know each other a little bit, they're building trust and they're demonstrating mutual concern for each other. However, they still are not at that high performing level that we would like to reach in later stages of the development. In the original Tuckman model, this stage was replaced by storming In that storming stage, team members experience conflict. Conflict can arise over a variety of issues that we talked about previously in the relationship management course. Could be role definitions, expectations, alignment of the goals. There are a variety of things that might cause conflict among the team members. Here you may actually see collisions forming with in the team. Sides being taken and it's extremely important in this stage that the team have a mechanism in place to deal with that conflict effectively. Using all of the tools that we've describe previously in the relationship management course. But incorporating some of those procedures formally into the team charter can be extremely useful when the team begins to encounter conflict. Conflict is going to be inevitable. Every team at some point or other will experience some form of conflict. So it's It's not necessarily a problem as long as the team doesn't get stuck in that position and can effectively deal with it when it does come up. Well, moving to the performing stage is highly desirable. Not all teams get there. And I think you should recognize that there maybe many teams in which you participate where you're at the norming or storming stage and cycle between those over time without ever getting to the performing stage. It takes unique blend of followers and leaders along with alignment of goals to make sure that a team moves to that performing stage. In engineering teams frequently the team has a limited lifetime. It's only going to exist for the duration of the project, whether that's a few months to maybe a few years. There ultimately comes an end to the project team. I would suggest to you that it is helpful for all of the members of the team to recognize that there is an adjourning stage. There's a formal close. This is the opportunity to celebrate victory when the team is successful and to recognize those participants in the team appropriately. Closing out a team effectively sets the stage for each individual's participation in other teams later on. I think it's useful to recognize also that there are internal recycle loops in this development process. Teams that get to that storming stage, once they've resolved the conflict may revert back to a norming stage. This would be expected. And that may be necessary before that team can move from the norming to the higher performing stage. It is also possible for the norming team to move to that higher performing level. So recognize that there are multiple ways to get to that high performing level, but almost always will involve a norming and storming stage in between. It's also useful to recognize that changes in the team composition can have an impact on these stages of team development. You should recognize that whenever you change the membership in a team, that introduces enough difference that a team may have to devote some time to reestablishing the group norms. Integrating the new person into the way that particular team works and recognizing that you may experience regression in terms of the stages of team development. Significant changes in the team frequently will cause conflict. Once the team resolves those it can resume the pathway towards norming and ultimately to a high performing team. Understanding these stages of team development will help you recognize where you are and what leadership style you may choose to use to help guide these teams to deliver their work products.
