Tuesday 29 November 2011

PPD Assignment 2:3. Team Building

There is a vast number of theories about how exactly groups and teams develop. We're now going to take a quick look at the "Forming - Storming - Norming - Performing" model of group development, also known as Tuckman's Group Development model, named after its creator Bruce Tuckman.


According to this model, there are four stages in the formation of any team or group of people.


Forming
This is the first stage of the development of a team of people who haven't worked together before. Everyone is nice to everyone, and the team mostly concentrates on getting its routines worked out. Not much is accomplished towards the team's actual goal at this point.

Storming
The second stage isn't named without reason. At this stage the team members have become comfortable enough with each other to express dissent - or just complain. The true purpose and direction of the team are worked out. Some teams never make it out of this stage, and those are not pleasant situations to work in.

Norming
Most teams and groups make it to this stage. Members are comfortable with each other and agree on and work towards their common goal.

Performing
The most high performance teams get to a stage where the members are able to work together seamlessly, without outside supervision. Productivity is very high, and teams at this stage are a real pleasure to be a part of.



However, long-standing teams never remain in the Performing stage. Things like changes in team composition will cause the team to revert back a stage or two, so the in practice the process is a cycle. 

I must say many things make more sense now that I'm actually aware that teams and groups go through this process of development. 

(Image sources: http://theteambuildingexperience.com/images/team_building.jpg, http://www.alchemyformanagers.co.uk/topics/r64ZCZGCF8evQ5Wf.html)

1 comment:

  1. Team and group development's real complicated and takes lots of time.

    ReplyDelete