Team Building

Team Building 

Bruce Tuckman [1] proposed the Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model of group development in 1965.  

Forming -> the team is created & organized. Team members tend to know one another, and develop their first impressions. A certain group behavior is formed, and relationships are quite cordial. They get an idea of how much time, energy and effort they have to commit to the group. This phase is key towards establishing relationships that would be built upon in future stages.

Storming -> this stage was characterized by conflict and disagreement amongst team members. Discussions take place regarding what goals are to be pursued, as well as how those outcomes are to be accomplished. Team-members must learn to accept disagreements and work towards a common goal.  

Norming -> team-members reach a consensus as to how to best accomplish those group goals. Team members understand their role as well as the roles of others in the group.  

Performing -> commitment to goals as well as one another leads to highest levels of performance. The majority of the work is accomplished at this stage, as team members begin to feel a sense of closeness or connections to each other and actively attempt to help one another. Members achieve high loyalty levels. 

Adjourning -> all teams eventually disband, whether because the tasks are completed or members are assigned to other areas. Team members will eventually part ways.    

Consider then the explained phases in Team Building. In the beginning the focus on the relationship is the most important, at the detriment of Productivity. The team members must trust each other to perform better later in the project. Getting to know each other is Key. Introductions, activities, sports; knowing each other will allow the players to identify their skills, focusing on their strengths and weakness. Different roles will be adopted as well. The leader, the negotiator, the saboteur… The roles will be accommodated to the different profiles and personalities. A person that is a leader in one team can become a saboteur (anti-leader) in another. 

Once the relationships are formed, a storming phase will get the players to collide. Productivity is at it’s lowest at this phase. The frictions within the members will create tension, but they might also spark innovation. After the storm recedes, the people will already know each other and develop an emotional attachment. The group then sets it’s own norms of co-existence. These must have consensus; otherwise frictions will persist. Eventually, the group starts focusing on the task and performance boosts. The relationships are solid so the attention can be focused on getting the job done.

Let us now integrate this with the Leadership Styles seen before. An Authoritative style might be a good way to start. The team members need to feel themselves identified with a vision. The leader takes a top-bottoms role, establishing a clear direction. For the Storming phase an Affiliative style must be best, since it will help bring the people together in a time of chaos. A Democratic style could be applied for the Norming phase: the leader foments participation so that the team members establish a set of common values. Finally, the leader steps aside taking the role of a coach. The team enters networking phase and the leader supports from bottoms up. 

Consider what happens after the team is established. Now in networking phase, a new team member joins the team. The team is strong and solid, but they have already established their set of values. The new team member might mingle immediately, or might act as disruptor. What happens if the new team member outperforms all of the “old” team members? Integrating theories, the team might engage in “soldierism” (as seen in Chapter 3. Taylor). Remember that if a team-member shows more productivity than others, the top leadership might expect the same performance from everyone else. Difference in values might also arise, not to mention difference in cultures (be it country based, background based, competences, or simply neighborhood the people grew up in). It is always easier to integrate people in the team formation phase. The leader then must engage actively to integrate, train and coach the new members of the team. This does not only mean transferring technical knowledge, but also the common set of values established by the team.    

Eventually, teams do disband. The team leader moves to another company or gets promoted to another department. The team-members switch jobs. Or somebody moves to another country, or simply dies. The important thing is that once the core values are established, these are transmitted from employee to employee, so that as the company grows bigger, these endure the test of time.    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman%27s_stages_of_group_development