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| Team Stages
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| Introduction |
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Self-Directed Work Teams develop in four stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. It is management's task to provide training, coaching, and an environment that promotes progression through these stages.
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| Stage One: Forming (Awareness): The Immature Group |
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This beginning stage lasts a few days or weeks. People think about their new tasks and new environment. Members plan their work and their new roles. Emotions are positive.
Theme: orientation
Behaviors desired: commitment to group goals as task behavior, friendliness and concern about others and interest in relationship with others
Outcomes desired: commitment and acceptance of team and of others
Actions and activities: learning what’s expected
Leader’s role: high-task, low-relationship to compensate for low follower readiness
Leaderships skills and techniques: value clarification, visioning, communication through myth and metaphor, and goal setting to develop acceptance and commitment as individuals need to understand how they relate to team and team’s relationship to organization
Task of individual: getting acquainted, assessing strengths and weaknesses, participating in goal setting
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| Stage Two: Storming (Conflict): The Fractionated Group |
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The anticipation and enthusiasm of the forming stage quickly falls away as the team faces a myriad of technical, interpersonal and social problems.
Theme: resistance
Behaviors desired: acknowledgment and confrontation of conflict openly at task level and listening with understanding to others at relationship level
Outcomes desired: clarification and belonging
Actions and activities: leadership struggles, incomplete communication, arguments and personalizing events; members appear confused and dissatisfied and output is low
Leader’s role: maintaining adequate production while building group competence requires high-task, high relationship
Leadership skills and techniques: active listening, assertiveness and conflict management to resolve stage two issues, and flexibility and creativity to support open environment and set climate for new ideas
Task of individual: listening actively and attentively to all viewpoints, supporting the development of and encouraging supportive environment for expression of ideas, confronting and managing disagreements to clarify purposes, roles and procedures
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| Stage Three: Norming (Cooperation): The Sharing Group |
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Here, the team works through individual and social issues. They establish their own norms of behavior. Members begin to trust each other.As the team develops interpersonal skills, it also hones other skills. Members become increasingly adept at problem solving.
Theme: cohesion
Behavior desired: inclusion of others in decision making to meet task needs, recognition and respect of differences to meet relationship needs
Outcomes desired: involvement and support
Actions and activities: open exchange of feelings, facts, ideas, preferences and support; less dissatisfaction as ways of working together are clarified
Leader’s role: low-task, high relationship to promote participation and involvement, providing more opportunities for group members to take responsibility
Leadership skills and techniques: use of the techniques of playfulness and humor, entrepreneurship and coalition building (networking) promote involvement and support communication, feedback and affirmation
Task of individual: appreciation of differences, recognition of group success as source of personal power and resources, use of feedback to support collaborative working relationships, greater involvement in decision-making
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| Stage Four: Performing (Productivity): The Effective Team |
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Now things begin to click. Members help each other, conflict is de-personalized, problems are solved and successive goals achieved and exceeded. Satisfaction and pride become the dominant emotions.
Theme: interdependence
Behaviors: contribution and valuing of new ideas and the ideas of others
Outcomes: achievement and pride
Actions and activities: working collaboratively to challenge their potential; celebrating success in the achievement of more complex goals helps sustain enthusiasm and maintain momentum
Leader’s role: delegation reduces need for interaction with staff to low-task, low relationship
Leadership skills and techniques: problem solving, planning, and decision making skills provide opportunities for achievement; mentoring helps to foster achievement in others
Task of individual: sharing in group accomplishments and productivity lead to sense of satisfaction and pride
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