Stages of Team Development: Performing

Performing stage is the level you want to bring your team. After all your hard work, it is worth the effort.  Many teams get stuck at Norming and although everything appears normal, there is a lack of momentum and motivation towards achieving the all important team goals. It is as though the team is comfortable in this stage and does not want to progress further for fear of returning to a storming stage -- a stage that is uncomfortable for most people. 

It is at the Performing stage where team members really concentrate on the team goals. They are determined to work towards them as they know what rewards are available to them upon completion.  They are also aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and they appreciate these, and also works towards developing the weaknesses.  

This is a period of great personal growth among team members. There is a good deal of sharing of experiences, feelings and ideas together with the development of a fierce loyalty towards team members.  There will be arguments, disagreements and disputes but these will be facilitated positively as the team will now live and die by its rules and processes. 

At this stage, you need to take a non-directive role, concentrating on strategy to plan the next way forward. The team will be in many ways self-directing, perhaps even self-appraising with the you as the leader taking very much a back-seat role.  Again, your role will be to facilitate communication and ensure that the successes are communicate and rewarded. It is not a passive role but it is definitely different from previous stages. 

Remember: 
When your team gets to the Performing stage, you need to:

• Take a step back and allow the team to become self-directing
• Be there for them and continue your coaching role with both the team and individuals
• Allow individuals to take on leadership roles and encourage rotation of roles
• Communicate success and reward success accordingly

Not every team makes it to the performing stage, but it is definitely worth the effort to strive for it. 

The next post will discuss Alternatives to Team Building and will describe situations when team building is not the appropriate intervention. An alternative strategy is offered and in my experience can often bring a team along well.

Examples of high performing teams:
Think of a time when you participated in a high performing team. What make it so positive? One example that comes to mind is Burlington Central Library's renovation and building project. Team members were invested in the project and could visualize the finished results - the architectural drawings certainly helped.  There were a wide range of subject specialists at the table and people recognized that each members was integral to the project's success. 

There was trust and significant personal growth - even though I couldn't possibly understand the integration of the new and old HVAC systems, team members were patient and gave details and expressed concerns that all contributed to problem solving (and I learned a lot about perimeter heating and air flow regulators).  

Another positive aspect of this high performing team was the considerable stakeholder conversation and feedback. Not only was the Board of Directors kept informed, but so were the staff that were going to work in the new space. 

Another example was of a high performing team was found in collection development.  It's a tricky team to handle as the team is generally set-up with individuals having responsibility of selecting a special area of specialization.  The key is to ensure that although roles are very specific - an individual may select adult fiction - you as the leader must ensure the team understands that selecting books is just one aspect of their role.  Individuals are also responsible for the overall collection outside their area of responsibility.  That requires collaboration, and problem solving especially as collection dollars are not growing significantly, and new formats stress budgets.  With the general trend of dropping circulation numbers, the collection team must also have goals regarding customer service, trends and an understanding of their community. Having a long range plan and strategy is a key element to ensure your collection team is functioning well at the performing stage.    

Again, what made the team a high performing team was the clear goals, processes and expectations of the team. There was an environment that although people had admirable experience and expertise, everyone was in learning mode to ensure all opportunities were explored.  Learning opportunities were expanded and staff were encouraged to participate. Communication channels were better developed for feedbackand metrics were developed and shared with the team and the organization. Rewards and celebrations were developed based on Key Performance.  We didn't have monetary rewards so we worked within our team's authority to reward teamwork. 

I hope these examples are helpful.  Again, next post will discuss situations in which team building is not the appropriate intervention. 

Stages of Team Development: Norming

Remember a time when a real storm passes. The winds drop, the sky brightens, it's quiet and you can hear the birds sing once more.  Your team will also be this way.  It may even catch you by surprise. Your team exhibits a calm, a focus.  Goals are clearly understood, roles are clarified and rules and processes are being adhered to. People are working together positively, and relationship are becoming stronger as people are more aware of each other.  Strengths and weaknesses are realized and utilized accordingly.  In short, this stage can be characterized as acceptance. 

It doesn't mean that individuals won't have a grievance, complaint or suggestion.  The difference is that instead of open rebellion, the proper processes are used and people tend to know that they are listened to and have a voice. This is a time to be celebrated and appreciated but you still have work to do. 

Your role in this stage to ensure that this calm continues and that any behaviours that arise that my threaten the calm are channeled in the right direction. You also have the important role to convey information particularly in relation to the successes that are starting to occur within the team. You should be spending a lot of time with individual team members coaching them and supporting them to develop their capabilities that relate to the individual's team roles and the tasks that they have to perform in relation to the team goals. 

Norming: once you have achieved this stage, remember to

• Lessen the direction and spend the with individuals starting to coach them in relation to their roles within the team and the tasks that they have to perform
• At the same time, you will be challenging team members to take on extra capabilities in order to move the team on to the next stage

What is the next stage? Performing is the desired end goal.  

Stages of Team Development: Storming

Storming is a challenging phase for a number of reasons.  You may think that you have led the team through the forming stage well, and your'e starting to feel quite good about year team's progress.  You feel the team is on its way and then you get the rude awakening, and regardless of knowing the stages, storming typically catches one off guard. This is where your leadership qualities are tested fully.  Storming usually arises as a result of confusion over 

• Goals
• Roles 
• Rules

In storming, people start to test the above and put there own biases and past practices into play even though you may feel you were very explicit in the forming stage. At this stage, individual team members often interpret roles somewhat different in reality then in discussion. Examples include:

• These goals are not realistic; or these goals are too narrow in scope.  I provide a big picture perspective and use it in my role
• My role is much larger than discussed but I thought you recognized that and were OK with it since it was not addressed
• I tried these new rules/ processes but they don't work for me.  I've been doing this for over 10 years and you have been here for ten minutes. Trust me to do what's best. 

Role "interpretation" results in confusion when different behaviours are evident and conflicts can arise with the potential for factions being created within the team.  It is during this stage that your coaching skills should be well demonstrated.

Coaching: Both individuals and the team as a whole should be coached to enable and support them to ensure agreement as regards what specifically the goals, roles and rules are with respect to the team and what that means to each and every individual. 

Don't get frustrated a this stage because you believe that you have already done the work outlined the goals, roles and rules at the early stage of the team's formation. I've seen leaders go from a state of immense pride about the way they have guided their team through the forming stage to a state of anger where they look to blame the team and its individual member. Instead, smile and know that you are on the path to success.  This is a necessary phase of the team's development and once you get over it, you can move forward.

So at this time, go over the agreement made during the forming stage and ensure that the understanding is uniform across the team.  There may be small adjustments and that's not a bad thing.  You want to demonstrate that you are listening, flexible and responsive while maintaining your leadership.  We will talk about coaching individual behaviours at another post. 

Not a one-time phase: remember, every time there is a change to the team - a new strategic plan, a new team member, environmental impacts, you have to build your team again. Why?  When there is a new team member the team dynamics change.  You need to get the new team member up to speed.  This should be a time to do both one-on-one discussions and confirming the goals, roles and rules of the team in a group session.  And it may be messy, but it could easily become chaos if you don't fulfil your leadership role and build your team. 

In summary

Once the disagreements and blame start, you need to

• Get the team together quickly to thrash out what the concert and disagreements are

Remember

At this stage, you must be strong, directive and also fair. The team needs direction at this stage and perhaps people need to hear things that perhaps they don’t want to hear. Get things out in the open.  Let the team bleed a little and then begin the healing process by facilitating their coming together.  And remain positive.  This is a necessary phase to get to norming. 

Documentation

And I cannot stress enough the importance of documentation. Update shared documents and track the changes.  Reiterate conversations you have had with individuals by email to ensure clarity and understanding. And be kind - generally, people struggle with change.  Review my earlier post on push pull conversations and set yourself up for success. 

Stages of team development: Forming

Forming is a stressful phase when new teams come together or the addition of new members or there have been changes, such as a new leader. Everyone is a bit wary of each other, particularly if they do not know anyone.  This is magnified with a change in leadership. Even more stressful, if there are rumours circulating about the new leader that are not positive.

The first meeting will likely be a nervous one and you need to recognize this and make attempts to ensure the team is put at ease.  It is at this stage that cliques can develop and you need to be aware of the potential for various alliances. Not all alliances will be counter-productive to the team’s future success but it pays for the manager to watch and observe the behaviours of potential cliques.  

Here are some tips to give your team the best possible start in the forming stage:

• Outline specifically the task the team has to perform
• Be specific about each person’s role in the team’s task
• Outline how the team has come together (or continues to exist) and give reasons as to why the various team members have been brought together for inclusion within this team
• Be open about the way you operate as a manger / leader – what are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you look like under stress?
• Outline your expectations of both the team and the individuals within the team. In other words, start to contract with the team
• Encourage each team member to do likewise
• Ensure that the team has a set of rules and guidelines and that the team has an iput into how these rules are formed and agreed
• Discuss reward and recognition.  How does the team want to celebrate its achievements?
• How is the team going to make decisions?
• How is the team going to give feedback on each other’s performance?
•  How are they going to resolve conflict? Discuss past conflict.

By having an open discussion from the onset allows people the chance to air views, concerns and queries.  The goal of these discussions is to:

• Ensure people feel they have been heard and have a voice
• Give people an opportunity to contribute. If people have made contributions, they tend to be more committed
• Ensure people know the rules and regulations by which the team will operate
• Allow people to have a greater appreciation of the people they are working with on this team

In summary

As the leader, you will ensure that the team meets and understands the team's goals, the different roles, and the rules by which the team is governed. 

Remember: although there my be a great deal of agreement and compliance about what is discussed, many people will have different interpretations of what is agreed upon.  Have one-on-one discussions with the team members to help minimize this. 

Documentation: Inevitably, there will start to be undercurrents of disagreements of what has been exactly agreed up so make sure decisions are well documented, share them and make them readily available, and review.

Next post will review phase two, storming. 

Stages of team development

One of the greatest challenges leaders have is moving their team through the various team development stages.

Every leader needs to know:

What the various growth stages are of a developing team; and

How best to move the team through these stages with a minimal amount of fuss and stress

Stages of team development

In order to be productive, there are four team development stages* that teams must go through:

1. Forming: when a team meets and starts to work together for the first time
2. Storming: when the members within the team start to “jockey” for position.  This is also characterized when control issues take place
3. Norming: when rules are finalized and accepted and when team rules start being adhered to
4. Performing: when the team starts to produce through effective and efficient working practices

*Reference: Psychologist, B.W. Tuckman developed these stages in the 1970s

It is noted that some teams will go through the four stages quickly and move from forming through to performing in a relatively short period of time. There are a lot of variables: the team’s composition, capabilities of individuals, required tasks, and leadership. And while there are a lot of variables, there is one certainty: no team passes over the storming phase.

All teams must be prepared to go through the difficult and stressful times while anticipating the benefits of the productive phases. As leader, your role is to identify where along the path of team development your team is and then move it on to the next phase with as little chaos and resistance as possible. 

I will discuss each stage in more detail. In the meantime, give some thought to the teams you have or want to develop.  You may want to record your perceptions of their activity based on the following five areas: 

1. Mission, vision, and goals
2. Team roles
3. Operating processes
4. Interpersonal relationships
5. Inter-team relations

And yes, these five areas will be discussed in greater detail, too.
Remember, you need to be the effort in upfront.  There will be challenging days, but I anticipate your efforts will be meaningful and rewarding. 

Team Building: When to do it

You have inherited a team and based on your workload, you're wondering whether or not you need to do some team building. 

First, let's review what is a team. By definition a team is a group of interdependent individuals.  They have complementary skills and are committed to a shared and meaningful purpose or at the very least, specific goals. 

Ideally, they have a common collaborative work approach with clear roles and responsibilities.  They hold themselves mutually accountable for the team’s performance. 

When effective, teams display confidence, enthusiasm and seek continuously to improve their performance.  

When to do Team Building

It doesn’t matter whether or not your team is effective, now that you are leading the team, team building is required.  Below is a list of when to do team building:

• Building strength into an existing healthy team
• Building strong teamwork between two or more functions
• Formation of a new team
• New people joining an existing team
• Revitalization of a stagnant staff or staff in trouble
• Poor task execution
• Troubled interpersonal relationships
•  As a response to strategic challenges, impending or actual change
• Signs of team distress by team members
• various diverting dysfunctional behaviours - the more widespread, the greater the urgency.  

     What does team distress look like?  

• Poor decision making
• Absenteesim / Presenteeism
• Apathy or lack of interest
• Undermining others' efforts
• Complaints about lack of empowerment
• Increased conflict
• Complaints about other team members
• Avoidance of team interaction
• Irritability
• Decreased communication 
• Reduced trust
• Decreased directness / openness 
• Defensive behaviour
• Protective behaviour
• Blaming others
• Reduced risk taking

These two list illustrate that team building is not a one-time task. Even your most effective team can benefit team building if for no other reason than to build strength into the team. 

Next steps

Give this some thought.  Next we can discuss the stages of team development, building a successful team, your responsibilities as a leader, common team challenges, and a number of resources. At a later time, I’ll post an overview of when NOT to do “team building.” There are a number of issues that can be addressed as opposed to team building.