Chapter 3 – Team Beginnings

5 Main Stages of Group Development:

These stages are commonly known as: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and
Adjourning. Tuckman's model explains that as the team develops maturity and ability,
relationships establish, and leadership style changes to more collaborative or shared leadership.

1.Forming

The initial forming stage is the process of putting the structure of the team together. Team
members feel ambiguous and conflict is avoided at all costs due to the need to be accepted into
the group.

2. Storming
This stage begins to occur as the process of organizing tasks and processes surface
interpersonal conflicts. Leadership, power, and structural issues dominate this stage.

3. Norming

In this stage, team members are creating new ways of doing and being together. As the group
develops cohesion, leadership changes from ‘one’ teammate in charge to shared leadership.
Team members learn they have to trust one another for shared leadership to be effective.

4.Performing

True interdependence is the norm of this stage of group development. The team is flexible as
individuals adapt to meet the needs of other team members. This is a highly productive stage
both personally and professionally.

5. Adjourning

In this stage typically team members are ready to leave (course termination) causing significant
change to the team structure, membership, or purpose and the team during the last week of
class. They experience change and transition. While the group continues to perform
productively they also need time to manage their feelings of termination and transition.
How team dynamics impact team performance

Team dynamics

are the unconscious psychological influences that shape and direct a team’s behaviour, rapport
and performance. Team members’ roles and responsibilities often affect these dynamics, which
then directly affect the group’s productivity.

3 Reasons why is having good team dynamics important?

1. It provides strong leadership

A good team dynamic ensures that everyone understands every person’s role and respects it –
giving the right person the perfect opportunity to become a strong leader.

Great leaders inspire everyone within their team to achieve their full potential – whether that be
growing into a new position or guiding them to their ultimate professional goals. Effective
leaders also provide clarity of purpose, motivation and new, out-of-the-box ideas. Put quite
simply, strong leadership increases the team’s productivity and growth.

2. It encourages greater collaboration

When people are comfortable working with each other, it creates a more relaxed, informal
environment. This allows for higher levels of cooperation and collaboration amongst team
members and opens them up to new ideas and perspectives they may not have considered
before.

3. It yields better results and productivity

Strong team dynamics ensure that everyone is working to their fullest potential. And when
everyone is dedicated to functioning at their best, the results are naturally going to be of higher
quality.
A solid team dynamic makes every member feel supported to perform better than they ever
have before. Perhaps someone has suggested a new point of view they’ve never considered
before or pitched in to help when the workload became too much.

3 negative impacts of poor team dynamics

1.Weak leadership

A team without a strong, undefined leader often lacks direction and may focus on the wrong
priorities. It also leaves the team vulnerable to being taken over by a dominant team member –
which can stifle engagement from other people or make the workspace feel like an unsafe place
to contribute.

2.Groupthink

It refers to the psychological phenomenon where people aim for consensus within a group. In
many cases, individuals will set aside their own beliefs to ‘keep the peace’.

People who disagree with the decisions being made will often remain silent, choosing to be
polite and agreeable rather than disrupt the group. This can be caused by a lack of open
communication or fear that they’ll be laughed at or discouraged. The result? A team that
doesn’t explore different solutions or consider other points of view.

3.Blocking behaviors

Blocking behaviours obstruct, change, subvert vision or hinder the team from reaching their
goals and objectives. While not always intentional, these behaviours are considered a reflexive
reaction.
Summary

Teams develop through a series of stages from formation to adjournment. These stages
relate to the time needed to develop a team’s internal processes and the changing
demands of its tasks. The developmental perspective shows the different types of
challenges teams face during their existence. Rather than a smooth progression, teams
go through periods of low activity followed by bursts of achievement and from periods
of smooth relations to conflict. Understanding these stage theories helps explain why
teams do most of their productive work during the later stages of projects.

The group socialization process describes the changing relationship between a team
and its members. The team and its members evaluate one another to determine
reciprocal levels of commitment. Socialization proceeds through a series of stages, from
investigation to maintenance. Many types of teams have dynamic team membership,
which makes socialization an ongoing activity for teams. This increase in team member
turnover has positive and negative impacts on team performance.

Goals define a team’s purpose and values and are an important factor in the team’s
success. Goals often are divided into objectives that are linked to performance criteria.
Effective team goals are measurable in order to provide feedback on performance and
moderately difficult in order to motivate performance. One common goal problem for a
group is hidden agendas. Hidden agendas occur when individual team members have
unspoken goals that conflict with the team goals. These can create conflict and distrust
in the team and must be managed carefully.

Team norms define appropriate behavior for team members. They help the team
operate more smoothly and create a distinctive group identity. Norms often evolve
gradually. A team should formally establish its operating norms, however. The impact of
team norms can be both positive and negative. Norms help a team operate better
internally, but teams can develop norms that do not encourage high performance

One of the values of viewing the ways teams evolve is that it illustrates the problems
teams have at the beginning of projects. Teams must address the problems of
undeveloped social relations, ill-defined projects, and ambiguous goals and norms
before they can focus on performing their tasks. The operation of teams can be
improved by focusing on these problems at the beginning of the team.