Team development— “It’s the hardest way to make an easy living”
Fifty-one (yes 51) years ago, one of the US psychologists (Bruce W. Tuckman) formed the theory that proves there is no coincidence in the team development. During his studies, which are based on four different groups, he discovered that despite some differences, each of the groups has to go through four main stages. He found the pattern.
Forming is the initial, warming-up phase of the team (project). Storming is the stage of first tensions, clarification of the team needs, and building a work plan. Norming occurs when the team “survives” the storming stage. It’s the stage of the implementation and “tuning up” actions from the previous phase. Last but not least is the performing stage. It’s the “holy grail”, Eden, the place where we all want to be.
Most probably you “feel” all of those phases during your career and for some of us, it’s the natural order of things. For me, the most important was to realize that this whole process is a part of the normal team life cycle.
The first phase, forming
The forming stage is the first phase that occurs when a new team is established e.x. assignment to the brand new project or changing a job. A game just begins, and everything is new for everyone. It’s the period of big momentum energy and high hopes. Everyone is excited and curious what can/should happen in the upcoming days/weeks. Optimism, enthusiasm, happiness are mixed with suspicion, fear, and anxiety.
It’s a time when team members recognize themselves, and focus of the people is more on the behaviours than on the tasks. In this honeymoon, you should establish ground rules, highlight expected (proactivity) and unxpected ( finger–pointing) behaviours, recognize what drives every single team member and develops the environment of trust.
You should:
1. Be a leader — be an example of the desired behaviours, and influence your team.
2. Be a part of the team — lead by example, show what and how to do and get your hands dirty.
3. Be a facilitator — help the team to establish their own rules in the most efficient way.
4. Be a listener and observer — you need to be prepared before next phases, discover what the needs of the team are, and your colleagues.
7. Be transparent — do not hide information that can be useful for the team. Explain why some of the decisions were taken and what should be expected in the future.
5. Remove vagueness from your environment — establish ground rules, project scope, actions process, development process, a team charter, roles and responsibilities, and everything that you will need for the future.
6. Develop a common vision of the team (project) goal. Make it realistic, viable, but be sure it’s also attractive for your colleagues.
7. Create a group identity — do something to make your team stand out
from the others.
You can fail when you:
1. focus on the tasks, not on the people.
2. don’t find time for a talk with your team.
3. make hidden agendas.
4. don’t take action on the unxpected behaviors.
5. make an important decision only with a part of the team.
6. don’t establish team processes and artifacts (e.x. 1 on 1, team charter).
The second phase, Storming
The honeymoon is over and things got serious. You and your team have started struggling with grave issues. In this period, your colleagues will challenge things that you set together in the forming phase.
This is the time when the team starts to experiment with a process, roles, and responsibilities. They want to implement risky ideas and most probably they will check what kinds of behaviour you may accept. It’s the period of one big WHY ?!
Cheer up !! It’s a normal part of the team development process. I know that it’s unpleasant and not fun, not fun not only for you but also for your team. The key to this stage is to use the right tools and processes to deal with team tensions. You need to be well-prepared to this stage, you need to know the personality of your colleagues. Their needs, fears, demands. Most probably they will challenge you to see what type of leader you are. They will set boundaries and transgress the ones that are already set. Until this is a constructive conflict, it’s ok. You treat it as an investment and remember “after a storm comes a calm”.
you should:
1. Remember and continue to implement the things from the forming stage.
2. Spend your time on regular 1 on 1 sessions — you should know as much as you can about your colleagues, to help them go through this stage.
3. Arrange venting sessions — give them a chance to present their opinions, everyone wants to be heard. You can use process events for this action. Scrum retrospective is one of the great places for such sessions.
4. Remember what team set in the Forming stage and be a role model of these rules.
5. Deal with tensions within the team, and develop a consensus.
6. Accept and be open-minded — no one is perfect, and remember that, it’s also a hard time for the team.
7. Be a motivator and make your work fun — break the routine, play games, recognize your colleagues and the whole team. Remember about non-financial motivators.
You can fail when you:
1. aren’t strong enough to cope with the conflicts, especially the conflict of change and behaviour.
2. develop an unrealistic plan without consultation with your team.
3. allow your colleagues to come into unproductive conflicts.
4. fear confrontation and conflict, and don’t allow harsh discussions.
5. don’t have “buy-in” from everyone and leave someone overboard.
6. have a poor decision-making process.
7. have an unclear project goal (scope) and/or team goal.
The third phase, Norming
“After a storm comes a calm…”. Your team emerges from the perfect storm with sets of the consensus, processes, goals, rules, strategies, and agreements concerning their personalities. Morale of your team seems to be a bit battered but in this stage, the first success appears. The group is ready and eager to work, even though there are some unknowns, and some of the processes need to be polished, they have everything to get to the full speed. Finally, mutual understanding occurs within the team, and the project scope/goal has the final shape.
In this stage, the productivity of the team increases dramatically. The team is becoming accountable and responsible for deliverables. It’s the first time when you hear that they like their job, and they can trust each other. The key priorities in this phase are: maintaining good change, removing obstacles, and empowering your team.
You should:
1. Summarize the storming phase — it’s good to do a post-mortem and make the team aware the storm period is finally behind them, and eventually they can focus on the real goal.
2. Remove any obstacles and facilitate work progress — and make sure that the team has everything to get things done.
3. Inspire good change — it’s the time when good ideas appear, encourage your colleagues to introduce them to the rest of the team.
4. Collect and analyze data related to the project, and on their basis introduce processes improvements — start working on the metrics, they can visualize what progress the team has made and what can be improved.
5. Develop “a personal development plan” — a good development plan will give your colleagues a feeling that you care about them.
6. Establish “the final” process base on team proposals and experience — tune up the process to speed up the team, but remember, the process is for us, not we for the process.
7. Give a frequent and honest feedback — the regular feedback loop is the best way to improve processes and team bechaviours. For this purpose, you can use one of the processes, like one on one or retrospective meeting
You can fail when there is:
1. a differences in workload within the team.
2. poor development process which leads to reworks and unexpected peaks.
3. no one responsible for keeping direction agreed by the team.
4. lack of regular and honest feedbacks.
5. lack of recognition of the team for their effort.
6. lack of trust within the team and a company.
7. micromanagement.
And final (fourth) phase, Performing
You did it, and you probably feel it! In fact, the whole team feels it. This is the reason why you have always wanted to be THE manager. Pride, satisfaction, and happiness will probably be what you feel till the end of the project (or first failure). Finally, the team has become a self-sufficient unit, they can easily solve internal tensions and remove obstacles on their own. Mutual understanding and shared goals make them a good working machine. You have started to delegate more and more responsibilities and you are asking yourself if they need you anymore? You have succeeded…
You should:
1. Involve the team to take more responsibility for themselves — delegate your duties and empower your colleagues.
2. Implement decisions made by the team — help when some of your powers are needed to force a “political” idea.
3. Involve the team into the local communities — invest in another team/people, who knows, maybe they will join your (next?) team.
4. Make sure that your colleagues have adjusted the self-development plan — Keep motivation on the high level and make sure that your colleagues still have an opportunity to grow.
You can fail when you:
1. don’t celebrate success.
2. stop spending time with your colleagues.
3. stop caring about the self-development of your team.
4. lose interest in the project progress and metrics related to it.
That’s all.
Easy, isn’t it?
No, unfortunately, no.
This process needs time but even though you are the most skilled manager, you can’t speed up team dynamics. After each stage, your team becomes more and more mature so every phase is an investment. It’s a long and hard process through which each team has to go and the only thing that you can do is proper facilitation.
Mike Skinner (The Streets) sings:
“It’s the hardest way to make an easy living…”
In my opinion, it’s the best sentence that can describe this whole process, but, who said that I don’t like this job?
I love it!
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