Class 5: Stages of Teams

tuckman model

A model that describes five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing,

Summary

Even the most high-performing teams will revert to earlier stages in certain circumstances. Many long-standing teams go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances.

forming

In this stage, most team members are positive and polite. Some are anxious, as they haven't fully understood what work the team will do. Others are simply excited about the task ahead. This stage can last for some time, as people start to work together, and as they make an effort to get to know their new colleagues. To grow from this stage to the next, each member must relinquish the comfort of non-threatening topics and risk the possibility of conflict.

storming

In this stage, people start to push against the boundaries established in the forming stage. This is the stage where many teams fail. Tension, struggle and sometimes arguments occur. The ideal is that team members will not feel that they are being judged, and will therefore share their opinions and views. The goal is to get to a point where they can resolve their differences, and members are able to participate with one another more comfortably.

norming

"Resolved disagreements and personality clashes result in greater intimacy, and a spirit of co-operation emerges." In this stage, all team members take responsibility and have the ambition to work for the success of the team's goals. They start tolerating the whims and fancies of the other team members. They accept others as they are and make an effort to move on. The danger here is that members may be so focused on preventing conflict that they are reluctant to share controversial ideas. There is often a prolonged overlap between storming and norming, because, as new tasks come up, the team may lapse back into behavior from the storming stage.

Performing

"With group norms and roles established, group members focus on achieving common goals, often reaching an unexpectedly high level of success." By this time, they are motivated and knowledgeable. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channeled through means acceptable to the team. It feels easy to be part of the team at this stage, and people who join or leave won't disrupt performance.

reading

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

psychological saftey

Amy Edmonson Experiment

Amy Edmonson went into a hospital and surveyed its staff if they felt they could take risks without the fear of being punished.

INITIALLY: She found that the more psychological safety a team felt, the higher its error rates

BUT! After recognizing that the data was based off of self-report rather than measurable data she re-did the study and found...

THE FINAL RESULT: Psychologically safe teams reported more errors, but they actually made fewer errors.

chilean mining crisis

situational humility and curiosity makes psychological safety

basic human challenge: its hard to learn if you already know