Set up for success: A leader is needed to provide direction and guidance throughout the development process. To ensure the leader is well-accepted, a supervisor should not appoint a team leader; instead, the team should nominate and agree upon which member should assume that role.

When planning a team training event, development plan or learning cascade the 5 Stages of Team Development is a useful tool to consider.

Teams learn, develop and progress through five different stages of development. These include forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Here I summarize the five stages and identify the expected outcomes and challenges.

Forming

• A group of people come together to accomplish a shared purpose.
• High dependence on the leader for guidance and direction.
• Little agreement on team aims other than received from leader. Individual roles and responsibilities are unclear.
• Leader must be prepared to answer lots of questions about the team’s purpose, objectives and external relationships.
• Members test tolerance of system and leader.
• Little ownership that this is their group. Leader directs.

Storming

• Disagreement about mission, vision, and approaches combined with the fact that team members are getting to know each other can cause strained relationships and conflict.
• Decisions don’t come easily within group. Team members vie for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members and the leader, who might receive challenges from team members.
• Clarity of purpose increases as goals and expectations are outlined, but plenty of uncertainties persist.
• Cliques and factions form and there may be power struggles.
• Resistance to losing individuality and becoming a group.
• The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues.
• Compromises may be required to enable progress. Leader coaches.

Norming

• The team has consciously or unconsciously formed working relationships that are enabling progress on the team’s objectives.
• There is an acceptance of working in a team and the quirks of other team members.
• Agreement and consensus forms among team, who respond well to facilitation by leader.
• Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted.
• Big decisions are made by group agreement.
• Smaller decisions may be delegated to individuals or small teams within group.
• Commitment and unity is strong.
• The team may engage in fun and social activities.
• The team discusses and develops its processes and working style and members feel that they now have a voice.
• There is general respect for the leader and some of leadership is more shared by the team. Leader facilitates.

Performing

• Relationships, team processes, and the team’s effectiveness in working on its objectives are synching to bring about a successfully functioning team.
• The team is more strategically aware; the team knows clearly why it is doing what it is doing.
• The team has a shared vision and is able to stand on its own feet with no interference or participation from the leader.
• There is a focus on over-achieving goals, and the team makes most of the decisions against criteria agreed with the leader.
• The team has a high degree of autonomy.
• Disagreements occur but now they are resolved within the team positively and necessary changes to processes and structure are made by the team.
• The team is able to work towards achieving the goal, and also to attend to relationship, style and process issues along the way. team members look after each other.
• The team requires delegated tasks and projects from the leader.
• The team does not need to be instructed or assisted.
• Team members might ask for assistance from the leader with personal and interpersonal development. Leader delegates and oversees.

Adjourning

• The team has completed its mission or purpose and it is time for team members to pursue other goals or projects.
• Members may go through separation anxiety.
• If the group experience has been positive there will be a letting go and grieving process.
• Members may need help in moving on. Leader facilitates the letting go process and discusses ways to apply the learning to outside situations.

Understanding these five stages of team development and implementing these suggestions can help ensure teams have the necessary skills and tools to move through each phase, especially the storming phase, and to ensure successful outcomes and growth.

Set up for success: The team leader must redirect the team toward the end goal, help reinforce defined roles, address unacceptable behaviors, provide feedback, and facilitate team communication.

Related Readings: Workshop Structure To Maximize Learner Engagement

Original source material: Bruce Tuckman’s 5 stages of team development. Adapted by John Zeus.

Paradigm Shift…

Always at the cusp of transition from one age to a new one the old systems no longer work and there does need to be a paradigm shift. We can see this in institutions whose structures are crumbling – world economies and banking for example.

The education/learning systems are probably one of the last systems to crumble by their lack of addressing the realities of what participants are facing today. It did not happen overnight that is for sure. I watch my 8 year old nephew learn how to play chess on his iPod touch and breeze through the many games that are available. His mind is fast and he can do at least 5 things at once. We are all going through this huge transition and certainly collaboration has come to the forefront – social networks, forums, instant chats, skype etc. We are all feeling the need to collaborate on some level and share our experiences of what is happening in our world.

I guess my question is how to assess one’s competencies if the entire learning process is based on collaboration, because in the end, when someone is applying for a job, it is based on the skills that they individually bring to that position. And yes teamwork is becoming very important (emotional IQ, etc) but I don’t think it is realistic to level the playing field so to speak. Or conversely, maybe everybody needs help in finding their right place and we don’t do enough of that in the educational system.

All the new technologies like wikis and cloud computing in general as well as the ones i mentioned above all indicate a desire to collaborate on some level. But all contribution is not equal so we need new measuring systems. We have a long ways to go for sure and it takes visionaries like Sir Ken Robinson to open the gates wide. And by the way if you do a google on transition from industrial age to information age, there is lots to discover! And it is reassuring to know that some of our communities can be on the leading edge of this paradigm shift with cloud frenzy free, user friendly Wiki collaboration.

This video animate will engage further discussion on the changing education paradigms.

YouTube video description: This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award.

Excerpts adapted from:  A Model Space For Learning

A Recipe For Successful Collaboration

The new program space at the Centre Branch YMCA is much less a classroom, and much more an engaging, collaborative, technology-rich environment that’s drawn rave reviews from facilitators and participants alike.

The idea that FPSYIP and CIC have created much more than a program room for participants was on full display during  a recent site visit by Dan Trepanier, National Program Manager, and  User Adoption, Wiki Platform Manager,  John Zeus.

London: A Space To Remember

Imagine a room with an impossibly high ceiling, filled with furnishings, artwork and amenities so far removed from a traditional classroom environment that program participants often don’t want to leave the room. That’s the secret behind the converted space used by FPSYIP, CIC and other programs, courtesy of this unique collaborative effort. The new space incorporates technology that includes a smart board, internet-enabled computer, a projector with pull-down screen, a large-screen flat panel TV and a Wii gaming console, with furnishings that range from oversized beanbag futons to an inclusive square of tables and chairs for a dynamic face-to-face presentation environment. One thing is for certain: the FPSYIP space within the downtown London YMCA makes an immediate, yet lasting, impression.

Full video podcast

“One intern summed it up nicely. He said, ‘There’s a reason that we quit school, and we want to go into any space is something OTHER than a classroom.’ This space fosters and enhances the different learning styles of the participants. You can really keep their attention, even at 2:30 in the afternoon.” – Dan Trepanier

“It’s very comfortable. Like home. It doesn’t feel like a classroom. A facilitator can get very creative delivering an essential skills program in a workshop room like this.” – John Zeus

Read more: Internship Success