The Development Of A Team

This is the third article in this article series related to Team Management. In this article I will explain the stages of developing a team from a group. Group goes through many stages and processes to become a team. You will learn the basic steps in the development of a team and its future once it has finished its first job.

Other Articles of This Series Are:

• Part 1 : The Purpose Of A Team In Corporate Business
• Part 2 : The Composition Of Successful Teams
• Part 3 : The Development Of A Team
• Part 4 : How To Build A Team
• Part 5 : Rewarding The Successful Team

Stages of group development:

Groups of whatever type do not come into existence fully formed. They grow and mature and possibly dissolve. It is possible to identify the stages of development through which a group goes before it becomes fully efficient and effective. B. Tuckman has formulated four stages through which group proceed.

Forming:

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This stage involves the introduction of team members, either at the initiation of the team, or as members are introduced subsequently. Members are likely to be influenced by the expectations and desires they bring with them, and will be keen to understand how the group will operate. In particular, they will be keen to understand how the leadership is likely to operate, in terms of style and character. This is a stage of transition from a group of individuals to a team.

Storming:

The team is likely to enter this phase as members grow more confident. Procedures are being developed and people get a cleaner view of objectives. Conflicts will occur, as individuals will have different opinions as to how the team should operate. These conflicts can however be constructive in that they lead to workable and acceptable procedures that enable the task to be done. The best teams will understand the conflicts and preconceptions, norms of attitude; behavior etc will be changed and rejected. Members actively listen to each other, compete individuals will strive for or attempt to impose leadership on the group. If successful, this stage will have forged a stronger team with greater knowledge of each other and their objectives. Unfortunately, teams may disintegrate during this phase. Some individuals may decide to leave group if it does not proceed in a way that is acceptable to them.

Norming:

This stage establishes the norms under which the group operates. Norms are shared views and beliefs and expectations about forms and standards of behavior. They may develop for the pace of work, the relationships between members and even for dress and language. Members experiment and test group reaction as the norms become established. Typically, the norming stage will establish behavior patterns, level of trust and openness, individual roles and how the group will take decisions. Team members will sign up to a common working method, which everyone is usually willing to share in, during this phase, team members are able to reconcile their own opinions with the greater needs of the team. Co-operation and collaboration replace the conflict and mistrust of the previous phase.

Performing:

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Once this final stage has reached the group is capable of operating to full potential, since the difficulties of adjustment, leadership contests etc., should have been resolved. The emphasis is now on reaching the team goals, rather than working on team process. Relationships are settled, and team members are likely to build loyalty towards each other. The team is able to manage more complex tasks, and cope with greater change.

The performing stage can either lead to a return to the forming stage as group membership changed or a new ‘dorming’ stage as the group gets complacent or a ‘mourning’ stage as the group successfully reaches its goal and completes its work.

If a team remains for a long time in the performing phase, there is a danger that it will be operating on automatic pilot. ‘Groupthink’ occurs to the extent that the group may be unaware of changing circumstances. Instead, maintaining the team becomes one of its prime objectives. Some symptoms of groupthink are:

• The raising of protective barriers and the illusion of impregnability.
• A negative attitude towards competing projects
• An unwavering belief in the group and its decisions.
• A sectarian emphasis on agreement

The team gradually loses its ability to make good decisions. The project manager can use the following antidotes against this ‘disease’.

• Encourage open discussion about doubts and objectives
• Appoint a devil’s advocate to question the group’s decisions and motives
• Slow down the decision-making process.

In this situation it may be necessary for the group to ‘dorm’, i.e. to be adjourned or suspended. Members may join another group to provide distance from the original group. A certain amount of anxiety is created when a ‘performing’ group disbands, and the dorming stage is a way of easing away from the original dynamic group activities.

Dorming:

This stage is not in the original work bus has been identified later as something to avoid. There is the danger that once the performing stage is reached the further stage of maintaining commitment will be neglected, this shows the need to continually involve people in decisions about what they do and how they do it. The team becomes complacent due to success, so the manager needs to move the goal posts – promote people to more challenging tasks, rotate tasks, or introduce new members. This stage may occur towards the end of the life of a group when people are unsure what they will be doing next. They may try to extend the life of this group.

Mourning:

When a group has finished its function and has been disbanded former members feel a sense of loss and ‘grieve’. They may have moved to another group but may not work effectively because they feel a loss of companionship and group relationship they had with former group members.

Not all groups automatically follow these stages in this sequence. For example, a group where a large number of the members have worked together previously or have much greater knowledge of the technical aspects of the problem will tend to arrive at the performing stage quickly. Of course, not all groups pass through all the stages – some get struck in the middle and remain inefficient and ineffective. A successful team knows which stage they are in and manages transitions between the different stages adeptly.

Fostering a team spirit:

Management writers have long recognized the importance of teamwork, one of the earliest being Fayol who included ‘esprit de corps’ amongst his 14 principles. According to Adair, teams are particular kind of group which:

• Have a high level of cohesion
• Have common objectives
• Have complementary membership skills
• Can work as a team ‘sequentially’

Adair quotes as examples successful football teams, military teams, and management teams. In the last of these, the characteristics of team work have obvious relevance to effective management – organizational members working closely together and using their different skills, abilities and knowledge to achieve organizational objectives.

Belbin and Adair identify a range of action that can foster greater team spirit and teamwork. These include:

Allowing teams time to develop – groups take time to develop into teams; indeed, according to Tuckman, these is a four-stage process involved – ‘forming’, ‘storming’, ‘norming’ and ‘performing’. This implies the need for high levels of interaction to be encouraged between members, and for the clarification of objectives.

Team typing – according to Belbin: ‘what is required in teams is not well balanced individuals, but individuals who balance one another’. Thus, in selecting team members, care has to be taken to choose individuals whose skills (conceptual, interpersonal, and technical) and whose personality characteristics complement and balance one another.

Team building – a range of techniques can be employed, including group dynamics exercises, outward bound courses, and formal processes that evaluate the performance of teams and team members as a basis for feedback and for improvement.

Team leadership – to quote Adair: ‘Great teams require great leaders’. The role of team leadership was analyzed and emphasized by Blake and Mouton who devised a grid of management styles. Adair also emphasizes the need to integrate individual, group and task needs.

Team culture – in the longer term, staffing policies and decisions on recruitment, development, training, selection, appraisal and reward are of central importance.

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This is all for this article. Will write on 4th part of this series next week. Hope you are learning something about team management by this article series.