Development Cooperation Handbook/Guidelines/The 5 steps of team creation

Whether teams are together for one meeting, or for a yearlong project they go through five stages:

1. Forming: When they first get together. The forming stage is characterized by discussion about group purpose, deciding who can make decisions, and making sure all the appropriate people are in the group. The group’s core tasks are to clarify their purpose, determine their relationships, and decide how than plan to work together to accomplish the mission. The team leader at this stage should be task focused while allowing the group to develop the relationships they need.

2. Conforming: They start to function as a team.

3. Storming: Conflicts develop and leadership must assert itself. The storming stage is characterized by the challenging of the authority structure that emerged in the first stage, conflict (sometimes overt, sometimes hidden) and probing the group’s tolerance for deviant behavior. Their tasks are to clarify roles and expectations more clearly and maximize participation of all members. People leading in the team at this stage need to have a more coaching style – a high concern for both the task and the relationships between the people.

4. Norming. The group starts to stabilize in the norming stage, spending less time on group process issues and more time on output. The norming stage is characterized by more clarity about who is doing what, how they do it, and agreement on work methods-interaction patterns-routines. At this stage there may have been some rotation in the leadership roles. The style that is most effective is one that supports and encourages the team members. They generally know what they are doing. Someone cheering them on makes a positive difference.

5. Performing: They do the job they were assembled for. Now the group is getting the work accomplished. In the performing stage some groups will reexamine their operating methods or refine their methods so that the jobs are done efficiently. This is usually a high energy time in the team. Many teams do not need ‘leaders’ at this point, but rather enjoy a strong sense of sharing in the accomplishment of the goals.