🌻The Four Stages of Team Growth

How do teams grow and mature together? Read about the Four Stages of Teams below.

Video Version

Credit: Tech Fleet https://youtu.be/5Vs5PFCL7mw

Teams Earn Progress through Conflict Resolution

Most people think teams that work well together start immediately working well together. But it's not possible to do so without resolving conflict. After all, it's not about their skill levels.

Teammates have different experiences and different perspectives. Teammates have different ways of working and different lessons learned from the past. When they get together, those past experiences and perspectives may clash. This is the natural progression through the team growth process.

  Teams must provide room for respect and growth before being able to produce work efficiently together. They must hear each other, and acknowledge each other. They can't be in competition with each other.

There are Four Stages of Teamwork

The moment a team gets together, they go through "stages of being".

Academic professionals theorized that there are four stages of every team's development. Every single team in the world goes through four stages of team work.

1. Forming

2. Storming

3. Norming

4. Performing

There are four stages of teamwork that all teams go through: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. Credit: MIT https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development

It's only when they start performing that they work well, efficiently deliver,  produce more work, and are happy in their work.

 First we'll learn about the stages of teamwork. In later lessons, we'll learn about how agile teams build their foundations to maintain their Performing stage of work together.

Team Behavior in the Four Stages

The Forming Stage

The Forming Stage

During the Forming stage, the team first gets together, and doesn’t have a common way of working established yet, but they meet each other.

Tasks

1. A team kickoff

2. Ice breakers

3. Expectation setting

Feelings

1. Excitement

2. Belonging

3. Cheer

4. Positivity

5. Confidence

6. Nervousness

7. Anxiety

Behaviors

1. Being polite with each other

2. Questions from team members

3. Acting excitedly

4. Uncertainty about the future

5. Anxiety about their place on the team

The Storming Stage

The Storming Stage

During the Storming stage, the team starts figuring out how they should be working together, and this happens through talking out disagreements

Tasks

1. Defining short-term action items based on goals

2. Starting work

3. Deciding how to work together

Feelings

1. Anxiety about whether the team can do what they are set out to do

2. Anger about the lack of progress

3. Frustration about the lack of progress

Behaviors

1. Arguing about how to work together, and about decisions

2. Conflict and discussing differences of opinion

3. Discussing how to start in the work and the goals of the work

4. Criticizing team mates’ decisions

5. Questioning the future of the team

The Norming Stage

The Norming Stage

During the Norming phase, team members resolve their differences, and align in how to work together. They start making agreements in how they should produce the work in collaboration and proceed in the work.

Tasks

1. Agreeing to work process

2. Discussing and building consensus

3. Collective teamwork

4. Focusing on aligning goals

Feelings

1. Confidence

2. Inclusion

3. Comfort

Behaviors

1. Building Consensus with team mates

2. Constructive criticism

3. Harmoniously working together

4. Being willing to hear people and work together

5. Celebrating team mates for what they bring to the table

The Performing Stage

The Performing Stage

During the Performing phase, members work efficiently together, and are satisfied in their work together. They work well, and are more aligned than ever in the work.

Tasks

1. Aligning on goals

2. Planning long-term work

3. Deepening knowledge

4. Increasing skills

5. Increasing accomplishments

Feelings

1. Satisfaction in the work

2. “Can Do” attitude

3. Increased confidence

4. Empowerment Happiness

Behaviors

1. Getting more work done

2. More flexibility in the work

3. Team mates take on multiple roles of responsibility

4. Team members feel empowered

5. Appreciation for work and for others

Storming is Essential

Without Storming, a team wouldn't be able to progress to performing. They need to build agreement with each other, and hear each other. They need to build a consensus about how they will work together and what they decide to work on. Teams should embrace storming as a natural part of team building.

 Most importantly, they need to respect diverse perspectives and people. They need to help each other grow. They need to fail forward together. They need to unify.

In order to get over the Storming stage, Agile teams must bring the following fundamentals to their group:

1. Psychological Safety

2. Service Leadership

3. Self-Organization

4. Continuous Improvement

When they do, they will move past Storming and progress toward Norming and Performing.  They will start iteratively delivering value like the best Agile teams out there.

This is the foundation of strong agile teams: psychological safety, service leadership, self-organization, and continuous improvement. Credit: Tech Fleet.

Learn more about these key fundamentals of self-actualized Agile teams in the next lesson.

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