High Performance Teams

Facilitating team process is one of my favorite consulting assignments. Each team has its own "culture" and way of operating. Michael Jordan once said, "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships". The next several blogs will be devoted to discussing high performance teams.

Understanding the stages of team development is critical when building a high performance team. In my opinion, the best model comes from research done by Bruce Tuckman. He currently directs the Academic Learning Lab at Ohio State University.

With a PhD in Psychology, Bruce wrote an article in 1965 entitled, Developmental Sequence in Small Groups. He describes the four stages of team development as forming, storming, norming and performing. In 1977 he added a stage called adjourning.

Understanding the four stages offers great insights to both the team members and its leader. Our starting point begins with examining each stage in greater detail;

• Forming: Excitement is high. It is new and fun and no one is really clear what they are doing. In fact, team members may be on their best behavior. It is a time of orientation.


• Storming: This is a normal part of the team development process. Roles are assigned, and personalities and egos begin to show. Team members may not feel safe to be open and honest. There is conflict and polarization around interpersonal issues. Individuals may confront and challenge one another.


• Norming: At this stage, there is greater role clarity and cohesiveness beginning to develop. New standards begin to evolve. The team is beginning to jell as a unit. Confidence improves, relationships strengthen and differences of opinion are respected.


• Performing: The team has become a well-oiled machine. They are able to share leadership, delegate assignments and work autonomously. Goals and targets are reached regularly and effectively. Structural issues have been resolved.


• Adjourning: There are times when a team has been assembled for a particular task or initiative. When the assignment is completed the team is most often disbanded. This can be very difficult for team members, particularly if individuals have worked well together.

When a new member joins the team, the stages of development may begin again. In addition, teams may move in and out of the stages. With the norming and performing stages, the need for formal leadership diminishes.

Recently I worked with an organization that merged two cultures. Team members self-identified as operating between the forming and storming stages. This information provided them the opportunity to strategize ways to more effectively navigate through the storming phase and move closer to becoming a high performance team.

Armed with this information, your team can identify ways to become more effective. The end result is a higher functioning team!!!

When you think about your team, what stage of development fits?