Blog about Leadership

This article builds on the article 4 Stages of Group Development.

On Monday, I shared the Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing Model of group development by Bruce Tuckman. This model is important for entrepreneurial and project teams; those teams that tend to form at about the same time rather than on a continual and incremental basis as day-to-day organizations.

The main problem is that too many teams try to avoid or mitigate what Bruce Tuckman identified as the Storming phase. It is in this phase that team relationships are formed and the team learns how to function as a unit. Those teams that mitigate or avoid the Storming phase tend not to be as innovative and tend to have more division than teams that do work through the Storming phase.

The Storming phase is difficult and tends to be uncomfortable in particular for those team members adverse to conflict. Conflict is not inherently bad. Conflict can be useful for developing a team, but conflict resolution is the key.

When conflict arises, the two best ways to resolve the conflict are confrontation and compromise. However, too often leaders try to smooth over the conflict, allow the team to withdraw, force them through without the investment of learning how to work as a team. While this may resolve the conflict is does nothing for developing the team and in the terms of Tuckman’s model, it doesn’t progress the team to the Norming and Performing phases.

So how does a leader lead the team to and through the Storming phase… use deadlines. Deadlines are great for setting objectives, setting goals, and progressing the team. Deadlines compel team members to work together, confront and compromise, to accomplish the goals for the deadline. Deadlines are a catalysts for group development and progressing the team from Forming to Storming and on to the greater achievements.

Enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed.