Back in 1965, psychologist Bruce Tuckman came up with what he believed was a sequence for team formation. That sequence goes in four stages: Forming, storming, norming, and performing. By understanding these different stages, you’re better able to identify which stage your team is in, so you can understand how hands-on you need to be, what sort of developmental actions you’ll need to take, and how you can best work your team through these stages all the way to a high, consistently goal-achieving team, especially if you’re into aliexpress dropshipping or any other ecommerce model.
Stage 1: Forming
This is the very beginning. You’ll find that when you’re just building a team, or maybe even just building a company, most people are interacting pretty lightly with each other. They’re pretty polite, they may be a little nervous or apprehensive, there could be a lack of understanding as to what the goals really are, or maybe what their particular role is within this certain team. This is a time to be really hands on. You want to set the parameters, you want to set guidelines, milestones, goals, and clearly identify to each individual team member what their role is, what the expectations are, and what they need to do in order to succeed. This stage, you need to be really involved. If you set this foundation correctly, you’ll be able to easily move through the next three stages so you get to performance.
Stage 2: Storming
Now you’ll generally find that storming starts when people are a little bit more comfortable in their role, they’re a little more comfortable with the people that they’re working with. This is when they start to spread their wings a little bit, they start to flex their muscles, and they’re going to push back a little bit on the procedures and some of the roles that were defined earlier in the Forming Stage. You still need to be a little hands-on here, because this can be a time that’s filled with turmoil. They’ve started to learn a little bit more about their co-workers and maybe there’s a disconnect between different workmanship styles or different ways that they connect with each other. This is also when they’re going to be pushing back against you or perceived authority. And there may even be jockeying for position. Now you want to stay really consistent in this stage, because this is when you’ve got a lot of turmoil happening, so the more consistent you can be, the less turmoil is going to be caused by your actions. By setting this foundation and ensuring that you’re staying consistent, you allow your team to flex and move and stretch, learn a little bit more about each other without changing out milestones or changing out role responsibilities or titles, or things like that. Stay consistent and you’ll find that you’re able to shorten this phase. Now oftentimes, as teams grow, team members leave, you add new employees, or maybe new goals or job titles, you’ll go back through the Storming phase. But if you’ve set yourself up for success, you’ll find that this phase just gets shorter and shorter, because the team has worked together longer. Once you’ve gone through the Storming phase, it’s on to Stage Three.
Stage 3: Norming
At this point, things have became normal. People have fallen into a routine, they understand who they are, who their teammates are, how to work together, and they’ve resolved a lot of their differences. This is also when you start to find that they get a real understanding of what their job is, they’re able to start doing the job at a higher level, they don’t need to worry nearly as much about understanding where they fit in the team. Now a lot of teams will stay in this Norming phase for a pretty considerable amount of time. And it’s your job to move them from this is a normal day-to-day occurrence, to Stage Number Four.
Stage 4: Performing
Performing is what happens when a team has reached the absolute apex of its performance and now, achieving goals or achieving milestones is consistent and not a difficulty for them. Your teammates understand what everybody’s strengths are, they’re able to compensate for weaknesses, and you may even find that relationships have begun to form outside of work. A good performing team is critical to the success of your business, and it can take time to get here. But if you’ve paid attention to the previous three stages, and you’re hands-on in your approach of team development and moving them from Stage One all the way to Performing, you’ll find great success in your business, and great success for your team.
Disclaimer: This content does not necessarily represent the views of IWB.