Building Effective Project Teams[i]

Stages of Group Development

Session 2

As noted in the first training session, your project team will need to function effectively as a group to build a quality information system.  This training and the ideas presented on this form are designed to help your team function well together.   This training session is designed to acquaint you with important information about how groups develop over time, the problems and crises your group will encounter, and how the roles you have taken on will help your team to function effectively.  A major emphasis of these training activities is to encourage you to look for ways to improve how your team functions so that you can generate a quality team project.

As teams develop and mature over time, members gradually learn to cope with pressures that they face.  Therefore, groups often progress through four predictable stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.  Each of these stages is important; therefore we will review them briefly below:

1.      Forming is the beginning stage when group members explore the boundaries of acceptable group behavior.   This is a stage of transition from individual to member status.  Group members are likely to feel

·          Excitement and anticipation

·          Tentative attachment to the group

·          Suspicion and anxiety about the project and tasks that lie ahead

Group members are likely to engage in common behaviors such as:

·          Preliminary attempts to define the task and decide how to accomplish it

·          Attempts to identify acceptable group behavior and how to deal with problems

·          Decisions about the resources that will be needed

·          Discussions about problems or actions that are not relevant to the project (problems understanding what to do to complete the project)

·          Complaints about the organization and barriers to the task

2.      Storming is the stage that occurs when group members realize that the task is more difficult than they initially thought.  Group members become impatient about the lack of progress but are still too inexperienced in the group to know what to do.  Group members are likely to feel

·          Resistance to the task

·          Sharp fluctuations in attitude about the team and the project's chances of success

Group members are likely to engage in common behaviors such as:

·          Arguing about issues even when there is substantive agreement

·          Defensiveness and competition (choosing sides)

·          Questioning the wisdom about decisions that were made related to the project

·          Establishing unrealistic goals

·          The development of a perceived "pecking order" and increased tension and jealousy

3.       Norming is the stage when group members reconcile competing viewpoints and develop an acceptance of the team, the team's ground rules (i.e., "norms"), their roles in the team, and the roles of each team member.  Cooperation and trust replace conflict and criticism.  Group members are likely to feel

·          A new ability to express criticism in constructive ways

·          Acceptance of their membership in the team

·          Relief that it appears that things will be working out

Group members are likely to engage in common behaviors such as:

·          An attempt to achieve harmony by avoiding conflict

·          Greater friendliness, confiding in one another, sharing personal problems, and discussing the way the team works

·          A sense of team cohesion

·          Establishing and maintaining team ground rules and boundaries (i.e., the "norms")

4.        Performing is the stage when the team has settled its relationships and expectations so that members can begin to perform by diagnosing and solving problems and choosing and implementing changes.  Team members have discovered and accepted each other's strengths and weaknesses and learned what each other's roles are. Group members are likely to feel

·          That members have insights into personal and group processes

·          Have a better understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses

·          Greater satisfaction about the team's progress

Group members are likely to engage in common behaviors such as:

·          Constructive self change

·          The ability to prevent or constructively work through group problems

·          Close attachment to the team

As mentioned earlier, team roles (e.g., Presider or Meeting Leader, File Manager or Project Master, Meeting Coordinator, and Intermediary) are important because they will help your group function better as it develops into a performing team.  Each member who takes on an active role has an important part to play because this will help your team to function effectively as it evolves.  This should help your team to produce a better quality project.