The Stages Of Team improvement

One of the most challenges a coaching owner has is in sharp his or her team though the discrete team amelioration stages. If a owner has no, or microscopic caress of teams and team dynamics then taking over a team and then leading that team can be a very stressful experience. Every owner should know what the discrete increase stages are of a developing team and they should know how best to move the team straight through these stages with the minimum of fuss and stress. Unfortunately, many managers do not get the principal training or coaching in this area of team amelioration and as such teams go straight through a lot of stress and turmoil when perhaps this could be minimised quite considerably.

In the next integrate of pages I will take you straight through a uncomplicated team amelioration model, which I find the most useful of all the models I have studied. The names of each of the stages sum up perfectly what you can expect at each stage!

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Psychologist, B.W Tuckman in the 1970s, industrialized this model and Tuckman suggests that there are four team amelioration stages that teams have to go straight through in order to be productive. The four stages are:

Forming when the team meets and starts to work together for the first time.
Storming, when the members within the team start to "jockey" for position and when operate struggles take place.

Norming when rules are finalised and accepted and when team rules start being adhered to.

Performing when the team starts to yield straight through sufficient and sufficient working practices.

Some teams will go straight through the four stages fairly rapidly and move from forming straight through to performing in a relatively short space of time. A lot depends on the blend of the team, the capabilities of the individuals, the tasks at hand, and of course the leadership from management. One thing is safe bet - no team passes over the storming phase.

All teams must be prepared to go straight through the difficult and stressful times as well as reaping the benefits of the sufficient phases. The task of the coaching owner is to identify where along the path of team amelioration his or her team is and then move it on to the next phase with the minimum of fuss and resistance.

Let's look at each of the stages in detail.

Forming:

This is a stressful phase when new teams come together. Everyone is a bit wary of each other, particularly if they do not know anyone and particularly if the owner is new. Even more stressful, if the rumours circulating about the owner are not favourable!

The first meeting is a nervous one and a good coaching owner will recognise this and make attempts to ensure the team is put at ease. As the forming stage is the stage where cliques can develop, the coaching owner should be aware of this and should be aware of the discrete alliances that will occur at this stage. Not all alliances will be counter-productive to the team's time to come success but it pays for the coaching owner to watch and survey the behaviours of potential cliques. The challenge for the coaching owner is basically to give an inert group of population who hardly know each the best start potential as a new team. The coaching owner should attempt to do the following in order to give the team the best potential start.
Outline specifically the task the team has to perform.

Be definite about each person's role in the team's task.

Outline how the team has come together and give reasons as to why the discrete team members have been brought together for inclusion within this team.

Be open about the way you operate as a owner - what are your strengths and weaknesses? shape your expectations of both the team and the individuals within the team. In other words, start to ageement with the team.

Encourage each team member to do likewise.

Ensure that the team has a set of rules and guidelines and that the team has an input into how these rules are formed and agreed.

Have a seminar about recompense and recognition. How does the team want to celebrate its achievements?

How are the team going to make decisions?

How are the team going to give feedback on each other's performance?

By having an open seminar right at the start of the team's task then population get the chance to air views, concerns and queries. The coaching owner will enable this to happen with the follow that population feel they have been listened to; they have been able to contribute; they know the rules and regulations by which the team will operate and they now have a greater appreciation of the population they are working with.

Storming:

Storming is a sharp phase and the coaching owner who has led the team straight through the forming stage well and is beginning to feel quite good about improve may have quite a rude awakening. Storming always seems to come as a surprise, no matter how well the coaching owner has prepared and led the team up till now. This is where the leadership qualities of the coaching owner are tested to the full. I have had the privilege of working with some managers who have handled this stage well and also have witnessed (and suffered) at the hands of managers who have had no idea of what to do to move the team forward.

Storming commonly arises as a follow of goals, roles and rules all becoming confused and unclear. No matter how clear the team was in relation to the goals, roles and rules while the forming stage it is very often the case that the private team member interpretations of these roles and rules is somewhat different in reality. This results in blurring when different behaviours are obvious and conflicts can arise with the potential for factions being created within the team.

It is while this stage that the coaching skills of the coaching owner should come to the fore. Both individuals and the team as a whole should be coached to enable and keep them to ensure trade as regards what specifically the goals, roles and rules are with respect to the team and what that means to each and every individual. Many managers get frustrated at this stage because they believe that they have already done the work at outlining the goals, roles and rules at the early stage of the formation of the team. I have seen managers go from a state of massive pride about the way they have guided their team straight through the early stages to a state of anger where they look to blame the team and its private members. What is it they say, "Comes before a fall"?

The coaching owner must go over again the agreements made by the team while the forming stage and ensure that the comprehension is uniform over the team. The earlier in the storming stage this is revisited the great and this is where the aware coaching owner comes into his or her own. The unaware owner will tend to panic and blame and will be unable to operate the behaviours of the team even though they may take a very authoritarian stance and start to order that population behave. All that achieves is compliancy and team members will still have the same misunderstandings about what is going on. This is when a lot of talking goes on "behind the manager's back" This is very unhealthy for a team.

Once the coaching owner has got his or her team straight through the storming phase they have to be aware of a challenge that can come out of the blue. And that is the challenge of a new member. No sooner has a coaching owner got their team straight through the "storm" then it is joined by a new member who then starts to question the ways of working and potentially starts to destabilise the team. All new members to the team must be made aware of the team goals, roles and rules before they join and they must be made aware of the process that is in place or the giving and receiving of feedback if they have any suggestions as to how they can enhance the ways of working for the team. Again, this is an area where I have seen managers lose the improve that they have made with their team. Instead of taking time out to bring a new member up to speed with all the rules, roles and goals, the owner lets the new member join the team without much of a briefing. The follow can be chaos. Beware.

You will find at times that there will be population who tend to hold back the storming process or perhaps prolong it. These population have a decision to make. Go with the majority or get out. Company has no place to let the odd private hold things up. That may seem tough advent from a "coaching" owner but this is reality and in many cases administration is a tough role. This is one of these instances.

Norming.

Do you remember what it is like when a real storm passes? The winds drop, the sky brightens, the birds sign again. Teamwork is like this also. There is a calm, a focus. Goals are clearly understood. Roles are clarified. The rules and regulations are being adhered to and population are working together positively. Relationships become stronger as population are more aware of each other. Strengths and weaknesses are realised and utilised accordingly. Norming is characterised by acceptance. Whereas in the storming stage, population were apt to rebel very quickly, this is now not the case and if person has a grievance, complaint or advice then the allowable processes are used and population tend to be listened to.

The role of the coaching owner in this stage is to ensure that this calm continues and that any behaviours that arise that may threaten the calm are channelled in the right direction. Also the coaching owner has an leading role in conveying facts particularly in relation to the successes that are beginning to occur within the team. The coaching owner should be spending a lot of time with private team members coaching them and supporting them to make their capabilities that enumerate to the individual's team role and the tasks that they have to perform in relation to the team goals.

Performing.

Not every team makes it to the performing stage. Many get stuck at Norming and although all things appears normal, there is a lack of momentum and motivation towards achieving the all leading team goals. It is as though the team is comfortable in this stage and does not want to improve supplementary for fear of returning to a storming stage, a stage that probably was very uncomfortable for most people.

It is at the performing stage where team members genuinely integrate on the team goals. They are thought about to work towards them, as they know what rewards are available to them on completion. They are also aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and they appreciate these, and also works towards developing the weaknesses. This is a period of great personal increase among team members. There is a good deal of sharing of experiences, feelings and ideas together with the amelioration of a fierce loyalty towards team members. There will be arguments, disagreements and disputes but these will be facilitated genuinely as the team will now live and die by its rules. The coaching owner at this stage will play very much a non-directive role, concentrating on strategy to plan the next way forward. The team will be in many ways, self-directing, perhaps even self-appraising with the owner taking very much a back-seat role. Again the manager's role will be to facilitate transportation and ensure that the successes are communicated and rewarded.

In summary:

Forming. The victorious coaching owner will ensure that the team meets and understands the team goals, the roles they have to take on and the rules by which they have to play. The coaching owner will realise that although there may be a great deal of trade and compliancy about what is discussed many population will have different interpretations of what is agreed. One to ones help but inevitably there will start to be undercurrents of contrast as to what has exactly been agreed.
Storming. Once the disagreements and blame start, get the team speedily together to thrash out what the concerns and disagreements are. The coaching owner at this stage is strong, directive but also fair. The team needs direction at this stage and perhaps population need to hear things that perhaps they don't want to hear. Get things out in the open. Let the team bleed a microscopic and then begin the healing process by facilitating their advent together.

Norming. Lessen the direction and spend time with individuals beginning to coach them in relation to their roles within the team and the tasks that they have to perform. At the same time the coaching owner will be sharp team members to take on extra capabilities in order to move the team on to the next stage.

Performing. Take a step back and allow the team to become self-directing. Be there for them and continue your coaching role with both team and individuals. Allow individuals to take on leadership roles and encourage rotation of roles. enumerate success and recompense success accordingly.

The Stages Of Team improvement