Moderator: People often use it without even realising that they actually are. What is your experience of, of Tuckman, the five steps. What sort of things would you employ as a project manager? And what sort of things would you expect to happen in, let's say, first of all, the first step of forming?

Jo: Yeah, so, in forming your team is new to each other, it's when a group of people come together for the first time, and as a project manager, you, you're almost clapping your hands, you're trying to get people's attention, because they need a really strong directive form of leadership. They need to be really clear on, 'This is the objective that we are looking to achieve, this is how we're going to do it, this is your role in it.' If you don't give that clear direction at the beginning, you essentially end up with herding cats. People will go off and do different things.

Moderator: Do you find that because people are new, and there's a level of anxiety there, they're not always able to pay the attention that they should? Maybe we have to, as you say, be very clear and provide information again, even if we've already provided it.

Jo: Yeah, absolutely. Repeat, and allow them to ask questions as well, make sure you've got that, sort of, safe environment where, you know, there are no silly questions, there are just silly answers. So, just go ahead ask questions, make sure that we're really clear, and, yes, it can be quite anxious joining a new team.

Moderator: So, we've gone through that forming step, now into the next one of storming. Tell me about the storming step, why it's so important, and also why would a project manager maybe wanna bring that on a little bit early?

Jo: Okay, so storming is recognise-, it's so called because it is a place conflict, it, it's anticipated that there will be conflicted, and it could be people are vying for position, or they're just challenging the leadership, but they're all trying to find their position within, within the team, and as a project manager, I-, I take my time to, kind of, have a look and see who's in the team, what are their strengths and weaknesses, and actually how do they like to work, how do they like to operate? And I try and, and, and, kind of, foster their working environment to, to what they need. If, if you let, let it go into, sort of, personal heat, that can be really disruptive, I mean, storming is-, it can be disruptive, so you want to-, to minimise it, and you want to get your team through it quite quickly. Something we'll talk about later on is breakdown structures, and getting a team to create the breakdown structure forces them to work together and, and, and sometimes brings out, you know, who are the leaders and who are the people that are gonna facilitate.

Moderator: Absolutely, and a typical thing about storming as well is that's where the conflict will negatively impact your performance, won't it? Which is another reason why-, yeah, yeah.

Jo: It will do. So, you wanna get through it quickly, you need to have strategies for going through. Something I do is technical focus, it might be, 'Okay, you, you, you guys are really not getting on with this, let's take it back down to the technical problem. What's the problem? What are our options?' And it's coaching, mentoring them through that, that discussion.

Moderator: So let's, let's imagine it's a perfect world, we've gone through storming, we're now into norming. What is the norming phase? Why would it be so different to storming?

Jo: Well, as the project manager, my team-, I can see my team is starting to really work together really well, they understand what the objectives are, they're moving in, in the right direction, they're supporting each other. I tend to take more of a consultative type role at that point, so I'll put the technical issue on the table, 'This is what we need to resolve, what are the options?' Every, everybody will contribute and discuss in a really supportive way, but I will make the decision as the leader, in, in terms of what we're going to do. So, it's more of a consultative approach.

Moderator: We could still have conflict of, of forming norming couldn't we? But, what-, how would we consider conflict a good thing in norming?

Jo: Because it'll challenge people's ideas and it will make them just think slightly outside of the box, and, and what you'll find if you've got technical specialists they can be quite zoned in on their technical area, whereas if somebody challenges that concept, it just makes them think of a wider picture. So, it, it's, it's in, differently to storming, storming can be quite disruptive, it can cause problems, norming, it tends to, to facilitate creativity and problem-solving.

Moderator: Yeah, and the idea of Tuckman's model is to get them to be a performing team, and not every team gets there, but what would be the key differences between the performing stage and the norming stage?

Jo: This is when I can really look at my team and there's a really strong sense of trust, there's a really strong sense of purpose, they really understand where we're going, they're on board with it, and my, kinda, leadership style steps right back and I go to delegating, I-, when-, when my team are there. If I'm delegating in forming, that's gonna cause real problems, because they're gonna be, 'What, what do you want me to do with this?' But, when they're in performing, and they've got the communication going, they understand their role-, understand their roles, we know what our strengths and weaknesses are in the team and we can support each other, that's when I can start delegating to my team. They're proactive, they're empowered, they're responsive, they're focused and motivated, and they've actually got a team identity, which-,

Moderator: A mutual sense of accountability.

Jo: Exactly, yeah.

Moderator: And they can also, hopefully in some instances, anticipate each other's moves, which is like-, like, I, I like to use the example of the NASA astronauts, swapping one out at the last minute, they're just as expert as the person they replaced, but this team are a true team, they understand each other's motives, they understand each other's jobs, they, they finish each other's sentences. So, we've got through to a performing team, the last step is adjourning. Why is an adjourning step-, because that was the step that was added, why is it so important?

Jo: When you come to the end of the piece of work that you're-, you've, you've done, it's really important to acknowledge individual and team achievements, and disband the team in a really positive way, because another name for the adjourning step was actually mourning, and there can be, when you're-, when you leave a team, there is a sense of loss. It's, you know, 'I'm not gonna see these guys anymore, I'm not gonna work with these people anymore,' so, it's important to leave with a, you know, a really positive note, and just acknowledge what they've achieved as a team.

Moderator: Could it be necessary to provide, perhaps, emotional support, and counselling for people that have left the project, maybe, or a team has disbanded after a long period of time, where a lot of bonds have been built up over the-, that period?

Jo: Yeah, and, and that-, on some really intense projects, where, you know, you've, you've faced high-risk. I remember one particular project, we moved from Baghdad up to Erbil, which is in Kurdistan, and when we left there was a sense of, 'Well, where's everybody going? Where are they going back to? How am I gonna communicate with them in the future?' Because that-, that wasn't an open channel, so absolutely, yeah, you, you need to, to give people a bit of support when they leave that kind of environment. If we're doing course development, that's not such a big thing, because we're gonna see each other in-, around the building, but, yeah, it depends on the intensity of the project.

Moderator: And also, having that final adjourning step, it's been proven hasn't it, that if it's effectively implemented, if the team meet up again, they're gonna go through forming, storming, norming, and performing far quicker.

Jo: They are, absolutely, yeah, and, and the other thing that's-, talking about going through those quicker, the-, when you have a, a close team, and you've got to performing, if a new person comes in, we generally go back to forming, but again, it's a lot quicker to go through the-, those phases again.

Moderator: Great, so that is a pretty comprehensive view, isn't it, of Tuckman's stages of team development? Forming, as the first stage where they're meeting for the first time, storming, known as the conflict stage, that conflict could be minor, could be major, but it's impacting performance. We get into norming, where they are now working as a team but the performance step is where they ultimately want to be, their mutual sense of accountability and that full a-, ability to delegate to them, and adjourning, where they're saying goodbye, making sure that we support people in, maybe feelings of, of loss and leaving that team.

Jo: Absolutely, yep.

Stages of team development

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