Assignment:
Teams
Reflect on a team you currently belong to and see if you can identify Tuckman's stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing. What stage are you currently in? Did you find difficulties with any of the stages? How did you negotiate the storming phase? Respond to two classmates' posts.
Respond to Alesia Perez post
Bruce Tuckman developed a framework that described four stages of development that a team goes through.
1. Forming: In this stage, the team is new and trying to get to know one another; feeling each other out. They're also formulating team goals, direction, and expectations.
2. Storming: Is the stage where temperaments are revealed, stress levels are raised, and arguments begin. The team may also redirect goals and tasks.
3. Norming: The team is starting to come together and express their real ideas and feelings. Tempers calm and energy is shifted to productivity.
4. Performing: This involves established mature relationships where attitudes assist in productivity and differences enhance the team's performance.
The team that I am currently on is fairly new. We are a group of five individuals, four woman and one man, who come from very different backgrounds and have very different work experiences. Some of us have deployed some of us have not. Some of us have worked in higher MAJCOM levels and others have been in the "field" their entire career. We have gone through all the stages in the past two year and are now in the performing stage. Our most difficult stage was the forming stage. We were all too new to the organization and had no history with each other so we were very reluctant on trusting one another's capabilities. Although our beginning was rough and very patchy, we eventually learned how to act and speak towards one another to achieve the best result.
References:
Bierema, L. (2014). An introduction to organizational development. San Diego, CA: Bridge point education, Inc.
Stein, J. (n.d.). Learning & Development. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://hrweb.mit.edu/learning-development/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development#top
Respond to D'Andre Massey post
I belong to a management team at my current place of employment. Of the Tuckman's stages of development which include the phases of forming, storming, norming, and performing; we are at the performing phase. According to class text, forming is when the members of a group gain familiarity with one another, storming where conflict is realized and task of the group are considered, norming is next as in storming norms are formed yet agreements are built, and last, performing in which the group becomes effective and efficient with relationships and working responsibilities (Bierema, 2014, Section 8.1).
At the performing stage, it is up to each of us as a team to work cohesively to move the company forward. What I have found most important with my team in this phase is a mutual understanding if the end goal. Understanding the end goal allows the team to work toward that goal; and establish exactly whose sub-team is most effective at reaching each of these goals. Overall, understanding the big picture becomes imperative, as it allows us to focus on reaching goals while maintaining the culture and mission of the organization.
There were not difficulties along the way other than deciding who was best at which task. Overall, the best task development assisted us with moving the teams forward. It was easiest to recognize the strengths based on prior experiences, and then progress that which needed to be done with effective interventions as needed. The storming phase which was the initial phase was negotiated in a manner that was amicable to the viability of each manager and therefore would have an overall successful outcome on each team.
Reference
Bierema, L. (2014). An introduction to organizational development. San Diego, CA:
Bridgepoint Education, Inc.