When teams are created, or new members join, they all go through a number of stages until they are finally working together as one solid unit. This has been noted by many researchers throughout the years. The main stages are forming, storming, norming and finally performing where you can celebrate a job well done with Team Gifts like the ones from Miller and Co.
The forming stage occurs at the beginning of the team development and is where the members start to interact with one another and work towards a common goal. They will be identifying what their overall purpose is as well as what their individual roles and responsibilities are. It is often a phase where ground rules and expectations are set. People within the team are often still working very much on an individual basis whilst they find their feet in the dynamics of the team. This can lead to frustrations rising between team members and it takes careful management by the team leader.
At this stage, the team members will be quality analysing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and comparing them to what they know to be their own strengths and their own weaknesses. For some this can be a challenging time, especially if they become aware that others are equally, or more qualified than they are. Not a lot of productive work occurs during this time and it is important to let this phase play out so that they can start to cement themselves as a team moving forwards.
