Power up and switch on your group or team.

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Mourning.

Sometimes, it isn’t easy to power up and switch a family, group or team onto a project or a new direction. It takes time for them to hit it off and work toward a common goal. Group members go through stages from being strangers to working together.

Tuckman created the memorable phrase “forming, storming, norming, and performing” in 1965. The model describes the stages and can be used to nurture a group or team to high performance. When you understand it, you’ll know how to help your new team become more effective faster.

Groups and teams reach the final stage of a project. When a group or project ends, participants disband and go their different ways. Those people who like routine or have developed close working relationships within the group may find this time difficult.

What happens during the ‘Mourning’ stage?

Take the time to review and celebrate the group’s achievements. The positive shared experiences could lead to long-lasting and beneficial friendships while enabling you to work with some of the same people again.

If any participants feel uncertain about their future, boost their confidence and prospects by praising their efforts and offering additional support as they move on with their lives.

Remember to ask the group for feedback; it will also help the individuals think, reflect, and plan to better manage their journey into the future.

You can use Tuckman’s model to help a team from a business or non-profit organisation perform better. Remember, individuals can slip back into their old ways and may need additional support to keep moving forward. Please be able to help them make the necessary changes to return to the right pathway.

Quotable Quotes

“Had we a privilege of calling up by the power of memory only such passages as were pleasing, unmixed with such as were disagreeable, we might then excite at pleasure an ideal happiness, perhaps more poignant than actual sensation”. Henry Tuckerman

“It is amusing to detect character in the vocabulary of each person. The adjectives habitually used, as the inscriptions on a thermometer, indicate the temperament”. Henry Tuckerman