Team Dynamics
Use Tuckman's Model of Team Dynamics
05 February 2018
đĽ The Phases of Team Development illustration was updated. You can see the new version here.
Agile/Scrum and other teams go through stages of development, and Bruce Tuckman established a popular framework on the subject. According to Tuckman, all phases—Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning—are necessary for the team to grow, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results. This article provides a brief overview of the model, including descriptions and strategies for each phase.
1. Forming
Characteristics of Forming include questioning, socializing, displaying eagerness, focusing on group identity and purpose, and sticking to safe topics. Strategies for this phase include taking the 'lead,' providing clear expectations and consistent instructions, and quick response times.
2. Storming
Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict, competition, high emotions, and moving towards group norms. Strategies for this stage include normalizing matters and encouraging leadership.
3. Norming
Features of Norming include reconciliation, relief, lowered anxiety, members are engaged and supportive, and developing cohesion. Strategies for this phase include recognizing individual and group efforts, providing learning opportunities and feedback, and monitoring the 'energy' of the group.
4. Performing
Characteristics of Performing include demonstrations of interdependence, healthy system, ability to effectively produce as a team, and balance of task and process orientation. Strategies for this stage include celebrating, 'guide from the side' (minimal intervention), encouraging group decision-making and problem-solving, and providing opportunities to share learning across teams.
5. Adjourning
Traits of Adjourning include a shift to process orientation, sadness, and recognition of team and individual efforts. Strategies for this phase include recognizing change, providing an opportunity for summative team evaluations, and providing an opportunity for acknowledgments.
The accompanying illustration summarizes the above information—and it shows how performance fluctuates as groups move through each phase. This information may be helpful for looking at your team.
A high resolution version of the image is available here.
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Agile Author Scott M. Graffius to Speak on Team Dynamics at Azure Community Conference 2020
05 November 2020
Scott M. Graffius, author of Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation, will speak on team dynamics at the Azure Community Conference 2020, a multi-track event running from November 24-26, 2020.
- Location: Virtual event
- Session information on conference website
- Pacific Standard Time: Tuesday, November 24th from 8:30-9:30 p.m. PST
- India Standard Time: Wednesday, November 25th from 10:00-11:00 a.m. IST
For more information and to register for the virtual event, visit https://www.azconf.dev/#home.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is an agile project management consultant, practitioner, award-winning author, and international speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been featured and used by media outlets, publications, businesses, governments, and universities including Yahoo Finance, Computer Weekly, Innovation Project Management, MobileAppDaily, Gartner, Cisco, RSA, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the United States Department of Energy, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a global top thought leader and influencer on Agile. His full-length bio is available here.
Follow @scottgraffius
About Agile Scrum
Scott M. Graffius is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards an it has been featured by over 30 media outlets and publications. The book is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the United States and around the world. To learn more, visit AgileScrumGuide.com.
About Agile Transformation
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits. Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a revealing behind-the-scenes account of a successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company. The award-winning book is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the United States and around the world.
About the Azure Community Conference 2020
The Azure Community Conference (#AzConfDev) is a three-day multi-track conference running from November 24-26, 2020. It is aimed at Cloud and Web Developers working with open source and cloud native technologies on the Microsoft Stack. The event hosts technology experts from around the globe to educate, network, and share their expertise with attendees on:
- .NET/C#/ASP.NET/Developer Technologies (anything that runs on Azure);
- Front-end/Javascript Frameworks/UI/UX;
- DevOps and Cloud Native Technologies on Azure;
- Data, IoT, and Application Security;
- Life Hacks / Career & Work Skills; and
- Other developer-centric topics.
Usually conducted in-person in Bangalore, India, the event is virtual this year.
To learn more about the conference, visit https://www.azconf.dev/#home.
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Update on December 5, 2020
If you missed the live Microsoft Azure Community Conference 2020, recordings of the sessions are now on YouTube. The video of Scott's talk is shown below.
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Use Tuckman's Model of Team Dynamics (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning) to Help Your Team Grow and Advance with Speed and Agility
04 January 2021
How to cite: Graffius, Scott M. (2021). Phases of Team Development. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.22040.42246.
2021 Update
Teams (agile or otherwise) go through phases of development, and Bruce Tuckman established a popular framework on the subject. According to Tuckman, all phases—Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning—are necessary for teams to grow, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results. Scott M. Graffius developed a related custom illustration, Phases of Team Development, which he revises periodically. He released an updated version of the visual on January 4, 2021. This article features the new version of the Phases of Team Development illustration along (shown above) with a brief overview of the characteristics and strategies for each phase.
Five Phases of Team Development
1. Forming
Characteristics of Forming include displaying eagerness, socializing, generally polite tone, sticking to safe topics, being unclear about how one fits in, and some anxiety and questioning. Strategies for this phase include taking the ‘lead,’ being highly visible, facilitating introductions, providing the ‘big picture,’ establishing clear expectations, communicating success criteria, and ensuring that response times are quick.
2. Storming
Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict related to differences of feelings and opinions, competition, high emotions, and starting to move towards group norms. Strategies for this phase include requesting and encouraging feedback, identifying issues and facilitating their resolution, normalizing matters, and building trust by honoring commitments.
3. Norming
Features of Norming include an improved sense of purpose and understanding of goals, higher confidence, improved commitment, team members are engaged and supportive, relief—lowered anxiety, and starting to develop cohesion. Strategies for this phase include recognizing individual and team efforts, proving opportunities for learning and feedback, and monitoring the ‘energy’ of the team.
4. Performing
Characteristics of Performing include higher motivation, elevated trust and empathy, individuals typically deferring to the team's needs, effective production, consistent performance, and demonstrations of interdependence and self-management (also referred to as self-organization). Strategies for this phase include ‘guiding from the side’ (minimal intervention), celebrating successes, and encouraging collective decision-making and problem-solving.
5. Adjourning
Typical traits of Adjourning (also referred to as Transitioning or Mourning) include a shift to process orientation, sadness, recognition of team and individual efforts, and disbanding. Strategies for this phase include recognizing change, providing an opportunity for summative team evaluations (which may go by ‘lessons learned,’ post-project review, retrospective, or another label), providing an opportunity for individual acknowledgments, and celebrating the team's accomplishments—which may involve a party and possibly an after-party.
The illustration summarizes the above information—and it shows how performance fluctuates as teams move through each phase. This information may be helpful for looking at your team.
Downloadable High-Resolution Versions of 'Phases of Team Development' Visual
Scott M. Graffius, the creator and owner of the Phases of Team Development illustration, has downloadable high-resolution versions of the visual on his website. Links follow:
For permission requests, contact Scott at the email address noted in the illustration.
About Scott M. Graffius
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), and international speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been featured and used by media outlets, publications, businesses, governments, and universities including Yahoo Finance, Computer Weekly, Innovation Project Management, MobileAppDaily, Gartner, Oracle, Cisco, RSA, Ford, Liberty Mutual Group, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, Bosch, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a global top thought leader and influencer in three domains: Agile, Digital Transformation, and GovTech. His full-length bio is available here.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Scott M. Graffius is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards an it has been featured by over 30 media outlets and publications. The book is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the United States and around the world. To learn more, visit AgileScrumGuide.com.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits. Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a revealing behind-the-scenes account of a successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company. The award-winning book is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the United States and around the world.
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The short URL for this article is: bit.ly/asg-teams.
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You're invited to:
- Check out our video channel which includes a trailer and more
- Read more articles in our blog
- Visit our digital media kit
- See Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions on Amazon
You're also invited to connect with us on social. Like us on Facebook and follow us on: