Tuckman’s Model of Team Formation

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Why Learn about Teamwork?

Design work is generally
done in teams.

Being an effective team

member is critical to our
academic and career
success.

Current classmates may

be future colleagues, or
even bosses…

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Questions you may have

• How do interpersonal dynamics work?

• What can I expect from my teammates and team

leader in terms of behaviour and expectations?

• What is a successful, high-performing team? How

can I help to turn mine into one?

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Bruce Tuckman
❑An American psychologist

❑Did research with the navy into small-group dynamics:

what makes teams succeed, what makes them fail?

❑Isolated teams, stressful conditions

❑Reviewed the psychological literature on team dynamics

❑Generalized to a staged theory of the development of small

groups

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The Tuckman Model Formin

g

1. Bruce Tuckman, “The Tuckman model of team Stormi

ng
formation” – published in Psychological
Bulletin in 1965 Normin
g
2. Tuckman and Mary Ann Jensen, “Stages of
small-group development revisited” – published Perfor
ming
in Group & Organisational Studies in 1977. Added
Adjourning/Mourning. Adjour
ning
3. Then refined and updated continuously by
other researchers.
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Elaborations to the model

•Forming
•Forming
•Storming
•Storming
•Norming
•Norming
•Performing
•Performing
•Adjourning
•Adjourning

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STAGE 1: FORMING STAGE

• Get to know teammates, their strengths and weaknesses
• Develop trust; try team-building activities
• Think about selecting roles, team leaders
• Start to focus on task definition, purpose

Dynamics characterized by
• Careful body language, polite speech, small talk
• Anxiety, fear of causing offense, conservative tone and gestures, ready laughter

Leaders: focus on creating team structures,

developing clear team rules/guidelines,
professional environment. Paperwork (agendas,
minutes, bylaws, etc.) can reduce anxiety.

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STAGE 2 : STORMING
• Brainstorm solution ideas.
• Test opinions and assumptions.
• Work habits are revealed.
• Frustration, conflict appear.

Team members: respect and maturity are critical. Depersonalize conflicts.

Address/critique IDEAS, not people.

Leaders: Assertive, not aggressive or passive. “What do we

want to accomplish?” Leader’s role is to help team
members do their best work to achieve team goal.

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STAGE 3: NORMING
• Team members are aware of their roles.
• Norms of behaviour appear; expectations are known.
• Body language, speech, terms of address become more relaxed.
• Implicit as well as explicit rules established.
• “we” and “us” replacing “me” and “I”
• Taking individual responsibility for group decisions.
• Willingness to compromise and abide by team decisions.

Leaders: Time to back off. Monitor and enable; be

ready to reassert if necessary.

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STAGE 4: PERFORMING
• Synergy
• Self directed, but oriented to team goals
• Team members support one another
• Enjoy yourself!

(Few teams reach this stage, and usually only after working on several
projects together)

Leaders: Stay out of the team’s way. Now a facilitator.

Define “synergy”?

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STAGE 5 : ADJOURNING / MOURNING

• End of project or departure of member
• Take pride in your work. Celebrate success!
• Review lessons learned
• Enjoy group loyalty, but beware of avoidant
behaviour / formation of cliques.

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Insights
• Conflict during the Storming stage is NOT a sign of a defective team – it’s
a necessary and productive precondition for success and innovative
thinking. Conflict can be productive if handled well, but destructive if
managed poorly.

• It’s OK to return to a previous stage if circumstances warrant.

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 Findings

1. About Team Development

Team development is a natural progression for any project and as work
goes along in a project teams will develop and these may or may not
coincide with the Tuckman model of team formation. The most
important thing is that when people work together there will be a
gradual change in team dynamics and relationships amongst different
members of a team and to achieve the organization/project goals it is
important to address these developmental characteristics and be on top
of them.

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2. Storming & Norming

As relationships with team members develop, it is natural for conflict to
arise. In fact, it is quite ordinary for teams to shift between storming and
norming especially if-
1. It is the first time a team is collaborating,
2. The project goals/requirements are vague and
3. There is a lack of trust between different team members.
Thus, conflict is not necessarily a sign of deterioration, rather a necessary
step to build trust between team members. However, here a vital
distinction must be made between healthy and constructive conflict and
petty bickering. One leads to team alignment; the other to team
destruction.

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3. Use of Tuckman’s Models

Since this model was initially developed for use in the U.S Navy and with
an American mindset considered, it would not be unusual if such stages
are not observed in project teams originating from non-American
regions. In fact, it can be considered almost concretely, that most project
teams in South-East Asian contexts would not go through some or even
all of these stages. Different considerations come into the picture such
as behavior, societal norms, cultural backgrounds, amongst others. As
such a project team may be working par excellence and not go through
these stages. It can not be a set rule that these stages are to be seen
across the gamut.

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4. The New Normal

With the rise in new and previously unforeseen methods of working with
teams (especially WFH), the relevance of these stages may either increase
or decrease. THe lack of physical contact and proximity to team members
could either increase the level of tolerance that individuals have towards
each other and we see that more teams find it easier to Norm and
Perform, or it could be that because of these new technologies,
individuals undergo a process of loss of empathy making the Storming
stages more pronounced and elongated. Only with time will we know the
impact that WFH has on Tuckman’s model of team development.

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5. Performing as the Ideal

Two of the most prudent concepts in Tuckman’s models are those of
Forming and Performing. Forming, though is a given for ALL teams, as it
acts as a kind of introduction. However, Performing is the more interesting
concept- the fact that teams with a lot of interpersonal experience only go
on to perform says a lot about how projects work. The pillars of project
teams- trust, communication and conflict really define the basis for the
performing stage. Only when teams have enough experience, know their
fellow team members and trust each other to work towards a common
goal, can there be a team that needs no outside intervention and can
function perfectly, like a well-oiled engine.

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6. The role of the Leader

The role of the leaser is an important one to consider. They are
responsible for the functioning of the team and need to be well
acquainted with the individual team members, so as to not make anyone
feel alienated. Further, they have to moderate conflicts that break out
within the project teams, mentor and guide the team members, and
ensure that the project deadlines and milestones are met with the use of
resources specified by the client or executive. The leader needs to be
cognizant of the stage of group development the team is undergoing and
help in the ways specified.

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Potential issues
• Stage metaphor – what if stages are missed?
• Causation – what allows movement between stages?
• Pedagogical concerns
• Self-fulfilling prophecy?
• Generalizability

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Conclusion

Tuckman’s model and its derivatives are powerful, insightful and useful
tools for understanding your team dynamics, but his stages are not
necessarily prerequisites for success, and this is not the only successful
model of successful teamwork.

Think for yourself – apply your own critical thinking capacity to your team
experience.

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Any Questions?

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Thank you!

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