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Written by Dr. Andrew Makar
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In the previous article, I shared a couple of key lessons learned in team development using Bruce Tuckman’s model of Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Every team goes through these four phases regardless if the team recognizes it or not. If the team can apply the lessons learned in the forming and storming phase, the team progress faster to the norming and performing phase. In this second article, I’ll highlight a few useful lessons learned across the Norming and Performing phases. Remember, performance management software combined with an understanding of team development techniques can be powerful.
Lesson Learned: Identity and communicate expectations in the Norming phase
Its difficult to achieve the Norming phase, if the team doesn’t communicate or share expectations for team norms. One method for communicating, discussing and achieving team norms is to host a kick off meeting with the immediate team and share how status reports will be collected, the cadence of key meetings and how teams should work together. By communicating expectations, the team can agree on working practices.
In one of my projects, the entire team was all located within the team room. The team room had a speaker phone for conference calls. Some of the team members would use the speaker phone for all their calls and despite having the team located in one room, the speaker phone created a distraction for others. The issue was fixed by reserving separate break out rooms for the team members and the speaker phone was reserved for meetings with all the team members.
Another example involved reporting milestone with the standard “traffic light” approach - red, yellow and green for key milestones. Green was used to identify on-track milestones, yellow for at-risk and red for late tasks. The business customer was used to using blue for on target, green for complete and red for late. After using the original traffic light status reporting, the team had to switch to accommodate the business customer’s expectations and own standards.
Team norms are often established in the forming phase although it may take several iterations to work out the “kinks”. In the status reporting example, it took a few times to produce the status reports before the team understood the revised formatting and cadence. You may find this experience when you conduct your first issue review meeting or your first program status meeting. By establishing norms early, communicating them and adjusting norms based on team feedback, the team will achieve the norming phase much faster.
Lesson Learned: Identify and save best practices found in the Performing phase
In the Performing phase, the team establishes a rhythm for managing issues, responding to problems and executing work. Status reports are submitted on time, action items are appropriately tracked and roles are understood. It may take several weeks to reach the performing phase and during this time, the team has likely created several best practices and expected team norms.
You don’t have to wait for a lessons learned session at the end of the project to identify and discuss the best practices. As the team experiences best practices that work well for the team, make a note of them and save them for expected norms for the next project and team formation.
One best practice my team established early on was the use of a daily stand-up meeting for all the team leads. When the stand-ups were first conducted, they lacked structure and the team continued to ramble. The team adjusted the practice of their stand-up meeting so each team member would highlight what they are working on and the top issues they were experiencing. The work to resolve the team member’s issue and further coordination would happen outside the meeting.
These types of best practices can be documented in a single MS-PowerPoint slide and incorporated a kick off deck for future project teams. Each slide can be removed or adjusted based on the project need and expected team norms.
Form , Storm, Norm, Perform - Repeat
Programs can be long term projects depending on the size and scope. In a two to five year project or program, team members will fade in and out and as new team members are introduced and the natural phases of forming, norming and storming will happen again and again. The key is to recognize the importance of these phases, embrace them and manage the issues as the team works on their projects. Team development will inevitably have conflict and differences in opinion are healthy for team development. Establishing norms is important for teams to achieve the desired performance.
So go ahead and start forming and storming. Achieve norming and start performing. We’ve got projects to deliver.
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