Stages of team life

Stages of team life

The typical team is said to go through a number of stages during its existence.

1. Forming: The group is anxious and feels dependent on a leader. The group will be attempting to discover how it is going to operate, what the 'normal' behaviours will be: how supportive, how critical, how serious and how humorous the group will be.

2. Storming: The atmosphere may be one of conflict, with rebellion against the leader, conflict between sub-groups and resistance to control. There is likely to be resistance to the task, and even the sense that the task is impossible.

3. Norming: At this stage, members of the group feel closer together and the conflicts are settled, or at least forgotten. Members of the group will start to support each other. There is increasingly the feeling that the task is possible to achieve.

4. Performing: The group is carrying out the task for which it was formed. Roles within the group are flexible, with people witting to do the work normally done by others. Members feel safe enough to express differences of opinion in relation to others.

5. Mourning: The group is disbanded, its members begin to feel nostalgic about its activities and achievements. Perhaps they go for a drink or a meal to celebrate. All this may be familiar from the groups we encounter, and play our role in managing, in language training!

Discussion questions:

1. Define the main types of personalities necessary to form a strong team.

2. Do teams differ from organization to organization and how?

3. Which are the team –life stages?

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