We have all worked in a group or team at some point in our careers. A team is brought together to achieve a common goal. The team needs to have members who have complementary skills and who are committed to a common purpose to achieve performance goals. However, teams don’t move immediately toward performing, but instead evolve over time. There are five stages of group and team development:

Forming: Getting oriented and getting acquainted. High degree of uncertainty as members as they try to figure out who is in charge.
Storming: Personalities start to emerge, along with roles and conflicts within the group.
Norming: In the third stage conflicts are resolved, relationships developed, harmony and unity surfaces.
Performing: The members concentrate on solving problems and completing the assigned task.
Adjourning: Members prepare to disband. Some members may be reassigned, terminated from the group or the group is resolved.
Think about a time when you joined a new group—it could be at work, in a family setting or with a social group.

Step 2 – Post a Response

Respond to the following:

Which of the five stages was the most challenging for the group to work through, and why?
How might you have helped the group work through that stage differently based upon what you know now about the five stages of group and team development?