4 Exploring the stages
It is useful to be able to recognise what is going on in your group and to identify the stage you are at. For example, you should try not to feel too demoralised if the team does not seem to be working very well at the beginning – viewing this instead as a stage that you have to go through in order to perform well in the future.
It can also be useful to be aware that if you pass through Storming into the Norming phase, this doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the next step will be Performing – more effort will be needed.
With this level of understanding of team development, you can also have an awareness of what you need to do to fix any issues as they evolve so that you can move your team onto the next stage of the process. Simply being able to recognise and acknowledge that the problems your group is having are normal can be reassuring.
In this section you’ll have an opportunity to explore each stage of Tuckman’s model in more detail, considering the things you could do to support progress towards the next stage. If a virtual team context feels relevant – what could be done in that setting to encourage progress?