Rescue teams working together in Haiti [Image Source: CBC News]
Teamwork is vital to the success of any operation or business project. Well integrated teams with a passion to succeed and a clear goal can surmount most problems to make things happen.
Right now in Haiti, the crisis-ridden country is entirely reliant on rapidly put together teams - from search-and-rescue, medical and disaster-relief teams on the ground to government teams and corporate and consumer fund-raisers around the world - to help it survive and rally in the aftermath of its terrible earthquake on January 12th. These teams have one clear goal and an immense will to succeed despite the many, practical operational difficulties on the ground. There is no room for ego in these circumstances, and all types of rescue teams are having to move rapidly through the first four stages of team development - from the initial coming-together of a random cross-sector of people to high-level performance in critical and heart-breaking circumstances- in an intensely jam-packed window of time. [Click here for a link to Google's Support Disaster Relief in Haiti page].
The social media revolution is also triggering new types of team development encouraging, as mass behaviour expert Mark Earls writes in his extraordinary book Herd, "consumer-to-consumer co-creative interactions". C K Prahalad talked about this in his book 'The Future of Competition' published six years ago. He recognized that the structural changes brought about the convergence of industries and technologies alongside ubiquitous connectivity and globalization were triggering an evolution in the role of consumer. No longer passive recipients they were now team players and active co-creators of value where "the consumer and the firm are intimately involved in jointly creating value that is unique to the individual consumer and sustainable to the firm". Business writer Clay Shirky's recent book 'Here Comes Everybody' also discusses this contemporary phenomenon of co-creativity triggered by the explosion of the internet, social media and information access. He tells us "Collective action, where a group acts as a whole, is even more complex than collaborative production, but here again new tools give life to new forms of action".
Regular Management Sushi guest blogger and strategic project management expert Gina Abudi is fully conversant with the psychology of team development. In this blog she talks us through team leadership and the five critical stages of team development. [FYI: Business Week published a Harvard Business Review team development article last week 'Five Ways to Lead with More Compassion' which would definitely be worth reading alongside Gina's blog post on this topic!].
As a final aside, Seth Godin in his forthcoming book 'Linchpin: Are you Indispensable' [coming out on 26th January] challenges individuals to 'do the work' and get involved when it comes to being a team player at work. He says: "Showing up unwilling to do emotional labor is a short-term strategy now, because over time organizations won't pay extra for someone who merely does the easy stuff".
Here's what Gina has to say ....
THE FIVE STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
There are five stages of team development through which every team progresses. These were developed by Bruce Wayne Tuckman; with the 5th stage developed in conjunction with Mary Ann Jensen. The five stages are shown below:
Stage 5: Adjourning
Stage 4: Performing
Stage 3: Norming
Stage 2: Storming
Stage 1: Forming
All teams progress through the stages in the order shown - from Stage 1: Forming through to Stage 5: Adjourning. A team that has been working together for a while may progress faster than a new team that is working together for the first time, but inevitably something occurs - a new member joins, one of the members has a personal difficulty and loses focus on doing his/her part, a difficult problem occurs that distracts the team, etc. - that pushes the team back to a previous stage.
Let's look at an example of such a situation. Project Team A has been working together on a project for the past 18 months. The project has been going successfully - on time and on budget - and the team has worked together smoothly. The team is currently performing in Stage 4: Performing. Josh, one of the team members, agreed to work on a particular part of the project that requires coding of a database application. He has 5 days to get the code completed and tested so that the project can move along to the next phase. Although help was offered, he has decided to go ahead on his own to get it working as he has done this before and is confident he can meet the deadline. Since he has always been successful in the past, the team leader allowed him to proceed on his own.
Two days into his component of the project, Josh learned that his wife may be laid off from her job. She is worried about losing her job and Josh also is worried as they count on her income to sustain the family. He becomes distracted, and given that, he begins to have difficulty concentrating on his component of the project. Five days have passed and his part of the project is not even close to being completed. He was too embarrassed to approach the team leader about his situation and ask for help to keep him on track with his part of the project.
Additionally, other team members have noticed that something is not quite right with Josh, but have not spoken to him about what might be bothering him and have not mentioned their concerns to the team leader. Frankly, everyone was too busy to even think about it.
Two days after Josh's component of the project was due, the team leader asked Josh about it. He told her that he is not yet done and needs another 4 - 5 days to complete it. This was a major setback for he project and the project team as a whole. The other team members cannot move forward with their components of the project until Josh finished his component.
In this example, we have moved from a Performing team (Stage 4) back down to a Storming team (Stage 2). The team members are angry that Josh has not pulled his weight - their success and the success of the project rested on his shoulders and he let them down. They are also angry that the team leader did not see this coming and only checked up on Josh after his deadline for that task.
The team will need to move from the Storming stage (Stage 2) back through to Norming (Stage 3) to get back to Stage 4 (Performing). They will not be able to jump from Stage 2 to Stage 4.
A successful team leader will keep the pulse of the team at all times. He/she is responsible for helping the team move through the stages of team development. By keeping track of how the project is progressing and how each individual is performing along with how the team is performing as a whole, the team leader will be able to "catch" issues before they arise and keep the team moving in the right direction and not backwards. Of course, be aware that changes to team members, problems that might arise, etc. will affect the team's progress. A good team leader will anticipate such changes - or at least be able to respond immediately when they do occur! In this way, adjustments can be made to get the team back on track with the least amount of disruption.
To read more about what occurs in each of the five stages of team development and to read another example of a team progressing through all five stages, please read the entire post here [click here for Part I - and here for Part II].
Gina Abudi has a broad range of consulting experience in strategic planning, business impact and ROI, project management, general management/leadership and needs assessments. She works with clients to develop strategic learning and development programs for all levels of employees, including high potentials and executives.
Gina has been honoured as one of the Power 50 from PMI® - one of the 50 most influential executives in project management, working to move the profession forward. She serves on the PM Summit/BA World Advisory Board and is Chair of the Leadership Committee for PMI®'s Global Corporate Council.
Gina has presented at various conferences on Business Impact and ROI Analysis of Project Management Training Programs, Developing a Project Management Best Practice, and Assessing Project Management Skills.
Gina received her MBA from Simmons Graduate School of Management. She blogs at: http://www.ginaabudi.com.
