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Substance Abuse and Brain Injuries
Community Teams
Community
Teams and Brain Injury
Challenge
of Teams
Purpose
of Teams
Making
Community Teams Work
Team
Development
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Version of Community Teams
Team Development
The formation and operation of teams has been widely
studied as they have become a predominant organizing strategy in business.
Though there are many theories of how teams develop, experts agree that
teams go through developmental stages, just like people.
One of the more well-known theories of team development describes four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing.
Forming: The team recruits core members and decides its purpose.
Storming: As team members begin to work together, tensions arise over appropriate methodologies.
Norming: The team begins to formulate rules of conduct and further defines the roles of team members. This activity results in greater team cohesion.
Performing: The team works more smoothly together to achieve common goals.
Most other models of team development are similar, emphasizing periods of:
- recruitment and role definition,
- conflict and power struggles,
- goal and boundary establishment, and
- effective performance.
It is important to note that work is accomplished even before the final stage of development, and that the stages may recur as goals change and as people join or leave the team. Also, some experts believe that teams cycle through these stages throughout the life of a team.
People with experience in teamwork learn how to set ground rules and goals early in the team development and are willing to address conflict issues so they can get on to the next phase of work. Knowing developmental stages also allows team members to understand their own feelings and the behavior of others.
With this understanding, team members anticipate aspects of group development and work more productively. This knowledge is especially useful for ad hoc teams that must come together quickly and then disband.
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