The Stages of Group Development: The Truth About Collaboration
In the realm of team dynamics, community organizing, and dance education, understanding how groups evolve is crucial for success. Bruce Tuckman's model of group development serves as a roadmap for navigating the complexities of team formation and collaboration. In this blog, we will explore the five stages of group development and offer valuable insights on how to progress through the stages gracefully, ensuring relationships remain intact and strong.
Understanding the Five Stages of Group Development
Bruce Tuckman's theory, developed in 1965, breaks down the journey of a team's growth into five distinct stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Each stage represents a phase through which a group navigates, encountering unique challenges and opportunities for growth.
Forming
The Forming stage is characterized by excitement and anticipation, and yes, can be awkward. Team members are introduced, roles are defined, and the scope of the project is discussed. However, since members are just getting to know each other, there's a tendency to tread lightly and avoid conflict. We enter new spaces with new people, wanting to make good impressions by being extra nice, extra apologetic, extra zealous. This is a fertile ground for building a group culture.
How we do it:
Take time to build and articulate group agreements.
Encourage open communication to help get acquainted.
Clearly define goals and expectations to provide direction.
Provide opportunities for the group to problem solve together and practice collaborative community building.
Play! Generate fun games and activities to get to know each other besides the typical “so… how did you learn about this thing?”
Storming
As the group starts to settle in, the Storming phase emerges. When our niceties and zeal don’t yield a desirable outcome, we can start to feel challenged. Here, the initial harmony might give way to conflicts and power struggles. Team members may challenge tasks, goals, and leadership, leading to tension within the group. It’s important to establish a protocol for conflict resolution for effective and efficient use during this stage.
How we do it:
“If we belong to each other, we participate in our creations: we are because you are, and since you are, definitely I am.”
Foster an environment where conflicts can be addressed constructively.
Reinforce goals and focus on building strong interpersonal relationships.
Encourage honesty and clarity with love.
Trust each other. Sometimes even after several meetings, no solution or action item is agreed on. Sometimes a solution is found just by moving forward.
Listen for understanding. Each person has a specific lived experience, and way of being that works for them, and we must learn to integrate those personal systems of existence into a community culture.
Norming
The Norming stage is where resolution begins. The team starts to find its groove, establishing norms, values, and traditions that help stabilize its function. Collaboration improves as members understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. We learn to ask questions, make mistakes, acknowledge mistakes and try again. This is where individuals will discover their own voice, take up space, and find power within a group. In the Norming stage it’s important to encourage this growth and development.
Key Tips:
Encourage team bonding and the development of a strong team identity.
Celebrate small victories to reinforce positive dynamics and build trust.
Facilitate individual growth and embrace change.
Performing
In the Performing stage, the group reaches its full potential. Team members are competent, autonomous, and able to handle decision-making processes without supervision. The focus is on achieving the collective vision efficiently, effectively, joyfully, and with our souls intact. This is the idealized image of collaboration.
How we do it:
Delegate tasks and responsibilities to capitalize on each member's strengths.
Encourage innovative thinking and problem-solving.
Genuinely affirm all suggestions and ideas.
Conflicts may seem to be resolved easier or faster.
Adjourning
Everyone says, “keep in touch" or "let’s stay connected," and in the era of social media it’s easier to do that. However, endings are real, common, and difficult, no matter how much we try to deny it. The Adjourning stage, also known as the Mourning stage, involves the disbandment of the group. It's a time for reflection, acknowledgment of achievements, and dealing with the emotional aspects of parting ways. Sometimes when it’s time to say goodbye, conflicts can arise to make the goodbye easier, but how can we honor the ending of a beautiful relationship without burning bridges?
How we do it:
Provide opportunities for feedback and reflection on the group's work.
Celebrate the team's achievements and ensure a sense of closure.
Intentionally take time to be together at the end, to show appreciation for individuals.
Acknowledge and voice all the emotions of ending, and give/receive love in spite of and because of the good, bad, ugly, and beauty that the group has experienced during their time together.
Stay connected! A group may not always exist as it is today, but there is space to evolve. Stay connected in some way, whether it is physically, spiritually, or electronically.
Artistic Collaboration and Social Activism at CONTRA-TIEMPO
Life is not project-based - it’s process-centered. In the heart of these developmental stages lies the essence of collaboration and unity, values that are deeply embodied by us here at CONTRA-TIEMPO, a bold and multilingual Los Angeles-based dance company. As a social activist dance theater, we not only bring together a diverse group of dancers, artists, and activists but also exemplify the power of building effective teams. Its important to note that these stages are not linear - sometimes you will go back and forth between the stages, and while one person may be in forming, another person may be in performing. These stages are emergent, cyclical, and rhizomatic as is nature!
As a leading voice in the artistic and social activism realms, CONTRA-TIEMPO takes the stage not just to entertain but to provoke, inspire, and build bridges. Our work is a testament to the power of art as a vehicle for change and a reminder of the beauty and strength that lies in unity and collaborative development.
Everyone wants to say and act as if working in an arts organization with people you love is just easy, dreamy, and full of laughs all day…it can be, and often is with CT…but the days are also just as long, hard, exhausting, and bring us to the edges of our human capacities. We are real people who feel real feelings. We care deeply about one another and therefore our processes for development are important to our sustainable relationships as community, colleagues, collaborators, and as family. But we hurt each other’s feelings sometimes. We misunderstand one another. We have to apologize. We push too hard and too fast sometimes. We disagree. We push back, fall apart, get lost, and do not always have the capacity to meet one another’s needs when it is most needed. This is ALL a part of group development. ALL of it is necessary, not just the pretty nor petty parts. To quote joyUs justUS, “If we belong to each other, we participate in our creations: we are because you are, and since you are, definitely I am.”
Join CONTRA-TIEMPO in our journey to make a difference. When we move together, we can change the world. Support our movement by donating today!
Bibliography:
Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development - WCU of PA. (n.d.). West Chester University. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.wcupa.edu/coral/tuckmanStagesGroupDelvelopment.aspx
Using the stages of team Development | MIT Human Resources. (n.d.). https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development