 As a parent and as somebody who's from a large family myself and it's always amazed me to see two people are from the same family grew up in the same home They're siblings. They're the same environment and things and grew up so differently because people just do that Everybody grows differently. We can see broadly different phases of development and growth and things but individually There's so much uniqueness within that and the same is true for groups every group has its own personality but at the same time we can see these different stages of development and and ways that groups function or Fail to function well through these models and within these models So there are a variety of different models that you can look at for group development We're gonna take a look at two of the the more prominent ones in this video starting with probably the most prominent Model for group development and that's Tuckman's phases of group development So named because it was developed by a gentleman named Bruce Tuckman originally published in 1965 And Tuckman as part of his work said that there really four stages of group development later adding a fifth So those stages were and are remain forming storming norming Performing and then eventually adding adjourning to that process as well So these are the Tuckman said, you know Effective groups go through all of these things and they're identify identifiable characteristics For each of these stages as well. So let's take a look at what those are those different characteristics that you may see During group development for each of these First while I'm forming you're going to see the need for a high degree of guidance. There's a lot of Outside guidance and and internal guidance as well needed though There's a lot of telling people what to do and how it needs to be done and still sorting things out So there's a lot of a lot of hand-holding that goes on in the forming stage of a group Individual roles at this point are still unclear. You're not really sure where everybody fits in what their strengths are How they're going to be able to best contribute so individual roles are pretty unclear in the forming stage and the processes are not Well established how we how do we make decisions? It's going to be majority rules are going to be more of an authoritarian thing where people bring ideas But somebody makes a decision how are decisions going to be made? How are we going to engage in debate and discussion and what are the rules for that? What are we going to meet and and how are we going to meet? Those are all part of the the unclear aspects of the forming stage So there's a lot of uncertainty and can present some anxiety for group members during that time But there's also some excitement. There's some creative flow that happens During those initial forming stages as well So um, so you know got to take the good with the bad But usually that's where we all start off in that in that forming stage as a group Eventually we'll move into storming if the group continues to progress you move into storming and in the storming area You see more individualization You see people start to become a little more argumentative and a little less willing to just go along to get along and And they're starting to try and make their presence clear and and you know stake their claim to different things So decision making is more defined You've probably come to some idea of how you're going to make decisions and made a couple decisions already Your purpose is clear You've identified what it is you're there to do and your individual purposes may be a little bit more clear as well But the team relationships are still a little blurry. How do we work with one another? What's my relationship with the rest of the team and and my expectations for working with them? So those things are still a little blurry and so it can be a bit chaotic But still there's a creative surge that happens in the storming as people You know assert themselves individually that you want to take advantage of but it can be a little chaotic and a little Confrontational at times in the storming phase of a group, but it's just all part of it. You got to put put up with it Right. It's the terrible twos there's a teenage years of of adolescence if you if you're familiar with child development So anyway, we have this storming phase in groups as well Then with norming we see that the relationships are becoming clear It's it's you know We have a better idea of how we work with other people who we work well with What we're expected to do with them and what our lanes are Members are more firmly committed to the goals. We're starting to come around to this idea that it's not just me it's about us and and our group accomplishments of members are More firmly committed to the goals of the group rather than to themselves as an individual and processes here are optimizing We have now a clear way of making decisions a clear process for engaging in discussion A clear process for communicating with the rest of our team Those things are all kind of ironed out when we get to the norming phase We're starting to to come along a little bit here Eventually, ideally a group will get into what we call the performing stage In the performing stage Every group member is committed to performing well Not just to the success of the group or to whatever But they're committed to doing their job and doing it well for the benefit of the group And for the group to perform well as well. And there's also a focus on being strategic Meetings may become shorter because you're you're more focused on what it is you're doing in you're out You're on with the process as you're doing these things and so you have a better Kind of respect for people's time and their talents and their skills And and you're so you're being strategic in the way that you're organizing things and the way you're handling tasks and things as a group And the group at this point functions well with little oversight once you get into the performing stage There's going to be really very little outside structure needed or or or oversight or You know so outside interjection won't be necessary the group will be able to do things well on their own Eventually the group is going to either you know time out or have performed their tasks or whatever it is But you're going to adjourn you're going to close things out and be done as a group That can happen for a variety of reasons. Obviously you can again You can accomplish your task or the you're putting on an event and that event date is is coming past Or just it fizzles out for whatever reason. There are a lot of reasons that groups end But for you know at some point they're all going to end they're going to adjourn Now this can be bittersweet if you're really enjoying this group You may be sad that it's that it's ending and you know if you're really finding your place there, but That's so but some people are also you know glad to have that time back and not have that that extra work Or whatever it is not have that extra concern of working in that group. So it can be a little bittersweet It can be you know have positives and negatives for for group members This is a time to debrief and celebrate as we'll discuss This is a time to figure out what you did well and both as a group and individuals What you did well what lessons can you take away from this? And what can we celebrate about the work that the group has accomplished about the things that you've done together So you see that these are all you know part of the all these stages, right? So let's take a look though It's more specifically what needs to happen as a group and as a group leader What what we need to be focused on during each of these stages So in the forming stage The things that we need to do include first of all you ought to plan an icebreaker very early on and i'm not an icebreaker I hate icebreakers hate participating in them, but they do serve a purpose They help you get to know your group members and especially if they're task focused icebreakers if you can figure that out But you don't have to do these every time and they don't have to be really cheesy But you do want to play in some way for you to to get to know your group members and start to develop some Sort of connection with them and understanding of who they are that'll help you find common ground that you want to find common ground With these people what is it that we're all here to do? You don't have to be bffs with everybody on your group and everybody on your team You don't have to you know socialize a lot outside of work or outside of the team or whatever But you need to find some common ground. What is it that you're there to do that you can all find? You know that you're that you're all there to do that you can some connection that you can find between all of you Or between you and another team member to find that common ground that's important during the forming stages You want to establish goals for your for yourself as an individual and also as your group as a whole You want to establish goals? What is it that we're here to do? Let's define our purpose and and get some clarity about what we're hoping to accomplish What the success look like at the end of this process? You want to clarify expectations about what you expect from people who are going to be a part of this group And what you know what our expectations in terms of simple things too like when you get a message from somebody from the group What's the expected response time within you know? How many hours or days or whatever clarify those kind of expectations as well? And so you want to just you know again start to lay some of the ground rules For your group interaction for your group expectations and things like that Okay, so once we get through the forming stage we get into storming There are a few things we need to accomplish in this forming stage as well a few things about identify to To say that we need to get these things done and have them done First of all, we got to be willing to embrace disagreement in the stage. It's okay to disagree That's you know bringing diverse perspectives and diverse ideas and things. That's a good thing in a group So we want to embrace the disagreement But at the same time we want to keep it civil Right, you can embrace disagreement. You can you know have disagreements But you can do so in a constructive way in a way that doesn't Upset people or keep it from being productive, right? So in order to do that one of the things we need to do is to practice active listening Effective listening active listening not just letting it go in one ear not the other ear or pretending to listen You know do pseudo listening but not really listening We ought to practice active listening so that we understand where the other person is coming from even if we disagree with them We need to understand where it is they're coming from so that we can try and persuade them try and You know incorporate their ideas as well as ours and embrace that disagreement for the sake of embracing a different perspective Which could benefit the group And through it all we need to keep a sense of humor It's important to keep a sense of humor. You gotta have some fun with this and again It doesn't have to all be a laugh fest But you just have to keep a sense of humor about things when things go wrong You just have to kind of brush it off and and have a sense of humor and And be willing to accept others and in all of their faults Okay, so let's shift gears and think about what we need to do Once the group enters the norming phase of development So first and foremost it's important that we get all the group members to adapt to the norms And that we do that ourselves as group members, but that we you know once we've identified those norms We want people to adapt to them. We don't want to stifle creativity and kind of force people To do something that wouldn't actually do but But once we've identified what these norms are we need people to start following them And so we need to adapt to them and ask others to as well Now at the same time we do want to to be free to challenge norms that are too strict If there's something that's happening that's restricting the creativity or the flow or the efficiency of the group We need to be able to push back on those things a little bit and be able to Not only adapt to the norms but adapt the norms as our group grows and as our needs grow and as We identify these things so we need to challenge norms that are too strict And at the same time we need to tighten up norms that are too loose If there are norms that are that are keeping us from being efficient in terms of Things are a little too too loose or there's something we need to adjust So we need to be able to to move those norms As as necessary to challenge the ones that are too strict to tighten up the ones that are too loose But in general once we've identified a norm we need to adapt to that and get the group to work within those strictures When we enter into performing there are some things we need to keep in mind as well First of all we want to stay task focused in performing That doesn't mean that you can't have friendships or can't develop relationships But those kinds of things need to happen outside of the group Especially once you get into performing everybody's kind of laser focused on what they need to be Doing and doing well and doing most effectively and efficiently For the group. So the group really needs to stay task focused. We do want to encourage full participation at this stage It's easy for people to be quiet and others to assume that if they're quiet, they don't have anything to add That's not necessarily the case. We need to encourage people to participate fully And either as a group or as individuals approach those people and say I just want to make sure we're not missing anything that That you have to offer So I just wanted to encourage you to speak up or let me know what I can do to help You'll bring your ideas to the forefront, but we want to encourage for full participation That's the whole point is to have that diversity of ideas and diversity of perspectives and and make use of all that Then finally we want to just coach and support at the performing stage You shouldn't need a lot of oversight. You shouldn't need a lot of hand holding You shouldn't need a lot of authoritarian behavior, you know punishments and things like that It's really about just coaching people and supporting people to do the best job that they can Eventually when we get into adjourning and things are bring, you know, come and look like they're coming to a close The first thing we need to do is provide a runway To just end abruptly is not very satisfying and it's it's just you know to just say okay, we're done No more and everybody's kind of just left in the lurch thinking. Oh, okay. That was kind of sudden But we want to provide a runway. We want to start identifying, you know, okay We're coming to a close. We need to bring this thing in for a landing That's okay. We're going to be wrapping things up. Just everybody be prepared for that We're going to focus on this end date and and having things concluded by them But at least that gives people an idea that the end is coming and that that we're bringing this thing in for a landing So provide a runway for that landing I also want to be sure we debrief for lessings for lessons, sorry Both for individuals and as a group as individuals what worked well What can we do better next time and and the same thing as a group what well here? What will we do differently next time for somebody working on this task? But we can debrief to to kind of identify and express all of those lessons We also want to acknowledge the work Where is that we started? What have we accomplished during that time and and along with that celebrate those victories that we see during that time right so acknowledge the work that you've done celebrate the victories and just bring things around for kind of To provide some closure to everybody in the group So really we ought to be moving through these phases not in a linear way so much But you know, you'll see some some regression during storming But this is kind of the progression that things normally take And it's sort of with that in mind this idea that that it's not such a linear process that we You know Tuckman's phases have been You know kind of the benchmark since the 60s of how we view group development and they're still valid There's still things that are discussed and looked at today. They provide a lot of really foundational principles, but then in the 70s This this idea came around of what was called punctuated equilibrium Right and it didn't start in group work. It started actually with some paleontologists named Niles Eldridge and Stephen J. Gould in 1972 published this work on what they called Punctuated equilibrium looking specifically at evolution in their in their line of work They were looking at evolution and the current thinking at that time in 1970s Was that evolution was a slow steady process that that happened over time and he's kind of just Again the slow steady process, but it happened evenly. It happened steadily over time And so evolution just took place and constant small little ways over over however long it was going to happen, right but Eldridge and Gould came along and said well, that's not really what we see in Examining these you know the history of these things examining the fossils that we see examining all these things What they had they saw what they called punctuated equilibrium, which are these rapid progressions and evolution all at once And then and then a plateau a steady kind of progression in between those periods Right, so that's what they call punctuated equilibrium It was kind of go go go and then they remain steady for a long time And so they they brought this idea forth in in the area of evolution and examining evolution and it really took hold this idea of punctuated equilibrium and Then fast forward a couple decades To 1991 Psychologist and researcher Connie Gersic said, you know, the same thing really applies to the two behavioral sciences To not just psychology, but the way individuals develop and the way groups develop and it's not just this linear function that that we see in represented in Tuckman's phases where you go through one and onto the next and then on the next and then on the next and so forth But things are messier than that. It's not really this straight line What happens if you get new leadership or if you're working on something that's technological and all of a sudden the technology just changes Which happens all the time now, right the technology just like nope We're not doing that anymore. Think of the blackberry folks if you can even remember that if you're old enough to remember blackberries All of a sudden black player blackberries with a rage everybody had to have one as this mobile device, right? Well, then smartphones come along the blackberries are obsolete. So what do you do if you're blackberry people? You're not just moving in this linear progression through these different stages and constantly staying and performing right things happen things change Where you know, you may be in you may have gotten to norming or performing But all of a sudden something happens and now you're back to storming You have to regroup you have to rethink things and you're back to your group is back to kind of this Forming or storming phase and then eventually Ideally you're going to enter back into norming and then progress to performing, right? But then you may get back to storming again And this all happened in fits and starts It won't all be a steady progression through a period of time You know that straight upward angle that we saw in that evolutionary chart It'll be kind of this this ragged thing where we see rapid periods of change And then periods of stability in between there for these different phases and then we may go back It may be cyclical and we may have to go back to these things. So Group development isn't just a straight linear thing. We've come to understand that as well It's much like much like kids much like, you know, that things they grow differently every group is different They all grow different phases, but we can still identify Different different key principles within each of those phases that are important for us to keep in mind So again, every group is different, but every group is sort of the same I guess that's the message every group does go through these phases if it continues to To progress and become effective so we can see these markers That we see in the different phases of group development But at the same time every group is different. It won't all be just a straight line They won't all progress through these at the same rate Some will stay in different phases longer Some will have more success than others and and so we need to be aware of that that we can Treat every group individually and look at every group differently But at the same time we can identify These these key principles within the development process for each group If you have questions about group development or about small group communication in general, please feel free to email me I'd love to hear from you there in the meantime I hope that you can start to apply some of this to your own group work and identify some of the key principles and and phases in your own experiences with groups maybe groups that you're in right now and how you can begin to to Manage the group process more effectively and participate in that process more effectively by understanding these different phases and models of group development