Storming Stage of Team Development
Storming is the second stage of team development and this stage is characterized by a bid for power and inter-personal conflicts. Learn the key factors that occur in the storming stage and the strategies that a team leader can adopt to pass this stage of high winds
Managing Team Conflicts in the Storming Stage
Storming is the second stage of team development and in this stage, members start competing for status, leadership, and control in the group. When group members get to know each other better, the storming stage begins. This stage is characterized by a bid for power. Every team will move through this phase. Some will stay here longer than others. During the Storming stage, conflicts arise as team members try to figure out their roles and delegate tasks. This stage can be difficult, but it can also be highly productive.
Characteristics of the Storming Stage:
Key factors that occur in the storming stage for the team members might include:
- Individuals understand others' behavior and assert their role in the group.
- Team members may compete for a certain role or position on the team.
- The leader’s authority may be challenged as others compete for the position.
- As a result inter-personal conflict starts.
- Members try to resolve the issues related to the task and working relations.
- They also resolve the issues related to the role of the individual in the group.
- Roles and responsibilities get clarified to a certain extent.
- The rules and ways of working as a team start to be defined.
- The team still lacks established processes.
- The team lacks strong interrelationships with their colleagues.
- Some members may feel overwhelmed by how much there is to do.
- Some members may also feel uncomfortable with the approach being used.
- Some may even start questioning the appropriateness of the goals of the team.
- Some may start resisting taking on tasks.
- Members will begin to open up but also confront each other on ideas.
- Can be painful to team members who are reluctant to deal with conflict.
- Politeness tends to begin to wear off and dissension can occur over.
- Control often becomes the primary issue.
- Disagreements can be either very obvious or subtle.
- Sharp fluctuations in attitude about the team and the project's chance of success.
- Arguing among members even when they agree on the real issues.
Managing Conflict during Storming:
As team members struggle over roles and responsibilities, conflict can arise. But it can also be a highly creative stage as ideas are generated and challenged, and important issues are discussed. Identify what some of the problems are they will need to solve. If they're to move to the next stage, team members must learn to voice disagreement openly and constructively while staying focused on common objectives and areas of agreement. During the Storming stage, to help team development, you should focus on team building to ensure that people can get to know one another and not get stuck in seeing each other as competitors.
Suggestions for the Team Lead/Member in this stage:
To make sure that Storming results in positive growth, the team leader needs to:
- Establish process and structure
- Ensure that everyone stays on track with the team's goal, and
- Help the team define a shared vision
- Work to smooth conflict and build good relationships between team members.
- Allow and encourage productive conflict.
- Need to remain professional and objective.
- Allow each member to share their ideas or ask for input.
- Be open to every team member's input
- Help members to understand and appreciate the other members’ knowledge and skills.
- Generally provide support, especially to those team members who are less secure.
- Remain positive and firm in the face of challenges to your leadership or the team's goal.
- Perhaps explain the phases of team development so that people understand why conflict's occurring, and understand that things will get better in the future.
- Compliment team members.
- Review team goals and ground rules
- Address problem behaviors
- Check processes regularly
- Assure the team of progress
- Apply conflict management techniques
Every team will move through this phase. Storming is the most difficult stage for a team to weather, and this is the stage when many teams fail. Some teams may stay here longer than others. Storming is necessary for healthy team development. When team members begin to trust one another enough to air differences, this signals readiness to work things out.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Concept & Definition of Stress
Stress is a popular expression used by people in day to day life. Pressures of day to day living sometimes necessitate coping or dealing with them and stretch the body beyond its natural capacity. They are called stressors. Stress is a natural, ongoing dynamic, and interactive process that takes place as people adjust to their environment.
-
Authentic leadership is an approach to leadership that emphasizes building the leader's legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical foundation. The authentic leader acts upon his or her values and beliefs, and inspires others to do the same, is committed to know and develop oneself. Are you committed to developing yourself; know your motivations and the purpose of your leadership? Read this article to know more about authentic leadership style and discovering your authentic self.
-
Creating Highly Effective Teams
How do we create effective teams? What comes to mind when you think about an effective team? High performing teams exhibit accountability, purpose, cohesiveness, and collaboration. It is a team that works seamlessly as a whole. Everyone brings unique talents and strengths and support each other to bring out the best in everyone. How do you create one?
-
Team Development by Building Trust
As your team begins to work together, you need to establish a way each team member can exchange ideas and build mutual trust. Successful groups are built on trust and collaboration. A free exchange of ideas, in an open environment, will allow your team to get to know each other and enable you to check on how they work together. Learn some tips to help build team trust and establish personal bonds.
-
The development of teams is an ongoing process because the composition of the team may keep on changing. The new members may join and the old members may leave the team. The team members pass through several stages for the development of the team and there has been a lot of research to identify these stages. In this article, we discuss the common theories of team development.
-
A good leadership style is something that every effective leader must have in order to succeed, but identifying what that entails or does not entails might be difficult to understand. Most of the research on leadership focuses on the exemplary, best practices, and positive attributes of effective and successful leaders. This article talks about a new approach to learn leadership using lessons from bad leadership. That is the lessons to be learned by examining leaders who have not effectively exercised their power, authority, or influence.
-
Team Foundation in Forming Stage
This is the first stage of team development. This is the stage when the foundation of the team is laid. During the Forming stage, team members have a high dependence on their leader for guidance. Learn the practical strategies you can use during this stage to help your team develop into a highly effective performing team.
-
Stress is an essential part of our life. No one can live without stress. Stress can be beneficial as well as harmful. Stress as a positive influence adds excitement and hope while as a negative influence it can result in destructive feelings, anger, and depression. Although the general orientation to stress is to consider unfavorable outcomes, yet one must have observed that stress experiences may also facilitate the development of effective and varied coping behavior, increased personal resources, and lead to a sense of competence in development. Stress at a moderate level is not only inevitable but may be useful for physical and mental well-being.
-
Teams are part of the modern organizational culture. Whether you are a team leader or a team member, having a better understanding of how teams work, and being able to identify where the team is in the process, is a critical part of ensuring the team is ultimately successful. Start with the basics and understand what a team is and what role they play in an organization.
-
Have you ever noticed how we express ourselves or interact with each other? Have you ever wondered what communication is and what role it plays in our lives? One may wonder if communication is so omnipresent and integral to our lives, why study communication at all? We need to study communication because it is a complex process that consists of many elements and is also beset with a number of barriers and there is a need to remove the barriers so that the communication process is effective.
