The Team Building Series
Once the 0bjectives and Roles & Responsibilities are clearly outlined, the Team is put into motion and gets down to work. As per Bruce Tuckman, this is the phase where Team Building generally enters the ‘Storming Stage‘. A critical period, which needs to be handled with great care, to ensure a successful team build up.
The Storming Stage
When the team begins its pursuit of the desired goals, the initial euphoria begins to recede and as the members get involved with their roles, there may arise concerns, confusion, doubts, conflicts and frustrations, within a team member personally and amongst the members as well. Roles and responsibilities may not be water tight all the time which sometimes lead to unpleasant experiences. Its here where the leader has to step in and seize the matter.
Actionables
In such situations, the team members may be required to develop task related skills, conflict resolution skills and may be encouraged to communicate more and more. A relook at team processes, fine tuning of roles and responsibilities and redefining goals and objectives may be an option too. These are the tools to tackle the storming stage. These early niggles are essential to be dealt with and once they are addressed to the fullest, the functioning of the team becomes that much smoother and effective.
The Norming Stage
The Storming Stage leads to the ‘Norming Stage’. This is a phase of heightened activity, collaboration, cohesion and productivity where the team members focus purely on the objectives and their pursuit. The success of the Norming Stage depends on how effectively the Storming stage has been addressed and how well the issues resolved. The success of the Norming stage also depends on regular evaluation of the team and fostering a ‘culture of accountability’.
Cultivating an Atmosphere of Accountability
Accountability does not necessarily mean only identifying mistakes, embarrassing team members and consequent retribution. Promoting accountability is creating an environment where every team member owns individual contributions and works consistently in achieving his/her part within the overall objective. An environment is fostered where team members are not afraid of accepting mistakes and are more than willing to rectify their short comings. They are encouraged to discuss and seek advice rather than being weighed down by burden of errors and underperformance. Accountability is like providing an opportunity for improvement rather than fault finding and condemnation. Mature leaders foster such environments and build successful teams.
Building a Team and making it work is both interesting and intriguing, which brings about its own challenges.
The Team Building Series is now interestingly poised. Keep reading @ rizkhan.in