Building Teams (and Failing Forward)

Bruce Tuckman's published 1965 model of how groups develop, with a fifth stage added in 1977: Forming (polite, getting to know each other, low productivity), Storming (conflict emerges, roles get contested, productivity drops), Norming (the group settles into working agreements), Performing (the group does its actual work well), Adjourning (the group disbands or transitions). Skipping Storming is not possible; suppressing it just delays it. Leaders who recognize the stages stop panicking when the team enters Storming.