Place the stages of teamwork in the correct order and describe what occurs in each.

The stags of teamwork occur in the following order:

• Forming: To remember this point, think of forming as derived from the formation of a thing. In this case, the formation of the team. So when a team is newly formed, they are introduced to each other, assigned their various duties, and the system of relationships between each person and or group of persons is defined.

• Storming: A number of things occur at this stage that creates tension:

1. Team members seek to distinguish themselves by presenting ideas,
2. those with the best ideas gain trust, and
3. sometimes sparring psychologically may occur. At this stage, it is expected that conflicts may arise.

To remember this stage, think of the tension created as a kind of storm.

• Norming: At this stage, things begin to settle into a more regular pattern of "normalcy".

The common objective and shared responsibilities of each person are now clearer. Furthermore, each person now knows how to interact effectively with the other. At this stage, it is assumed that each team player has learned the behavior of the other(s) enough to enable them to interact with little or no dissension.

• Performing

At this stage, the team has attained a high level of functionality, working together as a system comprising of various individuals but working as an organized unit attaining and achieving common goals.

Other schools of thought have added another stage called Adjourning OR Mourning.

This stage refers to the point at the lifecycle of the team where after the attainment of the project's objective(s) the team has to disintegrate - described as adjourning.

It is called mourning because, at this stage, many of the team members have grown accustomed to each other that separation elicits a kind of psychological pain described as mourning.

The Stages of Teamwork indicated above was originally proposed by an Educational Psychologist - Bruce Tuckman in 1965.

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