5.2 Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development
As groups work toward becoming teams, they tend to go through certain predictable stages of growth and regression. An awareness of the stages of group development is important, particularly for facilitators assisting teams during times of transition.
Several models of group development are available in the literature. Tuckman summarized the results of over fifty studies into the following five-stage model:
Stage 1:u00a0 Formingu00a0
Characteristics:u00a0 testing and independence
Stage 2: Stormingu00a0
Characteristics: intra-team conflict
Stage 3: Norming
Characteristics: development of team cohesion
Stage 4:u00a0 Performing
Characteristics: functional role relationships
Stage 4: Adjourning
Characteristics: closure and termination