There will be many occasions where team work
will be desired or essential in graduate study. Here are some ideas on how to
make your team work successful, in terms of goals for establishing a team and
the stages your team is likely to go through (forming, storming, norming, and performing).
A. Team-building goals
·
Get to know each
other
·
Learn to work as
a team
·
Work out
decision-making issues
·
Determine support
service availability (word processing, creating blogs, photocopying, layout,
etc.)
·
Set meeting
ground rules
·
Begin to build
the team leadership
·
Begin to
establish roles
B. Production/progress goals
·
Set an agenda
·
Review goals and
purposes
·
Establish future
action needs/plans
·
Plan for future
meetings
C. Assessment/evaluation goals
·
Determine if
there is any unfinished business or any unmet needs
·
Ensure clarity
exists for all members
·
Seek mutual
agreements by all members on future tasks
·
Determine if
there are problems or difficulties
Stage 1: Forming
·
Forming can
include these feelings:
o
Excitement,
anticipation, and optimism
o
Pride in being a
part of the team
o
Initial,
tentative attachment to the team
o
Suspicion, fear,
and anxiety about the tasks ahead
·
Forming can
include these behaviors:
o
Attempts to
define tasks
o
Attempts to
define individual and group behaviors
o
Decisions on what
information needs to be obtained
o
Lofty, abstract
discussions of issues; or, for some members, impatience with such discussions
o
Discussion of
problems/issues not relevant to the task
o
Difficulty in
identifying relevant problems
o
Complaints about
the organization and barriers to the task
Stage 2: Storming
·
Storming can
include these feelings:
o
Resistance to the
task and to quality improvement efforts
o
Sharp
fluctuations in attitude about the team and the project's chance of success
·
Storming can
include these behaviors:
o
Arguing among
members even when they agree on the real issue
o
Defensiveness and
competition; factions or cliques
o
Questioning the
wisdom of those who found the project or the process of selecting team members
o
Establishing
unrealistic goals; concern about excessive work
o
Disunity,
increased tension, and jealousy
Stage 3: Norming
·
Norming can include these feelings:
o
A new ability to
express criticism constructively
o
Acceptance of
membership in the team
o
Relief that it
seems everything is going to work out
·
Norming can include these behaviors:
o
An attempt to
achieve harmony by avoiding conflict
o
Increasing
friendliness, confidence in each other, and sharing of personal issues
o
Establishing and
maintaining team ground rules and boundaries
Stage 4: Performing
·
Performing can
include these feelings:
o
Increasing
insights into personal and group processes
o
Better
understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses
o
Satisfaction at
the team's progress
·
Performing can
include these behaviors:
o
Constructive
self-change
o
Ability to
prevent or work through group problems
o
Close attachment
to the team
_________________________
Adapted from Scholtes, P. R. (1988). The
team handbook. Madison, WI: Joiner Associates.
Return to general
information related to the field of adult education
Return to the home
page.