MTa + Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development: Workshop Ideas
Part of our series on bringing theories to life with experiential learning. Read the rest here.
Bruce Tuckman was a psychological researcher most famous for his theories on group dynamics.
His Stages of Group Development model posits five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. This conceptual framework remains popular with facilitators looking to explore and develop group dynamics.
In this blog post we'll share a group development workshop that uses an experiential learning activity to explore each of Tuckman's stages in sequence.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Click here to skip straight to the activities.
Who is Tuckman
Bruce Tuckman was a psychological researcher best known for his theories of group development. He published numerous books and academic papers during a prolific career, and is remembered for his contributions to team development and performance.
His theories remain popular in academic and practical contexts, providing a valuable framework on top of which other theories, models and tools have been developed.
Tuckman's Stages of Group Development: What Are They?
Tuckman outlined the five stages that comprise his model in a 1965 paper titled Developmental Sequence in Small Groups1. He posits that effective management and team dynamics can usher groups along to the next stage, but that a group cannot skip straight to performance without the underlying of the earlier stages.
Each stage is outlined below.
Forming
What: a group of people become a team.
Key concerns: people are keen to understand why they're there, and who they're with.
In Tuckman’s words: group members are testing boundaries, and establishing dependency relationships.
What this stage looks like: team members are unsure of the wider team dynamic. They are evaluating each other, attempting to build an understanding of their peers and the team itself.
What participants need: a clear definition of success, an opportunity to get to know each other.
How to facilitate the Forming stage: run ice breakers to demonstrate ways of getting to know peers, use activities that allow for a clearer understanding of team roles and dynamics.
Storming
What: team members start to push against established boundaries.
Key concerns: team members want to understand roles, working styles, and leadership structure.
In Tuckman’s words: conflict may arise around interpersonal issues, creating resistance to group influence and task requirements
What this stage looks like: team members might challenge each other and the leader, leading to conflict and opposition, as they look to understand and advocate for roles within the team.
What participants need: conflict resolution strategies, clarification of roles, open communication.
How to facilitate the Storming stage: use activities that foster clear communication, especially around roles and outcomes. Also use activities where high levels of stress may give rise to conflict, so that this can be reviewed and explored.
Norming
What: the team starts to establish their ‘norms’, leading to stronger, more functional relationships.
Key concerns: effectively building trust and effective working practices.
In Tuckman’s words: the group overcomes resistance, cohesiveness develops, standards evolve, and roles develop.
What this stage looks like: you’ll see increased collaboration and cohesion, with interactions between team members coming from a more supportive place.
What participants need: opportunities to collaborate, positive reinforcement, encouragement when at risk of reverting back to less functional communication.
How to facilitate the Norming stage: select activities that promote and encourage teamwork, and where there are opportunities to compare the sensation and results of functional communication with earlier, less functional attempts (prompt this comparison during review if it doesn’t come up naturally).
Performing
What: the team functions efficiently and effectively in pursuit of its goals.
Key concerns: maintaining performance and continuing to improve dynamics.
In Tuckman’s words: interpersonal structure becomes a tool for completion of the task. Roles become flexible and functional, energy is channelled into the task
What this stage looks like: high levels of productivity lead to autonomous decision-making and effective problem solving, all oriented towards successful completion of the task.
How to facilitate the Performing stage: use activities with clear completion criteria, and that evolve in complexity as they progress to encourage continued improvement. Again, prompt participants to think about how their performance contributed to the outcome and overall team performance.
Adjourning
Note: this step was added later, in a 1977 paper2 co-written with Mary Ann C. Jensen
What: after completion of the task, the team disbands.
Key concerns: participants will likely want some form of closure.
In Tuckman’s words: in their 1977 paper, Tuckman & Jensen state that as “recent research posits the existence of a final discernible and significant stage of group development .... it is reasonable, therefore, to modify the model to reflect recent literature”
What this stage looks like: there is concerted focus on wrapping up the task, which may lead to feelings of loss amongst participants.
What participants need: an opportunity to celebrate their success, to say goodbye to other participants (if relevant), and to review the outcome.
How to facilitate the Adjourning stage: the review phase of the experiential learning methodology lends itself perfectly to the Adjourning stage: participants are given a chance to debrief, to evaluate performance, and to communicate with each other.
In the next section we'll look at the background of the theory. To skip straight to activities for facilitators looking to explore Tuckman's model, click here.
Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development: Background
In his 1965 paper, Tuckman looked to explore “the developmental sequence in small groups” by reviewing group development across various contexts.
His goal was to overcome previous theoretical and experimental limitations, and to arrive at general concepts that could be applied to group development. The resulting theory outlines the stages a group must hit in order to evolve.
Four stages in the “social realm”, i.e. group settings where the goal is to help individual(s) better understand themselves, and to interact in a more productive, less defensive manner:
Testing-dependence
Conflict
Cohesion
Functional Roles
Four stages in the “task realm”, i.e. group settings where the outcome is completion of a clearly defined task
Orientation
Emotionality
Relevant opinion exchange
Emergence of solutions
Tuckman aimed to align these to the steps in his proposed model, outlined previously.
Bringing Tuckman’s Stages to Life With Experiential Learning
Tuckman himself admitted that his stages were not perfect, but that they “withstood the test of common sense.” For facilitators looking to explore group dynamics and foster team skills, they present one of many valuable theoretical frameworks for doing so (for other frameworks, see our posts on Lencioni’s Team Dysfunctions and Belbin’s Team Roles).
Activities for a Group Development Workshop
Here we propose a series of activities, each exploring one of Tuckman’s stages in detail. Used in sequence these activities provide a comprehensive group development workshop with opportunities for reflection and lasting learning.
Forming
A standard icebreaker is ideal for the Forming stage: something fun, quick and easy that will energise the group and introduce opportunities to practise fundamental team concepts.
Check out MTa Helium Stick for an icebreaker that ticks all of these boxes, and more:
It has a clear definition of success
It gives participants the opportunity to interact with each other
It allows participants to begin to evaluate and understand the team dynamic, and to test its boundaries
Storming
For the Storming stage, using a more challenging activity will introduce tension into the dynamic, increasing the likelihood of participants’ true working styles coming to the fore. This gives rise to:
Opportunities for participants to push against boundaries established in the Norming stage
Potential conflict, requiring clear communication and conflict resolution strategies to resolve
Opportunities for participants to advocate for leadership or for particular roles within the team
We recommend Odd Type of Stack from MTa Insights: a building task with competing success criteria that can divide focus and increase stress in unestablished teams.
Norming
For the Norming stage, we recommend an activity with fewer stressful components to allow participants the opportunity to work more effectively as a team, and to draw a direct comparison between the results and sensation of effective teamwork, and the dysfunctional behaviour in the previous activity.
We’ve chosen Colourful Necklace from MTa Insights for this: an activity that fosters creative problem solving and rewards clear communication between team members.
Performing
Once a team is at the Performing stage, they should be functioning effectively in pursuit of their goals, maintaining their performance and operating with a healthy dynamic.
Reintroducing challenge at this stage gives the team the chance to work from this foundation: their energy is channelled into the task, their roles become flexible and functional, and decisions are made effectively in pursuit of the task.
We recommend Container Freight, also from MTa Insights: this activity presents ongoing scope for improvement, giving participants the chance to adapt their roles and contribution throughout, and to see in real time how their cohesive teamwork leads to success.
Adjourning
All MTa activities use the experiential learning methodology, with structured review being an integral part. Reviewing the outcome of each activity in the sequence offers closure and an opportunity to celebrate success and, more importantly, lets participants reflect upon their performance and how this might be improved in future.
Reviewing after each activity in the sequence lets participants think critically about their performance, the overall performance of the team, and how their behaviour contributes. Structured review questions and group discussion encourage conversation about how things can be improved moving forward, laying firmer foundations for the subsequent stage.
Read about the MTa Learning Arena here.
Facilitating group development workshops with experiential learning: let us help you
Tuckman's research contributed to a transformation in understanding of group development. His stages of group development provide a valuable framework for analysis and development of team dynamics, ideal for facilitators looking to nurture more effective team performance.
The experiential learning activities we’ve recommended are just a handful of MTa activities that lend themselves well to group development workshops. If you’re looking for more activities or advice on facilitating these skills , take a look at our experiential learning kits or book a call with Jamie to discuss your needs.
Sources
https://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/15341_Readings/Group_Dynamics/Tuckman_1965_Developmental_sequence_in_small_groups.pdf
http://www.dcookacademic.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/stages_of_small-group_development_revisited.pdf
