I have a new niece, just one week old (that’s her on the right). Talking to my sister, brand new mother, has made me think just how much many aspects of our lives resemble Tuckman’s team development process.

My sister and her husband have been a happy little team of two for about three years now. They could probably have been described as being at the ‘performing’ stage – they know one another very well, trust is high, they have clear goals, roles and responsibilities in the context of their household and things run pretty smoothly overall.

And then along comes a new team member. And, given the nature of this particular little team member, my sister and her husband find themselves, well, if not back where they started, then certainly less able to describe things as ‘running pretty smoothly’.

For starters, each of them has a brand new role to play. There aren’t any guidelines, so they have to make up their own. Goals, roles and rules that were previously very clear are now confused. They may be quite anxious about the new situation, and how they should deal with it. They must try to work out the new rules and practices they want to adopt. Take into account the added factor of a lack of sleep, and you’ve got a real recipe for some ‘storming’.

When a new team member joins a team, many teams who had previously reached the performing stage of development find themselves back in the forming stage again. This is normal, and high-performing teams know how to adapt their norms and values to integrate the new member and revert to the performing stage relatively quickly. The storm passes and things become calm again. Everyone settles into their new roles, new processes and rules become the new norms and the team starts to work in harmony again. Oh, and you might eventually get a decent night’s sleep.

Your action steps:

• Take a look at your own team
• Talk with your team and recognise the stage of development the team is in, and why
• Teams often get stuck at the forming or storming stages. If you are stuck, talk about why - does the team require more or less intervention and direction on your part?
• Identify what the performing stage would look like for your team, and map out a path to get you there
• Accept it – each stage of development is normal, although you can progress through the stages more or less quickly, depending on how you manage it and how well equipped your team is to communicate openly and work out conflicts.