7 Planning for Successful Teamwork
Bruce W. Tuckman suggested that teams move through stages in their life cycle: forming, storming, norming, and performing.1 At each stage, the group will work through a series of interpersonal tasks as well as a series of project-related tasks.
Stage | Task behaviours | Interpersonal behaviours |
|---|---|---|
Forming | • establishing base-level expectations • identifying similarities • agreeing on common goals | • making contact / bonding • developing trust • members depending on others |
Storming | • identifying power and control issues • gaining skills in communication • Identifying resources | • expressing differences of ideas, feelings, and opinions • reacting to leadership • members forming independence/counterdependence |
Norming | • agreeing about roles and processes for problem solving | • making decisions through negotiation and consensus building |
Performing | • achieving effective and satisfying results • finding solutions to problems using appropriate controls | • working collaboratively • caring about other members • establishing a unique group identity |
In chapter 5, you explored the components of a community of inquiry. Both cognitive presence and social presence are required in the online learning community. Tuckman’s model of team development also indicates that both components are needed. In a class-based team, it may be easy to focus only on the cognitive output of the group—the creation of the project, paper, or presentation. However, as you can observe from Tuckman’s model, a well-functioning team requires its members to exhibit social presence throughout, communicating well in interpersonal interactions.
In the days ahead, you will likely find yourself on a newly forming team in an online environment. Consider the strategies you plan to use to demonstrate social presence and form a strong interpersonal foundation for your newly forming team.
1 B. W. Tuckman, “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups,” Psychological Bulletin 63 (1965): 384–99, reprinted in Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal 3 (Spring 2001).