Fundamentals of Level Three Leadership

87. Team Life Cycles

Concept

Businesspeople are constantly forming and reforming teams. Wise team leaders understand that teams go through predictable phases or cycles.⁴³ The traditional model was “forming, storming, norming, and performing” as outlined by Bruce Tuckman in 1965.⁴⁴ Later research included a recognition of the frequency with which teams had to dissolve and reform.

Consequently, a more modern model of the phases of team development would be:

1. Forming

2. Norming (including storming)

3. Performing

4. Re-forming

The first phase, forming, occurs when potential members of a team come together. This might include recruiting and the processes by which people approach the team. Teams might be formed by assignment or natural accrual. ...