Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model

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Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model

A Strategic Framework for Team Leadership

Effective team leadership requires understanding how teams evolve and develop over time. While many leaders are familiar with Tuckman’s stages, the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model offers a more nuanced approach that focuses on the critical questions teams must answer to progress toward high performance. This powerful framework helps leaders identify exactly where their team is stuck and what interventions will move them forward.

Allan Drexler and David Sibbet developed a team performance model framework for understanding team development. In this Drexler/Sibbet model, there is a concept of a bouncing ball where team building begins with a lot of freedom of imagination, openness and aspirations and then slowly becomes more and more realistic and grounded as the team better understands the members, goals and constraints, and then bounces back up through implementation, creativity, innovation and high performance.

When a team is forming, there is a predictable progression of concerns and questions that the members have. The questions are typically asked in order even though there might be a little back and forth. If team members are not satisfied or convinced with the answers then they stall or go back to the previous stage/set of questions.

Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model

The Seven Stages of Team Development

The process begins with 4 stages of team creation before moving on to 3 stages of team performance and sustainability. Let’s explore each stage and the leadership strategies that can help teams progress.

Stage 1: Orientation – Answering the “Why?” Questions

At this foundational stage, team members are seeking clarity on purpose and intention. They’re asking: What is our mission? What does success look like? Why am I here?

Leaders who recognize the importance of this stage create clear vision and purpose statements that connect team objectives to meaningful outcomes. Without satisfying these fundamental questions, team members may appear physically present but remain mentally uncommitted.

Leadership Strategies for the Orientation Stage:

  • Articulate a compelling vision that connects to organizational priorities
  • Create space for team members to express what brings meaning to their work
  • Develop visual representations of the team’s purpose and success criteria
  • Explicitly discuss how the team’s work impacts stakeholders and creates value

Stage 2: Trust Building – Answering the “Who?” Questions

At this crucial early stage, team members are silently evaluating each other with questions like “Who are we working with?”, “What is it going to be like?”, and “What skills and competencies do we have?” Leaders who recognize these unspoken concerns can accelerate trust development through structured activities that showcase team members’ skills, working styles, and values.

In our Building High Performing Teams Workshop, we introduce specific trust-building exercises that reveal team strengths while creating psychological safety, the foundation for all high-performing teams. These practical activities help leaders transform abstract trust concepts into concrete team behaviors that can be observed and reinforced.

Leadership Strategies for the Trust Building Stage:

  • Facilitate team exercises that reveal working styles and preferences
  • Create opportunities for members to demonstrate their expertise
  • Establish communication norms that respect different perspectives
  • Address interpersonal tensions early before they become entrenched patterns
  • Implement structured feedback processes that build mutual respect

Stage 3: Goal Clarification – Answering the “What?” Questions

In this stage, the team focuses on defining what they’re actually doing. They explore: What is the background of the project/product/company? What are our specific goals? What assumptions are we making? What constraints do we face? What are our targets and individual roles?

Teams that rush through this stage often experience implementation problems later when differing assumptions about priorities and deliverables emerge.

Leadership Strategies for the Goal Clarification Stage:

When teams are wrestling with “What” questions, effective leaders:

  • Facilitate structured goal-setting sessions that connect team objectives to organizational priorities
  • Create visual representations of goals and constraints to ensure shared understanding
  • Address assumptions openly to prevent later misalignment
  • Clarify individual roles and responsibilities in relation to team goals
  • Document decisions and agreements to create a shared reference point

Stage 4: Commitment – Answering the “How?” Questions

Once the team understands what they’re doing, they must determine how they’ll work together. This involves establishing processes, timelines, resource allocation, and decision-making approaches. True commitment emerges when team members believe the team has viable plans for success.

Leadership Strategies for the Commitment Stage:

  • Establish clear decision-making protocols (consensus, consultative, directive)
  • Develop detailed resource plans with responsibilities clearly assigned
  • Create meaningful milestones that allow for celebration of progress
  • Ensure team members commit to their roles and deadlines
  • Address concerns or reservations openly to prevent passive resistance

Stage 5: Implementation – Figuring Out the Details

With the foundation established, the team moves to implementation, addressing the “Who, What, When, Where?” of execution. This is where many teams hit their first significant challenges, especially those that bypassed the earlier team creation stages.

Leadership Strategies for the Implementation Stage:

  • Establish regular check-in processes to monitor progress and address obstacles
  • Create visual management systems that make work and blockers visible
  • Celebrate early wins to build momentum
  • Address performance gaps constructively before they affect team morale
  • Facilitate effective problem-solving when unexpected challenges arise

Skilled team leaders recognize that implementation difficulties often reveal unresolved issues from earlier stages. Leaders must use diagnostic tools to identify whether implementation challenges stem from trust issues, unclear goals, or inadequate commitment – each requiring a different leadership approach.

Stage 6: High Performance – Achieving the “Wow!”

This is similar to Tuckman’s performing stage after going through forming, storming, and norming. This is where we want to stay for as long as possible. The team works together as one, requires little direction, respects and supports each other, and focuses on delivering the common goal.

High-performing teams exhibit distinctive characteristics: spontaneous collaboration, anticipating each other’s needs, taking initiative beyond defined roles, and demonstrating remarkable resilience in the face of setbacks.

Leadership Strategies for the High Performance Stage:

  • Provide autonomy while remaining available for support
  • Remove organizational barriers that might impede the team’s momentum
  • Recognize and celebrate team achievements visually and publicly
  • Challenge the team with stretch goals that prevent complacency
  • Document lessons learned and best practices for organizational learning

Stage 7: Renewal – Answering “Why Continue?” Questions

Things change. Either in team composition, environment, or purpose, so we have to always ask if what worked in the past will still enable further success in the future or if we need to re-group and cycle back. Changes in membership, objectives, or external conditions require periodic reassessment and renewal.

Leadership Strategies for the Renewal Stage:

  • Schedule regular retrospectives to assess team effectiveness
  • Create ceremonies for integrating new members or acknowledging departures
  • Revisit and refresh the team’s purpose and goals as conditions change
  • Identify which processes are working well and which need adjustment
  • Consider whether the team structure itself remains optimal for current challenges

How Drexler/Sibbet Complements Tuckman’s Model

While Tuckman’s model describes general team behaviors at each stage, the Drexler/Sibbet model focuses on the specific questions teams must resolve. This question-based approach provides leaders with clearer diagnostic tools to identify exactly where their team is stuck and what issues need addressing.

For instance, a team exhibiting “storming” behaviors might be struggling with unresolved questions from either the Trust Building stage (“Who” questions) or the Goal Clarification stage (“What” questions), each requiring different leadership interventions.

The question-focused approach of Drexler/Sibbet often provides more specific guidance for team leaders than Tuckman’s behavioral descriptions, making it easier to diagnose and address specific team challenges.

For an overview of other team performance models, check out 7 models for team effectiveness.

Applying the Drexler/Sibbet Model in Your Leadership Practice

While these team development models help you understand the journey, practical tools like the High-Performing Team Canvas provide a template for implementation. In The Building High-Performing Teams Workshop, participants use the template and acquire the practical tools and skills to:

  • Accurately assess your team’s current development stage
  • Identify specific barriers preventing progression to higher performance
  • Apply targeted interventions for each of the seven stages
  • Create sustainable team practices that maintain high performance

Now let’s take a look at the ScrumMaster’s or Leader’s Role in Fostering a High-Performing Self-Organizing Team.

Team Performance Sketchtalk

Further Reading:

Also check out the complete Fostering Self-organizing Teams series: