The 5 Stages of Tuckman’s Group Model

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Tuckman's Stages of Group Development

A Leader’s Guide to the Tuckman Model of Team Development

Understanding how teams develop over time is essential for effective team leadership. Dr. Bruce Tuckman’s renowned model of group development provides a framework that has guided team leaders for decades. Previously, we looked at individual development. Now let’s look at team development and the journey a team takes to become a high-performing team. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore each stage of Tuckman’s model, common challenges teams face, and specific leadership strategies to help your team reach peak performance.

Tuckman introduces 5 stages of team development from forming, norming, storming, performing, and adjourning. A team goes through these stages as they transition from coordinating to cooperating to collaborating to hyper-performing. These phases are all necessary and inevitable for a team to grow and mature to a capable level, ready to face challenges, tackle impediments, brainstorm solutions, plan out their work, and regularly deliver on their goals.

Graph showing 5 stages of Tuckman's Model for Group Development
Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development

Forming

The team is still new or new members have just joined or left the team. It’s more like a group of individuals still trying to get to know each other and learn more about the work ahead. The focus is on tackling tasks and working independently. The group may be motivated but it’s more individualistic motivation as the group is usually relatively uninformed of the larger vision/goal. Team members are usually on their best behavior but very focused on themselves.

During this stage, effective leaders provide clear direction, establish basic structures, and create opportunities for team members to build relationships. In our Building High Performing Teams Workshop, we teach specific team formation activities that accelerate this phase while building initial trust.

Storming

Now that the group has been together for a while, personality clashes start to appear. Members become more opinionated. There is tension and disagreements. Members are wary of dominating personalities or diminishing responsibilities, and question leadership decisions. Differences and disagreements must be resolved before the team can progress out of this stage. The duration, intensity, and destructiveness of the “storms” varies from team to team. Conflict and disagreements provide different perspectives that can make the team stronger, more versatile, and more effective. The tolerance of each team member and their differences should be emphasized.

Leaders have a crucial role in guiding the team through the storming phase, requiring specific conflict resolution skills and emotional intelligence. Leaders must transform conflict into constructive dialogue. Rather than avoiding conflict, skilled team leaders create safe spaces for productive disagreement that ultimately strengthen the team.

Norming

At this stage, the team has learned to tolerate each other, are open to new and different ideas, accept each other, respect what each person brings to the table, and are focused on collectively achieving the overall common goal. Individual and personal differences generally give way to that overarching bigger picture. Leaders here have to ensure that the team does not get too comfortable with each other and completely avoid conflict as that might lead to tunnel vision and a lack of creativity and innovation.

Effective team norms don’t happen by accident. They require intentional facilitation and reinforcement from leadership. Leaders must identify and establish productive team norms that maintain psychological safety while encouraging healthy debate and innovation.

Performing

This is the stage we want the team to get to as quickly as possible and have them stay at for as long as possible. At this stage, the team is diverse with varied personalities and skills, respectful of each other and their contributions, open to new ideas, courageous to raise impediments and overcome them, focused on achieving the main goal, and committed to each other’s success. They are motivated, knowledgeable, competent, and self-organizing requiring little supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channeled through means acceptable to the team and decision-making is handled as close to the team as possible with leadership being more on the informed side than actively participating.

Reaching the performing stage is a significant achievement, but maintaining this level requires ongoing attention from leaders. The difference often comes down to having leaders equipped with the right tools and strategies to sustain momentum and adapt to changing conditions.

It is important to note that any change in team composition or leadership will result in the team cycling through these stages as the team adjusts to its new dynamic and norms.

Adjourning (or Mourning)

This final stage, added by Tuckman later in 1977, acknowledges that most teams eventually disband. Team members may feel a sense of loss as the team separates after completing its objectives. Effective leaders recognize these emotions and provide closure through celebration of achievements, reflection on learnings, and clear transition paths for team members. This stage is particularly relevant for project teams, task forces, or teams experiencing significant reorganization.

Leaders who understand how to facilitate healthy team conclusions create organizational knowledge that carries forward to future teams.

Applying Tuckman’s Model in Today’s Dynamic Workplace

Leaders must adapt their approach to:

  • Accelerate team formation through intentional relationship-building
  • Facilitate productive conflict in virtual environments
  • Establish clear norms when team members rarely meet face-to-face
  • Maintain performance despite changing team composition
  • Acquire practical tools to navigate each transition effectively

Moving Your Team to High Performance

Understanding Tuckman’s model provides a valuable roadmap for team development. Implementing effective leadership strategies at each stage requires both knowledge and skill. In our 2-day Building High Performing Teams Workshop, we provide leaders with practical tools to accelerate team development and maintain high performance. Learn how to apply these concepts to your specific team challenges and receive a customized team development roadmap.

Let’s look at another model know as the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model.

Further Reading:

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