Avoid a Category 4 Team Storm

Joe Wynne is a versatile Project Manager experienced in delivering medium-scope projects in large organizations that improve workforce performance and business processes. He has a proven track record of delivering effective, technology-savvy solutions in a variety of industries and a unique combination of strengths in both process management and workforce management.

  Communications Management   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Talent Management  

Conversation heard outside the team meeting room early in the project (the talking was so loud, you could hear it clearly in the breakroom next door):

Rahul: We should follow the process as written and get started.
Rachel: If we do that, we will just fail as my team did in my last project using the same process. We need to develop a whole new process and you should know that.
Siobhan: We should use the process that I used in my last company. It is much better than the one here.
Ed: We’ll never make our deadline at this rate! We can’t even get started working!
Manny: (silence, just as in the last two meetings)

You’ve no doubt seen the “forming/storming/norming/performing” model of workgroup development described somewhere. (If not, check my article from way back in 2000.) The lesson there is that work groups naturally go through recognizable steps on their way to team-hood. The duration of each step is different for each team.

The result you want is a work team reaching the performing stage efficiently--a cohesive, collaborative team. Descriptions of the development process may make it seem that the group should be left alone. Trainers of team managers can even make it appear that storming in particular is a normal stage that should be allowed to happen so that the group can move on to the norming stage.

It should not be …

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