“Working in Teams” Video Analysis

Tuckman in his "Stages of Development' model identified 5 stages of team formation: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (CIPP, Unit 1). Based on his analysis and characteristics of each stage it becomes possible to recognise that the team has reached the stage of 'Performing'. According to Tuckman it is the final stage of development when a team is fully functioning and produces its 'best work'. The main features of the ‘Performing’ stage are (CIPP, Unit

Team members must also be respectful of one another, welcome diversity, and establish both trust and accountability within the team. All team members must be willing to decide how they will work together by jointly developing a code of conduct, ground rules, or team principles. These should support the team mission and drive the team toward accomplishing its goal. Banutu-Gomez (2011) indicated, “Also, all the members of an effective group need to be committed to the group’s ideas, goals, and decisions or the team will be unable to get any work done” (p. 60).

Teamwork cannot be demanded. Everyone involved must discuss and understand what the goal is and what is required of them. Teams should have traits such as goals and objectives, empowerment, trust, authentic participation, innovation, creativity, risk taking and leadership. (Temme and Katzel, 1995)

The identification and understanding of an individual’s role and that of the other team member’s roles is crucial as is the recognition of how the different roles complement each other and work together.

An effective team which performs at the highest level, whilst completing their work efficiently to the best of their ability. An effective team will always consist of certain features enabling effective team performance. Some of these features are as follows; develop goals and plans, i.e. an effective team will always devise a development or goal plan, which will describe the specific purpose for the team. The team will work towards implementing plans to achieve the set goal. Team member should also be clear about these goals and their priorities and consistently work in ways that will support the team’s

| “The top 10 features of an effective team are: * clear purpose; * open communication; * constructive conflict; * effective problem-solving and decision making; * defined roles, responsibilities and accountability; * strong relationships; * systems and procedures; * experimentation and creativity; * measurement and self-assessment; * shared leadership.” For a team to be effective, they need to have clear

I personally think I took on the roles of co-ordinator, team leader, monitor-evaluator and completer (Hartly, 2010 p.6), for example, I was the first to comment on the wiki and continue with the groups week to week activities to keep the group moving forward. I also kept the wiki up to date, while also making sure everyone was on task with the assessment. Even though it was a long drawn out process, I tried to get everyone collaborating on the group wiki provided and also took the lead to keep in contact with our eLA about the progress of a team, due to complications with team members not showing or disappearing through the

Team has to agree on the methods to which conflicts can be resolved within the group, this has to be addressed as soon as possible to enhance team cohesion and progress team effort towards achieving its goals.

The features of effective team performance are set out in Brian Tuckman’s phases of team development theory, ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing.’ This outlines the phases that a team will go through in order to become effective and reach maturity. At the ‘Forming’ stage of team development individual roles and responsibilities are unclear and each member of the team is concerned to avoid conflict with each other. From this point the team will go through the ‘Storming’ phase which is when they start to conflict as individuals put forward ideas which will be challenged by others in a bid to gain power and position over others. After this the ‘Norming’ phase follows and it is at this point that individual roles are defined and accepted

There’s a high dependence on the leader for guidance and direction. Everything is new and individual roles and responsibilities can be unclear. Leader must be prepared to answer lots of questions about the team's purpose, objectives and external relationships. Processes may sometimes be ignored. Leader directs (similar to Situational

This balance is often observed difficult to achieve, especially within the solution teams. This is mainly attributed to the team formation stages as described by the Bruce Tuckman’s model (1965). According to Tuckman, the team formation goes through the forming, storming, norming and performing stages in progression. In the forming stage, there is a high dependence on leader for guidance and direction. In the storming stage, team members vie for position as they attempt to

The Tuckman’s stages of team development (Levi, 2007) will be used as lens to evaluate the work of the group presentation. The Tuckman’s stages of team development consist of five stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Levi, 2007). In the forming stage we tend to know each other and figure out how we are going to run the presentation. At this stage, there was discomfort due to unfamiliarity together with confusion on how we will function together. The solution for that case was, everyone had each member contact detail, had a clear ground rules, as well as planned how we will accomplish our tasks. In addition, we also experienced the storming and norming stage. Levi (2007) says that the in the storming phase there are often

Communication is the key to success. A team without communication could never be successful. Communication is important because the group needs a clear goal and also they need to have shared objectives. For example, in football a defense needs to be on the same page; if two players on the defense are on different pages then the defense will not be successful. You need everyone to share the same objective in order to succeed, not just a few people but all as one. To ensure a team’s success, everyone on the team has to be accountable. Everyone has a job on the team to contribute to becoming successful as a whole. Also you need trust in order to become successful; you have to be able to trust in your team that they will give their all for the team.

4. The team must have unified commitment. This doesn't mean that team members must agree on everything. It means that all individuals must be directing their efforts towards the goal. If an individual's efforts is going purely towards personal goals, then the team will confront this and resolve the problem.

The science of team building is an art. The uncontrollable variables are people. Just putting a group of talented individuals together for the sole purpose of goal achievement can be met with disastrous results. It can leave individuals left feeling unfulfilled and lead to costly mistakes in the long run. While team building can be considered an art, there are some methods and approaches that can assist with successful builds. While no approach is full proof, taking time to acclimate oneself with human