This morning (October 2, 2019) my friend, Joel Wise, introduced me to some team development dynamics that I found really helpful.
STAGE ONE: Forming
In this stage, you identify the WHY? behind your team and use it to pick your WHO? The WHY? drives the HOW? which gives you insight into WHO? will be needed as a part of this team to accomplish its WHY? This is the stage where WHY must drive and unite in order to sustain it through the next stage.
STAGE TWO: Storming
After the initial formation of the squad, there is a stormy season of adjusting to the environment. Team members settle into their roles, discover the hiccups associated with WHERE they have been placed and HOW it affects their ability to contribute to the WHY. Some team mates will be jealous of other team member's roles and/or responsibilities. Some will want to be the leader rather than wherever they've been placed. This is seasonal weather which does not indicate the team has any major issues per se, but rather that it is a team in process. The storms do help identify areas that can be improved upon and team members should feel the freedom to rock the boat a bit at this point given that the voyage has only just begun and the goal is to get out to deeper waters. This is a season where HOW gets worked out.
STAGE THREE: Norming
In this stage the problems have been identified, the storms are settling and the team members are learning what normal life looks like on this team. The team begins to experience a good idea of regular work. Each person sees how WHAT they do contributes to WHY they are doing it and the HOWs have largely been addressed by the storms.
STAGE FOUR: Performing
In this final stage, the team has reached its maximum level of achievement. Norms have been established that address the storms identified that threaten to keep the team from achieving its dream. In stage four, performing, the team is living the dream. They are seeing the fruit of the vision and the work behind the WHY providing fruit to be harvested. This is a season of reaping and refining. As the team sees production, it becomes ever increasingly important to circle back to remind everyone of the WHY because at this stage mission creep can easily distract everyone. The goal can shift away from its original WHY and to WHATs which conflict with the established WHY.
Everything has problems. A team in formation has the kind of problems a team forming has. A team performing has the kind of problems a performing team has.
In preparing for problems, it is good to think of problems in three categories:
CATEGORY 1: Possible
Here you list out all of the things that could go wrong. This is the widest and wildest bucket. Toss everything in there you can imagine going wrong.
CATEGORY 2: Plausible
At this stage, you take all of the possible problems from bucket one and remove any which are not plausible. Sure it is possible, but the likelihood of some problems is pretty low.
CATEGORY 3: Probable
In this final stage, you take all of the plausible problems and identify those which are most probable. Given the goal you are trying to achieve and the methods you are using to accomplish them, what are the most probable problems your team will experience.
Make extensive, detailed plans on HOW you will deal with those WHEN they come up. If your response is that a problem is more of an IF than a WHEN kind of problem, then it goes back into the plausible bucket. The probable bucket is only for WHEN kind of problems. Because there will be problems. Plan for them. But don't exhaust yourself attempting to put out every possible fire you can imagine. Focus your energies on those most probable.
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