Forming stage of a team

A team is a collection of people who are organized and the individual members must work cohesively to achieve group goals and objectives. Therefore, the members of a team need to evaluate their differences and through those differences find strengths that they can use to leverage their commitments towards their team goals (Scholtes, Janer and Barbara 6). Therefore, the members should identify themselves with the team and develop a common set of values and norms that they can work together effectively as a team.
As suggested by Tuckman Bruce, there are predictable stages of team development and they must be experienced by the team for it to become effective working group. The process of forming a team and identifying a set of value and norms takes time, this process takes five stages that were highlighted by Tuckman the 1960’s and revised in 1977.
Forming is the first stage of the Tuckmans team development model, and at this stage, the individual team member comes together with a sense of anticipation and commitment towards working as part of a team. In our table, this has been experienced where members have accepted to come together in order to become members of our team during the meetings. In our team meetings, individual members feel that they should be committed, and anticipations are high towards working together to achieve the team’s objectives.
In the forming stage, motivation of members is high because members appreciate the fact of being selected to become part of the team. In our class meetings, members are motivated towards working together in the team. Every individual is seen to be in positive attitude so that cohesiveness is maintained in the team. Members are usually high in spirit during discussions and this helps to boost motivation in the team. Secondly, this stage is characterized by anxiety of members because they might not have met each other anywhere else before. Hence, individuals are anxious to meet new people who are different in personalities. In addition, members are anxious because they do not know what kind of work they are going to do in the team. This is because they are not sure or their purpose in the team, and they do not know what is expected of them. In our table, members had not worked anywhere else before as a team and hence, there was anxiety, which was felt when we came together as a team the first time.
The forming stage is also characterized by expression of personal relations and dependence of members on each other. This means that individuals highly rely on the input of other members in discussions of how team roles and tasks are going to be performed. In addition, members rely on the team leader to make decisions on the course of action that they should take instructions and guidance.
Forming stage is also characterized by members exhibiting safe and patterned behavior so that they can be accepted in the team, and this is important in team formation. This is related with the formation of team relationships because it ensures smooth integration of members in the team. These relationships are enhanced through interdependence of members for guidance and direction towards the team’s objectives. Members in the team try to look in their very best so that they can ensure unity in the team, and that is why members play safe behavior. Hence, members focus on creating good first impressions, and each individual tries to exhibit good personal etiquette so that they can be accepted in the team.
In the forming stage, there is low productivity of the team, due safe and patterned behavior. This causes the team member’s effectiveness to moderate because they are not sure of each other. In our team, it can be observed that members are always good to each other and cooperative because they fear causing conflicts in the team, which can lead to their expulsion. Therefore, this causes members to hide their abilities, which they can contribute or conflicting arguments, which can cause disunity. Hence, effectiveness of the team might not be achieved at the forming stage because the members are usually avoiding conflicting opinions, which might otherwise help in achievement of team objectives.
Work Cited
Scholtes, Peter R., Joiner, Brian L. and Streibel, Barbara J. The Team Hand Book. New York: Oriel Publishing, 2003. Print.