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The five stage developmental sequence that many groups and teams go through is forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. During the forming stage, members focus their efforts on defining goals and developing procedures for performing their tasks. Members need to get acquainted and come to understand leadership and other member roles.
During the storming stage, conflicts emerge over task behaviors, relative priorities of goals, who is to be responsible for what, and the task-related guidance and direction from the leader. The key is to manage conflict during this stage, not to suppress it or withdraw from it. During the norming stage, the group sets the rules by which it will operate. Cooperation and a sense of shared responsibility develop among team members.
During the performing stage, the group or team shows how effectively or efficiently it can achieve results. The roles of individual members are accepted and understood. Finally, the adjourning stage involves the termination of task behaviors and disengagement from relations-oriented behaviors. One of the major challenges for a group or team at every stage is the successful traversing of that stage, since failure can occur at any time.
