A team I coached had gone through a lot of change. Just like clockwork, the team returned to what the Tuckman model calls forming. Shortly after, I observed the team clearly in storming.

I was excited, as it meant they were learning to work together. Now I had to support the team as they moved through storming to norming.

Introduce significant change and a team will cycle through the model. As a leader, you want to create the conditions so the team can move through the cycle quickly.

To support the team, I like to pay attention to two factors: listening and sharing.

In Forming – they are neither listening nor sharing well. Get them to share more, and they will start storming.

In Storming – they are sharing more openly, but not doing a great job of listening to each other. Get them to listen more and they will move to Norming.

In Norming – they are doing a better job of listening, but sharing has not progressed. Get them to share more openly to move to Performing.

I know working with teams is never this simple. However, combine this with your other tools and see what happens.

You’ve got this.