FIVE STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT

http://kidgreen-donna.blogspot.com

August 11, 2013

The hardest team for me to leave happened this past Spring-2013. My husband and I had the opportunity to coach a little boy's 7-8 year old baseball team called "Thunder". Clearly, we went through all five stages of team development. Initially, during the "forming" stage, we had to make contact with the parents, introduce ourselves and set up an initial meeting.

Soon, the team developed into the "storming" stage of team development. The children were excited about starting on a new team. Many had never played baseball before. The parents connected and began to cooperate in organizing who would bring snacks, and other responsibilities needed.

Within a couple weeks, the team moved into the "norming" stage. As the children and coaches began to get to know each other and establish a tight-knit relationship amongst each other. The children started learning many of the components involved in the game of baseball.

Eventually, the "performing" stage took over as the students started playing actual baseball games against opposing teams. Soon they learned if they played hard and listened to the coaches and used their new skills, the team would play better.

Finally, the end of the season brought about the "adjourning" stage of development. Our team had a pool party. When my husband gave a little speech about how the players had greatly improved and how hard they worked together as a team, many of the parents cried.  

The hardest part about saying good-bye, was knowing that we would never all be together again as a team. We had spent the last three months together almost every afternoon, and now it was coming to an end.

A ritual we had used before each game was to huddle up and hum the tune "Thunderstruck" (ACDC). Everyone would laugh and smile when we did this, even the opposing teams. This was our special ritual, and we did it one last time at the closing ceremonies.

The adjourning process I will follow for my fellow master's program colleagues, is to sincerely wish them great success in their futures. Also, several of them I am hoping to stay in contact via email.

Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork in that it helps give closure to the process. In addition, it allows teammates to think back on the positive and negative outcomes. Many teams will work together again on future projects, whilst others will end that particular team forever (O'Hair & Weimann, 2012).

References

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.