Teamdynamics revisitedBeyond Tuckman

!presented at Tools 4 Agile Teams, Wiesbaden 2015-09-18

Who am I

• Michael Mahlberg, CEO “The Consulting Guild”, Germany

• Working as a consultant for more than 25 Years

• Can’t get to sleep well until I know why things have happened and how I can work with this knowledge in a comparable situation in the future.

Everything is optional

Who are you?

• Show of hand:

• Do you know about Tuckman?

• Are you a coach or trainer?

• Do you work in a team?

• Does a team work for you?

Timelines

• Material

• Paper (supplied)

• Post-its (supplied)

• Pen

Build the environment

• Tables?

• Paper?

Collect teams from your past

3 Minutes

The timeline

• Place the Teams from left to right

• Leave space for drawing

Mood - line

• How was your overall personal feeling during that time

• Only the feelings related to teams of course

• The average of all the team-related feelings at that point in time

Synchronize

• Do we all have a timeline?

Why was it the way it was?

• What happened at “interesting” points of the timeline?

Tuckman

Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing

TuckmanForming

!

Storming

Norming

Performing

!

Adjourning?

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

Adjourning?

Work in groups

Why was it the way it was?• On a meta level!

• What are the qualities that lead to – or away from – important characteristics, including, but not limited to

• Enjoyable • Sustainable • Successful

What is a team anyway?

• According to R. KEVIN GRIGSBY, DSW

• Defined in 2008

• Originally aimed at staff in medical organizations

What is a team anyway?

• Committee

• Task Force

• Team

Groups of People

Committee

• Subgroup with mixed expertise

• Formed from the outside

• Tasked to perform a specific function

• Can be temporary or permanent

• Usually not a full time occupation

Task Force

• Expert group for a specific area

• Temporary

• Defined goal

• Created on demand

• Often includes ressources

Team

• Common Purpose

• Complementary skills

• Mutually accountable

• Members selected based on merit

• Leadership varies with task at hand

Highlights

• Committee => Function, Part-time, Temporary or Permanent

!

• Task Force => Goal, Full-time, Temporary

!

• Team => Purpose, semi-permanent

Audience participation

• Which of the groups you identified earlier where teams, which where committees and which where task forces?

• Do you work in a team?

• Does a team work for you?

Drexler / Sibbet

• Tuckman: 1965

• Allan Drexler and David Sibbet:1990’s

Phases (Drexler / Sibbet)

• Creating a team

• Sustaining a team

Just search for Drexler/Sibbet on Google Images

From ‘the internet’

Why (orientation)

Who (Trust Building)

What (Goal clarification)

How (Commitment)

Who, what, when, where? (Implementation)

Wow (High performance)

Why (Renewal)

Choices

Tasks

Working relationships

Meaning

Layers according to Esther Derby,

AYE 2008

• If not resolved

- Disorientation

- Uncertainty

- Fear

• If resolved

- Purpose

- Team Identity

- Membership

Why (Orientation)

• If not resolved

- Caution

- Mistrust

- Facade

• If resolved

- Mutual regard

- Honesty

- Reliability

Who (Trust Building)

• If not resolved

- Apathy

- Skepticism

- Irrelevant Competition

• If resolved

- Explicit Assumptions

- Clear, integrated goals

- Shared Vision

What (Goal clarification)

• If not resolved

- Dependence

- Resistence

• If resolved

- Assigned roles

- Allocated resources

- Decisions made

How (Commitment)

• If not resolved

- Conflicts/confusion

- Disalignment

- Missed deadlines

• If resolved

- Clear processes

- Alignment

- Disciplined Alignment

Who, what, when, where? (Implementation)

• If not resolved

- Overload

- Disharmony

• If resolved

- Spontaneous interaction

- Synergy

- Surpassing Results

Wow (High performance)

• If not resolved

- Boredom

- Burnout

- Churn

• If resolved

- Recognition

- Celebration

- Staying power

- (Change Mastery)

Why (Renewal)

• On each wall

• Map the properties collected earlier to the Drexler/Sibbet Model

• Identify indicators for a missing stage and actions to help with the Step from on stage to the next.

Audience participation

Group Discussion

The other team modelsBeyond forming and storming

The other team models

Beyond forming and storming !

Facilitated by Michael Mahlberg (google me ;-) )

Thank You!

Contact Information

• If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact me via e-mail at: mm@michaelmahlberg.com

• You can also find me on Twitter as MMahlberg

• I sometimes blog on http://agile-aspects.michaelmahlberg.com

• My homepage is http://www.michaelmahlberg.com