RCM Team development and performance
Derek Burley CRL,CMRP
The Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing model of a group or team’s
development was first introduced in 1965 by Bruce Tuckman. He suggested that
each of these four phases are necessary and inevitable in order for the team to
grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work,
and to deliver results. It is a fairly simple, but no less powerful model, that can
help us as RCM facilitators by providing a framework that enables us to
understand analysis team dynamics.
This can be particularly helpful for new or less experienced RCM facilitators
because you can, with some confidence, know that the apparently difficult
phases that you and your team will probably experience are largely transient and
to some extent they are predictable.
Experienced facilitators may wish to briefly reflect on this model. You will
probably find that your teams followed something akin this behavior pattern.
4) Perform
1)Form
3) Norm
2) Storm
## Forming
If you have your analysis meetings well organized then by now you will know
whom you are expecting to attend. You may or may not know these individuals
personally or professionally. Setting the tone for the analysis is certainly part of
your role and in this first stage of team building, the forming of the team takes
place. Tuckman maintained that, in this phase, an individual's behavior is driven
by a desire to be accepted by the others, and they are likely to try and avoid
controversy or conflict. Serious issues are generally avoided. People focus on
being busy with routines, such as team organization, who does what, when to
meet each other, etc. This is where you set out expectations, meeting norms,
times, places and all the other details that will enable the team to function.
Individuals are also gathering information and impressions – about each other,
and about the scope of the task and how to approach it.
This early avoidance of conflict means that not much actually gets done. The
team gets information from you about the opportunities and challenges. This is
the point at which you should lead them to agreement on the analysis goals.
Individual members can have a tendency to behave quite independently. They
may or may not be highly motivated and excited to be taking part in the analysis
but are usually relatively uninformed of the issues, expectations and objectives of
the team.
Mature or more experienced team members begin to form their behavior even
during this early phase.
The forming phase of a team is important because the members of the team get
to know one another, exchange some personal information, and make new
friends. This is probably your first opportunity to see how each member of the
team works as an individual - how they may react to pressure and uncertainty.
This phase sets the scene for how your analysis meetings progress and how you
interact with the team as well as how they interact with each other.
4) Perform
1)Form
3) Norm
2) Storm
## Storming
During the storming phase, some initial trust has grown between team members
some of the team are probably beginning to feel comfortable expressing their
own ideas, thoughts and experiences. You may see a shift in some individuals to
the point where they are challenging others' opinions. This stage is necessary to
the growth of the team.
This can be uncomfortable for team members who are conflict- averse by nature.
It is your job to make sure that everyone is listened to and that all views are
respectfully considered. Try to develop an atmosphere of tolerance, patience
and mutual respect.
This phase has been known to become destructive to the team and it will almost
certainly lower motivation if you allow it to get out of control. As the facilitator of
the team during this phase you may wish to be more accessible but you should
strive to maintain your focus on getting the team moving forward and completing
the analysis. Ideally, you want to create an atmosphere where team members
will not feel that they are being judged. Be prepared for small arguments and
disagreements during the storming phase - this is not abnormal but you should
keep it in check and not allow things to get beyond your control. Some may
question the point of even being a team member and feel that their time is being
ill spent. You should be prepared to deal with this by illustrating to them what
they bring to the analysis effort and that the work would not be complete without
their contribution.
This stage of your team’s development can be unsettling for all members - don’t
panic as it will pass!
4) Perform
1)Form
3) Norm
2)
Storm
## Norming
As you transit into the norming phase the team will begin to rally around the one
goal and become more productive. Some team members may re-examine their
own ideas and agree with others to make the team function. During this phase,
all team members take the responsibility and start to take more responsibility in
working towards the team's success. You should be aware that during this phase
team members might be so focused on avoiding or preventing any conflict that
they become reluctant to share ideas that might be seen as controversial. If you
have set the meeting norms well at the very start of the analysis you might wish
to reiterate that all ideas are welcome and will be treated confidentially and with
respect.
4) Perform
3)
Norm
1)Form
2) Storm
## Performing
During and after transitioning from the norming to the performing phase you
should see that work is progressing on the analysis at a pace that may surprise
you. Stay calm and deal with the flood of information that may result for the
increase in performance.
Certainly during this phase it may help you to start using acronyms for common
information that occurs and is associated with several failure modes. This is
particularly useful when recording failure effects. However, please remember that
in the final documentation you should replace these acronyms with full
descriptions and names etc. This is work that you will need to complete outside
of the meetings. It is up to you to decide whether it is better for you to spend time
doing this alone or use the time from your whole team to complete a fairly
straightforward task. After all, you have the information already in a shorthand
version. Ask yourself if this is really a good use of valuable team time.
Even very efficient and high performance teams can sometimes regress when
they lose their way in the analysis.
4)
Perform
3) Norm
1)Form
2) Storm