Human Skills: Trust · Step 3: Expand · Let's Practice!
What Stage Is Your Team In?
Read the stage a team is in — and the move that fits it
Teams develop through four stages (Tuckman, 1965). Knowing which one your team is in tells you what it needs from you — and, crucially, it tells you that conflict isn't a breakdown. Storming is a normal, expected stage, and conflict caught early is far easier to resolve (Simons & Peterson, 2000).
Forming — coming together, feeling each other out, testing how they might work as a group.
Storming — friction surfaces as people push different views on how to reach the goal.
Norming — the team figures out how to use its different strengths and settles into shared norms.
Performing — the team runs efficiently and effectively toward the goal.
You'll read six moments from real teams. Spot the stage. Then you'll locate your own team — privately.
About 5 minutes · There's no grade here — just practice.
Part 1 · Which stage is this?
Which stage of team development is this?
The four stages you can now spot
Forming — polite, tentative, still learning who's who.
Storming — open disagreement about how to do the work. Not a failure — a phase.
Norming — friction resolving into shared ways of working.
Performing — humming along, focused on results.
A team doesn't climb these once and stay put — a new member, a new goal, or a big change can send even a Performing team back to Storming. That's normal too.
Part 2 · Now, your team
Think about a team you lead or belong to right now. Which stage is it in?
Your answer stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
Meeting a team where it actually is — especially in the friction of Storming — is a steady, trust-building response.
Trust = consistent Responses to Challenges over Time
When a leader treats conflict as a normal stage instead of a crisis, and helps the team work through it rather than around it, the team learns it's safe to disagree here. That safety is trust.
Now head back to the book: what stage is your team in, how long has it been there, and what would move it to the next?