Team Development - Performance Models
Team Development Model
A Team Development Model outlines stages of how a group goes through a journey of becoming a
team. Team Development Models helps us understand the nuances and stages of the groups journey
towards coming together to achieve a common goal. Team Development Models can also help
leaders shorten the experimentation journey to create great and high performing teams that last.
organizations these days are constantly faced with rapid change, disruption, complex problems and
are increasingly turning to its people to provide breakthrough solutions and innovative ideas
Whether you’re a new leader or a member of the team responsible for oversight of an organization,
developing a high-performing team is crucial to you. As a leader, the performance of the team is
instrumental in achieving business results, and supporting the organizations growth into the future.
There are several proven and effective team development models out there. Regardless of the Team
Development model selected to build high-performing teams, there are a few common requirements
such as:
1) Motivation to function as a team toward a shared purpose or goal.
2) Commitment to the team standards and expectations.
3) Skills and talent within the group to achieve the task or purpose.
4) Core resources are provided or available to achieve the work requirements
5) Confidence and perseverance within the team exists, to overcome barriers and challenges.
6) Organizational empowerment is evident, to support action as needed to achieve results.
Here we are detailing few team development models that we include as part of our structured
experiential learning and outbound facilitation process for team development, team performance and
leadership development programs
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Model
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Model outlines the root causes of politics and dysfunction on the
teams where you work, and the keys to overcoming them. Counter to conventional wisdom, the
causes of dysfunction are both identifiable and curable.
Developed by Patrick Lencioni, owner of The Table Group. The five dysfunctions are:
•Dysfunction #1: Absence of Trust. The fear of being vulnerable with team members prevents the
building of trust within the team.
•Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict. The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles the occurrence of
productive ideological conflict.
•Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment. The lack of clarity or buy-in prevents team members from
making decisions they will stick to.
•Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Accountability. The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents
team members from holding one another accountable.
•Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results. The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the
focus on collective success.
This model also includes a team assessment to determine team scores on the 5 dysfunctions and
provide your team with a sense of its strengths and areas for improvement.
Tuckman’s Group Development Model
Bruce Tuckman presented a model of five stages Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and
Adjourning in order to develop as a group. These five model stages can improve a new team become
effective more quickly.
Forming stage is a situation that members of a group don’t truly understand about their duty,
regulations and rules. The members cannot finish their job without leader or manager because they
lack of confidence. They have to be encouraged and motivate them that it can help them to feel as a
significant part of a team.
Storming stage is a situation that it often starts when team members prefer to use conflicting work
styles. People may work in different ways for all sorts of reasons, but if differing working styles cause
unforeseen problems, they may become frustrated. Moving from this stage requires that the leader of
team should strong ability to help all members accept each other and respect in each individual task.
Norming stage is a period that team members know one-another better, they may socialize together,
and they are able to ask each other for help and provide constructive feedback. At this point a group
need to provide a delegate for making agreement and consensus.
Performing stage is that all members can achieve the duty without any problems, but they want to
develop the term in regard to interpersonal development. A leader should concentrate on developing
performance of the team.
Adjourning stage is the final task when especially a group is successful. The leader of the team must
be appreciated with the achievement and show all member that their accomplishment is so proud.
This stage help increase motivation to members to move on next thinks or another task.
The Rocket Team Performance Model.
The Rocket Model™ is a framework and set of tools for boosting team performance. It can be used to
diagnose team dynamics, and to provide leaders with specific tools and activities to improve team
performance.
It was created in response to questions and requests from actual managers working in organizations
all over the world – managers struggling to transform their people into effective teams.
This model also includes a team assessment to determine team scores on the Rocket Model Stages
and provides your team with a sense of its strengths and areas for improvement.
1. CONTEXT: WHAT ARE OUR CRITICAL ASSUMPTIONS?
Team formation gets off to a good start when team members share a common view of the context in
which they’re operating.
All too often, it turns out that team members are operating from different assumptions. That
fundamental disconnect leads to well-intended but misaligned actions that hurt team morale and
reduce effectiveness.
2. MISSION: WHY ARE WE HERE?
When team members agree on what success looks like, they set the stage for effectiveness. What will
it mean to win? What are the goals, when do they need to be accomplished, what strategies will the
team use, and how will progress be measured?
Answering these questions leads to goal clarity, which strengthens mission clarity and is essential to
boosting teamwork.
3. TALENT: DO WE HAVE THE TALENT WE NEED?
It seems like it should be easy to get the right number of people with the right talents on
a team. In fact, we find it can be one of the toughest aspects of building teamwork.
That’s because most organizations assign staff members to a team based more on availability or
politics than talent. The team leader may believe that the skills, experience, and abilities of individual
team members are all that matters, but there are other talent considerations.
4. NORMS: WHAT ARE THE RULES?
It’s human nature for any group to develop norms for greeting, meeting, seating, communicating,
deciding, and executing. These unwritten rules usually solidify fast, without any formal discussion.
However, teams that take the time to talk through and consciously establish norms leverage a
powerful tool for achieving team cohesiveness and performance.
5. BUY-IN: ARE WE ALL COMMITTED TO SUCCESS?
Buy-in happens when team members have a team-first, not a me-first, attitude. High-performance
teams are committed to team goals, roles, and rules, and they’re motivated to get necessary, day-to-
day tasks done
They understand how their work contributes to the greater good, and they’re optimistic about their
chances of success.
6. RESOURCES: DO WE HAVE THE RESOURCES NEEDED?
Early on, teams need to figure out what resources are necessary for meeting their goals, and leaders
may have to lobby key stakeholders to get those needs met.
Tangible resources may include a realistic budget, office space, hardware and software systems,
specialized equipment, and tech support. Intangibles may include political support and authority to
make decisions.
7. MORALE: HOW DO WE WORK THROUGH DISAGREEMENTS?
The best teams understand that managing conflict is not the same as minimizing conflict. The team
members cultivate the necessary courage to raise difficult issues, while developing effective ways to
work through disagreements and find solutions.
They know that too little conflict, with problems swept under the rug, leads to artificial harmony and
groupthink. Too much conflict leads to chaos and backstabbing.
8. RESULTS: ARE WE ACHIEVING OUR GOALS?
High-Performing teams keep their eye on the prize. They measure results against mission, regularly
track progress, learn from successes and failures, and devise ways to continue improving delivery.
They understand it’s critical to align goals with important organizational outcomes and benchmark
progress in a way that leads to superior performance.
Achieving results depends on how well the team handles the previous seven steps in the framework.
In other words, members must share assumptions about context, agree on mission and work towards
goals, have clearly defined roles and skills, ensure buy-in, adhere to norms, access necessary
resources, and manage conflict effectively. When the team falters at one of these steps, outcomes
are affected. By practicing what works, the team continues to strengthen morale and succeed
Drexler Sibbit Team Performance model
The Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance® Model illustrates team development as seven stages, four to
create the team and three to describe increasing levels of sustained performance.
This model also includes a team assessment to determine team scores on the Drexler/Sibbet 7
stages and provide your team with a sense of its strengths and areas for improvement
This powerful tool for developing and sustaining teams is used as a framework and common
language for supporting a team-based culture and includes the following stages.
1. Orientation– What is our mission and picture of success, and why am I here?
2. Trust Building– Who is with me here and what are the skill sets and competencies we bring to this
team?
3. Goal Clarification– What are our targets and roles? What’s yours, mine and ours?
4. Commitment-How will we work together? Let’s get all in!
As we progress through the four stages of team creation we then reach the three stages of
performance. In these stages we begin to implement and master our process becoming heavily
invested in the task at hand:
5 Implementation– Who does what, when where?
6 High Performance– This is the time when we are literally reading the minds of our teammates,
anticipating their needs and moves and becoming a seamless supportive unit. It makes us want
to stay in this zone forever. This stage is what we call the “WOW” that results from having a high
performance team.
7 Renewal– Just when you have it all figured out, things change. Its time to re-orient and begin the
cycle again right back to stage 1.
DIY Team Development Model
At times the organisations team development needs are very unique and cannot be fitted into any
other model. Here is when you can also create your own DIY (do it yourself) team development
model. You can also take some relevant parts of the many other team development models that may
work for you and integrate.