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This stage is perhaps an early test of whether the team has the ability to be a high performing one.
Giesen and Osborne (2008) believe that teams that can effectively manage conflict at this stage move on to a 'good' norming stage.
Teams that do not effectively manage conflict here move into a 'bad' norming stage where team development stalls and dysfunction may set in.
The types of things that the team might ask at this stage are:
- Who is in charge?,
- How will we do this?
You might be asking yourself at this stage: Will I be respected?
During this stage team members need to know that:
- their team leader is not afraid to address team conflict,
- there are processes to address and resolve differences within the team,
- the team is committed to creating and maintaining a work environment that fosters teamwork and allows for open communication,
- support will be provided to help any team member who needs to develop their skills to allow them to work more effectively within the team, and
- all members will be held to the same expectations of behaviour and work standards (Giesen & Osborne, 2008).
If a team has difficulty moving from this to the 'norming' stage it may be that:
- the team has a a conflict-averse leader,
- there are too many 'hot-button' issues that have been left unaddressed for too long and
- the unresolved nature of these is harming interpersonal relationships between team members, and/or
- team members lack the ability to talk through conflict (Giesen & Osborne, 2008).