Project Team Building

Team building is the technique of strengthening bonds between members of a group to more efficiently achieve goals. It is crucial in project management/business management and its success.

In project management, creating a high-performing team is one of the tasks that is part of the ‘People’ domain.

Three characteristics of effective team building are mutual trust, respect, and support. An American psychological researcher Bruce W. Tuckman (Researcher who carried out his research into the theory of group dynamics) proposed five stages in team-building and this model is popularly known as the Tuckman Ladder model. They are:

1. Forming stage (uncertainty, nervousness, curiosity, and enthusiasm): Teams get to know each other, and team members are independent
2. Storming stage (frustration, conflict, and competition): Begins to learn to work together, and discuss different ideas, Intragroup ‘conflict’ occurs
3. Norming stage (cooperation, supportiveness, and problem-solving): Starting to work together, some challenges, but resolved quickly
4. Performing stage (creativity, innovation, and delivery): Synergy, teams members are interdependent, and some challenges, but resolved quickly
5. Adjourning stage (reflection, accomplishment, and disbanding): The project team completes the work and disperses to work on other things

A good project manager or business representative can help to reduce the time of team spends in each of those first three stages so that the team will be more productive.