Jack insists that teams need to go through the three stages that I
ccalled "social overhead". There is a sense in which I strongly agree
and a sense in which I strongly disagree. Let me try to make this clear.
Tuckman's first stage, "forming" involves the gradual coming together of
a set of individuals and probably involves there individual recognition
of the possibility of becoming a team, i.e., working together in a
collegial way on a topic of common interest.
The way proposed to deal with that in Interactive Management is as
follows: an individual who is a position to know the potential
participants is instructed in what is called the IM Broker role. This
individual, usually a colleague (in some sense) of the potential
participants, deals with them individually, and by working back and forth
with them, makes them fully aware of what will take place if and when
they elect to come together. The role to be played is clearly defined,
and ideally there will not be any surprises for individuals when the
groupt meets for the first time, or for any subsequent times.
As to the storming, it is almost always possible to anticipate the likely
reasons for storming (i.e., arguing or dialoging about a variety of
issues, generally along the lines defined by Bales in his study of
individual behavior in groups). There is hardly any reason for storming
that cannot be dealt with either in the work involving the IM Broker or
in the practices involved in the group if they are well-designed.
As to the norming, what this typically involves is that the group
gradually evolves openly or otherwise a set of rules (articulated or not)
by which members will be guided in their individual behavior.
If the rules are provided to them ahead of time and they agree to the
"contract", there is no work to be done in norming.
This is not to say that there is no social overhead involved. But it is
possible to minimize the "charges" for this. It's a very subtle thing,
but somehow the individuals find a way to do these things incidentally to
performing; the overhead, so to speak, gets distributed and charged to
the overall budget in very small, almost unrecognizable increments, and
some of this goes on during breaks or, for example, in dinner meetings
when there is no intent to have any performance.
I'd like to see the work that Jack mentions, if a copy is available.
-- JOHN WARFIELD Jwarfiel@gmu.edu