In the 1980 classic “Caddyshack”, groundskeeper and caddy Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) recommended Bishop Pickering continue his round of golf through a severe thunderstorm. At Hard Yards, we coach teams to grind through tumultuous stages of development in order to achieve a higher level of performance. While the Bishop is unable to complete his round and set the course record (Rat Farts!), you should also expect a storm if your team undergoes a change in personnel.
Dr. Bruce Tuckman was certainly a pioneer in educational psychology. In 50+ years, he authored 18 books and over 100 professional articles. The “maverick” descriptor is just a shout out to “Top Gun: Maverick.” And while Dr. Tuckman does somewhat resemble Bishop Pickering from Caddyshack, the good Bishop was portrayed by actor Henry Wilcoxon.
Way back in 1965 Dr. Bruce Tuckman, a maverick in educational psychology, introduced the team development model of “forming - storming - norming - performing.” He postulated these four stages were necessary for teams to grow, face challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, and deliver results.
At Hard Yards, we believe high-performing teams are the key to a successful Agile transformation and ultimately, to delivering value for the enterprise. Recently, I’ve coached eight Agile teams from the IT department of a health care network. In the past month, four of the teams welcomed new product owners from the operations staff and two teams began Sprint 1 after initial training. Interestingly, I observed all the teams needed to start back at the beginning of the team development cycle. In other words, whether you’re a new team or you’re welcoming a new teammate, you still need to start back at the “forming” stage, and hopefully quickly progress through “storming.” The table below provides different leadership strategies and keys to successfully move teams from one stage of team development to the next.
As an Agile coach, Product Owner, Scrum Master, or part of the Development Team, you can help the team progress through the “forming” and “storming” stages to reach the “norming” and ultimately, the “performing” stage. You can aim for the “norming” stage by conducting a workshop to develop a set of team norms, working agreements, and a team goal.
The team norms workshop should last between an hour and ninety minutes. You can introduce the four stages of team development and provide examples of team norms and working agreements. Then, you can ask your teammates to think about the “worst team” and “best team” they have ever been a part of. You’re trying to capture the behaviors, traits, and inspiration of the “best teams.” You’ll experience some outstanding conversation and dialogue during this exercise while also creating the conditions for a high-performing Agile team.
During your dialogue about the “best teams,” your colleagues might introduce team norms from the Scrum pillars (Transparency, Inspection, Adaptation) or from Scrum values (Courage, Focus, Commitment, Respect, Openness). These are an excellent start and I would encourage you to evolve these norms into working agreements. For example, your team might provide how the Scrum value of respect would appear in a Scrum event. The working agreement would state: “We will listen intently to each other and provide all team members an opportunity to speak.” A second example might reference courage and sound like this: “We will empathize with our teammates and provide opportunities for further discussion when we feel a team member is frustrated.” These two working agreements provide examples of a team with “psychological safety,” a critical cultural element of high performing teams. While psychological safety is a topic for another blog, the process of documenting your norms and working agreements is a key step in the right direction. Finally, discuss the purpose of your team by creating a shared goal. Your team goal should answer the question: Why was this team created? At Hard Yards, a best practice is to review your norms, agreements, and team goals periodically, e.g., each quarter.
Remember, this team norms exercise just sets the conditions for success. Whether your team welcomes a new person or if you're starting a team from scratch…you need to start at the beginning of team development and there’s still a storm on the horizon.
Hopefully, this blog helps you navigate through the inclement weather for your team. And, as Carl Spackler learned, storms aren’t the only danger on the golf course, gophers cause problems too. I’m no expert on identifying the difference between gophers and groundhogs, and I’ll bet Bill Murray isn’t either. One thing is certain, if you’re on Agile teams long enough, you’ll recognize traversing the team development stages seems a bit like Groundhog Day!