Based on type of work a team is doing, the time it takes the team to go from Forming to Performing stage can vary.
Following are a few scenarios
Hours: If you are assembling a sports team with some random available people then the first game they play as a team may not go well as they are still in initial stages. Once everyone figures out who is good at what they may get to Performing stage after a few failures.
Days: In a school or college, a set of students forming a team to do a project will need a few days of networking before they can find their true potential.
Weeks: If you are working a big project with more than 10 members coming together to work on a major initiative, it will take a few weeks to find a rhythm on how team members are going to operate
Months: If you are forming a new business organization and a leadership team is formed, it takes weeks or months to build trust among all the members to operate as a team.
Factors that influence time it takes can vary a lot based on
- if team members know each other before coming together as a team or not
- if team members come with skills required to work as a team
- if team members come with similar experiences (department, industry etc.) to work as a team
- If team members can start to trust each other
In each of the above situation: if a new team member is added or a team member leaves then it can have significant impact. Team can drop from Performing to Forming stage quickly when churn happens. If it is a short duration to ramp up then team will be able regain their momentum.
A churn in a team that took a few days to form a team can recover quickly and regain lost momentum and still achieve goals.
A churn in a leadership team that already took a few months to come together as a team can upset the rhythm significantly and may take another few months to recover.
Leadership churn (voluntary or involuntary) needs to be planned carefully. A proper succession planning, transition and change management needs to be in place to reduce negative impact on the department and organization.
What have you seen in your experience?
