Agile Notes (No. 44)
Ummm….81 SUBSCRIBERS?!?!?!?! Thank you, all! Should we do a giveaway at 100 subscribers?????? Maybe a copy of Coaching Agile Teams???? Let me know what you think about a giveaway and how we should do it in the comments.
This week, we continue looking at Collaboration Explained by Jean Tabaka. We are on Chapter 4: What Are Collaborative Teams?
Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing is one of those terms that gets thrown around that everyone nods their heads at but don’t really understand. Kind of like “Agile.” :)
Tabaka leads this chapter with a definition of this team performance model. This model is from Bruce Tuckman’s “Stages of Group Development. Before getting to the Performing stage, teams must go through the other stages. Tabaka gives us short definitions of each phase.
Forming - team members are trying to figure out who does what. They are sizing each other up.
Storming - Alliances form. Who’s side are you on? Conflicts rise up. Power grabs happen. Who can you trust?
Norming - the team can get to consensus. They trust each other about how to divide up the work. Any leader starts to fade into the background.
Performing - Team culture is healthy. They can “self-navigate”. They trust each other. They hold each other mutually accountable.
There are a lot of useful concepts in this chapter on what teams look like - not just high performing teams. Tabaka shows what teams can look like at all of the development stages. I really like his guidance on what we can do to help teams evolve. He points out what to look for - behaviors that can negatively affect teams.
There is a small section on DISC assessments. Have you ever used these on either yourself or entire teams? I haven’t seen them used in about 10 years. I am a U-shaped high D (driver) and high C (conscientious). A business coach/consultant who was leading us through the assessment said it meant that I am a socio-path. :) He was probably not wrong at the time. I should take it again and see if time and practice has mellowed me and changed my “profile.”
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