The Tuckman Cycle – Leading in Change Part 3

I’m definitely no leadership guru.  This series is simply about how I think through things.  In parts 1 and 2 I talked about having a rough draft vision based on values.  You can read them here and here.

Once your organization has a rough draft vision, you need to start watching the its life cycle and capitalize on storms.

There are lots of different theories on group dynamics that are good.  The one I like to use is Tuckman’s Stages developed by psychologist Bruce Tuckman in the mid 1960′s.  Tuckman’s work is really interesting and very accessible.  I highly recommend checking it out.  There is a lot you can find with a simple Google search.  What follows is not Tuckman’s work, but rather how I’ve come to use his concepts in church world.

Every group repeats a four stage cycle of development.  Tuckman called those stages: forming, performing, storming, norming.  These stages have to do with expectations.  Expectations are important because they effect behavior and attitude.  When a group members expectations of the group change, the group members attitude toward the group and behavior as part of the group will change.  Let’s look at the stages.

Forming – This stage only occurs at the opening of a group.  During the forming stage group is highly dependent on the leader. Everyone is a clean slate.  No one knows what to expect.  I’ve noticed that with a church plant or the start of some sort of ministry the larger the group, the longer this stage lasts because it takes longer for expectations to settle.

Performing – In this stage the group operates out of established expectations.  This stage is the status quo. Organization members know how they are supposed to behave and what they should expect.  They know what the leadership is going to be like.  They know how other group members are going to behave.  And they operate out of that knowledge.

Storming – Storming stages come when something happens that challenges the status quo.  There is an endless number of things that can cause storming.  Anything that upsets business as usual will do it.  In this stage people become passionate, frustrated, and uncomfortable because their expectations are challenged. Storms are the best times for leaders bringing change because change happens through storms.  Meaningful dialog is only possible when the status quo is in question.  Think of the storming phase like shaking the Etch-A-Sketch.

Storms can be big and bring the entire culture of the organization into question.  Or storms can happen in small corners of the organization among a small group of people.   More than one storm can happen at a time.  The bigger the organization the more storms happening at once.

Norming – This stage is a transition between Storming and Performing.  During Norming, expectations are still fluid, but they are starting to firm up so leaders have to over communicate the culture he/she wants to see in this phase.

Performing – Storming – Norming – Performing – Storming – Norming – Performing – Storming – Norming…  Over and over and over.

In my next post I’ll talk about how to use storming periods to bring change to your organizations statements and behaviors.

Until then, think through the organizations you are a part of.  Can you identify the three stages of the cycle?