Moving from "Storming" to "Norming"

Posted by Yvette Bethel at 5/26/2009 8:06 PM

You have been assigned to a team and you are excited about the prospect of working on a project with your coworkers. You start attending meetings and in
the first session you notice a few things that cause you some concern. You sit in the meeting expecting a team agenda but everyone seems to have their
own agenda. You listen to the conversations, you even try to participate, but the discussions go absolutely nowhere. At the end of the session you feel you
just wasted your time because there are no solutions, no next steps or no actionable items.

Now the deadline for your project is approaching and you attended a number of meetings already. Team members are still showing up to meetings with
incomplete assignments. There is no accountability at the meetings because there are no minutes taken or if minutes are being taken they are so long that
no-one reads them. In meetings, there is still no agenda and team members are still having unfocused discussions. So what do you do?

Working in teams is usually a complex proposition because many times we are appointed to a team and we don’t collaborate on team and member
expectations. What we do is get caught in the trap of focusing on the project and not how we are going to get our team members to work together in a
functional team environment.

Based on a team building model by Bruce Tuckman, teams should go through five typical stages of evolution in order to deliver results: Forming, storming,
norming, performing and adjourning. The first stage is the formative or beginning stage where the team comes together as an entity. This is usually
followed by the storming stage where the team begins to form expectations, processes and roles. The storming stage can be chaotic and teams sometimes
try to achieve results without laying the groundwork that leads to norming.

In building your team, be sure you are not lulled into thinking you are past the storming stage because the team members seem to be getting along well.
Sometimes team members have hidden, individual agendas and personal agendas range from a need for visibility to achieve a promotion, to sabotage.

When you are building your team, the ideal is to move from storming into the norming stage where team processes and expectations are clearly defined for
your team as a whole and for each member. Here are a few tips to help you to move your team through the storming and norming stages to high
performance:

1. Team members should be assigned roles like taking minutes or collating information between meetings. Be sure the minutes are brief with clear action
items listed, responsibilities assigned and deadlines set.

2. Team members should be held accountable for bringing completed assignments or updates to each meeting because team members are usually
interdependent. Be sure your update indicates there is some progress and if not, there should be an acceptable reason.

3. The leader or meeting facilitator should ensure there is role clarity, accountability and high performance by:
• Defining team objectives and member roles. This can be done as a team for optimal buy-in.
• Planning for meetings by preparing an agenda
• Ensuring the team adheres to the agenda by effectively bringing conversations back to the objectives.
• Determining if a digression can add to the quality of the discussion and nipping it if it doesn’t.
• Effectively managing conflict among team members. This can be done both during and between meetings.
• Keeping track of action items and ensuring there is follow up during and after each meeting.
• Managing meeting discussions, ensuring everyone has a fair opportunity to contribute.

Teams can function optimally when members trust each other and the process. Integrating trust building as part of the team building equation can lead to
higher levels of commitment, accountability and results so trust building is a useful exercise. To achieve trust, it is important to be transparent, fair and open
during the team building process.

If the team is stuck at the storming stage, measures should be taken to move the team beyond the stasis. This may mean considering a change in
leadership or having a candid discussion about the performance of the team with its members. Once there is progress at the storming stage, the team has a
good chance of successfully moving through the norming and performing stages.

Team building can be an intricate process riddled with subtle and obvious obstacles or it can be simple and seamless. If a capable leader is at the helm,
you can successfully identify and navigate the obstacles and move gracefully through the forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages
achieving your desired results.
Making Criticism Constructive
Posted by Yvette Bethel at 8/16/2009 8:21 PM
Categories: uncategorized

Constructive criticism is usually hard to give and receive because the receiver can react negatively to any type of criticism, especially if they regularly receive
criticism that is angry, blaming or condescending.

I come across managers, supervisors and employees who avoid giving any type of criticism for fear of the conversation going in an undesirable direction.
So what usually happens is the target of the criticism is allowed to get away with inappropriate behaviours because the boss is reluctant to take any type of
corrective action.

Then there are managers, supervisors and employees on the opposite side of the spectrum who tell the cold, hard truth, with good intentions. Unfortunately,
depending on how cold and hard the truth is, it can strip away the dignity and humanity of the receiver and can lead to an angry or withdrawn response.

A Model of Constructive Criticism

Managers sometimes use approaches designed to deliver criticism in a constructive way. There are writers that suggest the “oreo” approach where you
start the conversation with something positive, then introduce the criticism constructively and then you end on a note that reinforces the employee’s
strengths and your intent to provide support. A key consideration is to try not to sound rehearsed because you will be perceived as inauthentic or phony.

Authenticity

There are people who avoid telling the whole truth when providing criticism because there is the clear and present risk that it can be held against them by
the receiver. This is because most people don’t want to hear the truth if it isn’t aligned with their perception of the truth, even when they ask you for your
views.

Curiosity

Curiosity is open, interested and unbiased. It invites trust, openness and creativity by:

• Posing questions that are not assumption based

• Being open to diversity
• Avoiding placing labels on people and situations

Questioning is an important tool that is an integral part of curiosity. A leader should never have all the answers or advice so you can invite the person
receiving the criticism to provide their views and alternative solutions. The best questioners are skilled at formulating questions that will help the receiver of
criticism build their confidence and knowledge. Two quick tips for questioning in situations where you want criticism to be constructive are to avoid
questions that lead the receiver to your desired outcome or ones that cause the receiver to feel interrogated.

Timing

When providing anyone with criticism, timing is everything. The first tip is to avoid telling them the truth in front of others. This causes you to appear to be
unprofessional and it is easier for someone to accept criticism if they are not embarrassed.

Secondly, avoid providing criticism if you are in a negative emotional state. Finally, try to avoid constructively criticising someone if they are in a rush. They
may not decode your message accurately because they are in a stressed state or because they are focused on something else.

Communication Tips

Respect is very important if you want your communication to be constructive. Avoid labeling people using words like liar or stupid. Stay away from shouting
and profanity or using words like never and always. You can get your message across effectively without expressing your negative opinions.

For instance, if an employee tells you something that sounds like an untruth, you can say, “I realize you think that is the case but based on my investigation I
found something else to be the case. Help me to understand the gap between what you are saying and what I found to be the case.” In this example, you
are not calling the person a liar, you are inviting them to help you understand the facts because you may have been provided with misinformation.

Another communication tip is to be clear and concise. Managers, supervisors and employees start out with good intentions to provide constructive criticism
but they “chicken out” and use language that is so vague and tactful that the real message is lost in tactfulness.

The Art of Listening

When providing constructive criticism, you will be more effective if you are equally adept at listening objectively to the person receiving the criticism because
you need to know if they are listening to you. You can tell if the message is not being received as constructive if they are defensive, blaming or giving
excuses.

In closing I would like to leave you with a quotation from an unknown author, “Constructive criticism is essential in any arena that requires creativity,
innovation, and problem-solving. Since leadership requires all three, leaders need to be sure they are not only open to criticism, but that they actively seek it
out. Ask people — direct reports, peers, customers — to poke holes in your ideas and approaches. Critique can be a useful approach to test ideas.”

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Training Company. For more information contact us at info@orgsoul.com.