How to Build Powerfully Successful Work Teams

Wednesday March 21, 2007

One of the perennially favorite topics on this Web site deals with team work, team building, and how to lead teams. I get a lot of email asking about team building as well. I realized, when asked the question, in one of my client companies, that I had failed to cover the stages of team development in my work with managers about team building.

So, this past week, I covered forming, storming, norming, and performing, which are the traditional stages of team development. To these I have added transforming to indicate high performance, rarely found teams, and ending to give weight to the fact that teams end and teams must mark their ending with celebration and analysis. But, the most important reminder I rediscovered was the role that executives or team sponsors play during each stage. And, my suspicion is that the role of the team sponsor is critical when teams succeed.

So, I am writing about the stages and will post when complete. In the meantime, I have consolidated much of my writing about teams into a one stop resource: How to Build Powerfully Successful Work Teams.

More Resources About Team Building

_{Image © Monika Wisniewska}