“Folks are usually about as happy as

they make their minds up to be.”

- Abraham Lincoln
Career Trek to NYC
Company to Visit – Cornell Investment Office
Date & Time – 11th October, 3:30 – 5:00pm
Address – 1155 Ave of the Americas (6th Avenue)

Contact – xc428@cornell.edu - Sunny

*If you want to speak to us, we’ll be waiting on the first row
of the class
Cornell CEE5900/6910
Newman
Clicker Poll here for
attendance
 5900 and 6910 in class exercise to hand in

Write down how you feel when joining a new

team
Tuckman’s team stages
Dr. Bruce Tuckman

Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning

Forming

• Initial – and sometimes after events or changes

• Highly dependent on a leader for direction and clarity

• People may be unclear as to their roles or how they will fit in
• Leaders need to provide vision, clarity, safety/security, mission, tools,
and protocol.

• Often led in a directing (“Telling”) mode to some degree.

• Leader (regardless of style and mode) needs to be dominant/active.
Forming

• Many will be polite, positive, ..sometimes to a fault.

• Some of each:
• Overly polite,
• Overly excited,
• Overly anxious or fearful

• Honest feedback can be hard to get from many team members in this
stage:
• why?
Forming

• While staff may need direction they also may:

• Question your plans

• Test your resolve
• Doubt your abilities

• Remember, team members are trying to

• find and understand their place.
• Understand/Predict what this team experience will be like
STORMING

• The Honeymoon is over

• Usually without warning your new peaceful, supportive team, start to
implode
• trust breaks down
• Insults fly
• Cliques/divides form
• Yelling, tears, (sometimes)
• passive aggressive behaviors appear,
• commitments blown,
• Gossiping
• Complaining
• Resisting taking on work
STORMING

• Opinions of each other have been formed and strengthened, but rarely
addressed professionally
• The work is start to get real
• Working style differences start to appear

• Fear
• Contempt
• Resentment
STORMING

• Storming is so common, if I don’t see some of it I am concerned.

• Why?
STORMING

• Jockeying for position, authority, recognition, pecking-order

• Relationships and emotionally loaded issues become significant

 5900 and 6910 in class exercise to hand in

What types of things could you do to lead teams

and team members through a storming stage?
Storming – Leadership styles

• Coaching (“selling”) is often effective in this phase

• Occasionally more direct correction is required, but not in most
situations,…
• e.g. WHERE?

• Refocusing members on goals

• Fostering and encouraging respect for the team members and their
diversity
Storming

• Very few teams skip it

• Teams on very short very fun, low risk projects (but still rarely)
• Teams of very polished high EI people who have learned how to manage
relationship very well
• Teams where there is oppression (not good, but less storming)
• Many teams never get passed it
• Many teams fall back into it easily

• Good leadership is required!!

Norming (Settling in, normalizing)
• “storms” have been resolved, which leads to better intimacy
• TEAM focus, engagement, spirit and share mission strengthen as
foundational
• Generally good acceptance of the leader
• Acceptance of roles and places within team
• Trust exists and is building
• Respect for diversity, tolerance for whims and pet peeves
Norming

• Team actively develops and constructively discusses more than just

the work, e.g.
• Processes
• Working styles
• Modes of communication
• Priorities
• Methodologies
 Norming - Leading
Participatory styles (democratic and/or delegatory) are commonly
useful in the Norming stage.

• Increasing decision making authority to individuals and teams

• What to watch out for?

 Norming - pitfalls
• Like in the forming stage, some team members may be overly
avoiding conflict. (not making waves, not rocking the boat) Reluctant
to share concerns, ideas, or information that may be important.
• Teams can slip back into storming over small triggers
• With more delegation, leader needs to build trust and develop people
while not loosing sight of performance and status. This requires
discernment and ability to change styles.
 Norming

• A majority of teams never get past Norming

• It takes great leadership and great team members to develop teams

to the performing stage
 Performing - everyone “Gets it”
• Unexpectedly high levels of success
• Highly autonomous teams
• Shared vision and mission is strong
• Teams and individuals “get” the big picture
Performing

• Disagreement, dissent, and complaints are acceptable (expected) and

handled efficiently, reflectively, and respectfully by the team (usually
without leadership involvement required)

• Team focuses on EXCEEDING goals, AND is fluent at addressing

relationship, process, problems and other aspects without requiring
leadership involvement.
 Performing - Leadership styles
• Participatory styles

• Teams handle most decision making without supervision

“work yourself out of a job”

 Performing - Pitfalls
• Easy to slip back into earlier stages
Adjourning

• The end is in sight!

• Your team is predominantly operating either in the “norming” or
“performance” stage levels.

• Then..
 Adjourning (aka Deforming, mourning)
• Some team members will be happy and excited for what may be next

• But others
• Fearful of change
• Anxious of uncertainty
• Saddened that the “family” will break up soon
• Respond poorly to changes or pending changes in routine

* can be crippling or cause undesirable moves or behaviors.

 Adjourning - Leadership
• Regular presence is needed again
• Close relationships with teams and members pays off again here

Leader to provide:
Recognition, appreciation, empathy, concern, hope, comfort, vision.
 Exploring

The 5 dysfunctions of a team

Reference: book by Patrick Lencioni

 Inattention
to
Results

Avoidance of
Accountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust
5900 and 6910 in class exercise to hand in

Absense of Trust

1. Name a time you felt you couldn’t trust someone

on your team(project)
2. What event(s) lead to the lack of trust
3. List some feelings you felt
4. Name the ramifications for you
5. List how you think the other party felt
6. How do you think they were affected?
5900 and 6910 in class exercise to hand in

Absense of Trust

7. What is Trust on a project team?

What does Trust look and feel like?

TRUST = EVERYONE BEING COMFORTABLE
and SAFE WHEN VULNERABLE
Can you say
• I don’t know
• I need help
• I’m sorry
• I messed up
• I dropped the ball
• I don’t understand
• I disagree
• I can’t
If even one member of the team cannot be
vulnerable, it affects the WHOLE team
TRUST
• Can you disagree

• Can you voice a different opinion

• How do you respond when others disagree with you?

• How do you respond when others let you down?

The fix

• Starts with a Leader who is comfortable being vulnerable

• Culture of truth-Telling
• Attacking problems, not attacking people
• Empathy, understanding, solution-seeking
 “Don’t let them see you sweat”

Is SOMETIMES the opposite of what you need to do in Leadership

• Be competent, but trusting (vulnerable)

Be sincere, and Don’t occasionally let them see you sweat

 5900 and 6910 in class exercise to hand in

Fear of Conflict
Have you ever

A. Been in a boring one-sided meeting where you or

others had important different views and opinions
that cold not be openly shared?
B. Experience politics and or personal attacks for your
differing views?
C. Wished someone on the team asked for your
opinion but no one did.
D. Put time and effort into “CYA”, either documenting
stances or finding out who is “on your side” versus
“the other side”
E. More than 1 of these
FEAR of conflict
• Healthy conflict is a good and NECESSARY thing on project teams

• Without trust, conflict quickly becomes, negative, political, attacking.

Fear of Conflict
• With Trust

• Conflict becomes the constructive:

• pursuit of truth
• pursuit of best options
• pursuit of collaborative solutions

• Meetings & Discussions become interesting and effective

FEAR of conflict
• You need to ensure that people on your project team are not holding
back

• That they can disagree (repeatedly, passionately) without fear

FEAR of conflict
• Avoiding healthy conflict leads to:
• NOT keeping short accounts
• More hurt feelings
• Less empathy
• Damaging conflict
• Conflict around PEOPLE (not issues)
5900 and 6910 in class exercise to hand in

Lack of Commitment

1. Name an example of lack of commitment (by you

or someone else) you have experienced on a
project team
2. List the results of that.
Lack of Commitment
• Lack of Buy-in to decisions

Trust
Weighing in
Buying in
Lack of Commitment
• Can people disagree and REALLY commit

• Passive commitment is NOT commitment

• People ay be waiting and watching for it to fail
5900 and 6910 in class exercise to hand in

Avoidance of
Accountability

1. Name an example of Avoidance of Accountability

(by you or someone else) you have experienced
on a project team

2. List the results of that.

Avoidance of accountability
Peer-to-peer accountability is 100** times better than
top down accountability

Project Leaders must be willing to confront difficult issues.

• If the leader does not, then Peers will not
• Leader can create a culture of peer to peer accountability as well

Takes Courage!
Avoidance of accountability
• Confronting behavioral accountability

• Takes Time and energy

• Emotional “feels” hard

• With practice it can be very easy
 Inattention to results
Have you ever

A. Not been rewarded or praised for your good results?

B. Had good results that stayed hidden, un-noticed by the
team or your peers?
C. Seen others rewarded or praised even though they had
delivered poorly.
D.Delivered good results in many areas, but were singled
out or attacked for what you didn’t do.
E. More than 1 of these
Inattention to results
• While we are often naturally results oriented, we also can easily be
affected by:
• Distractions
• Personal interests or problems
• Too many competing goals
• Without TRUST, Healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, even
great people may work too individually instead of TEAM results
focused.
Need everyone trusting and feeling trusted in order to
have healthy conflict.
Need everyone engaging healthy conflict in order to
have great buy-in and commitment.
Need true Commitment from everyone to have
Accountability
Need to hold everyone Accountable to be able to
focused on results.
Need everyone focused on results to get results
Cornell CEE5900/6910
Newman

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