Tuckmans Ladder

Tuckman’s Ladder – The Tuckman Model for Team Development

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Tuckmans Ladder

Tuckman’s Ladder

What is Tuckman’s ladder? It was created by Bruce Tuckman, a psychologist, and it’s a model that focuses on the way in which a team works from the initial formation of the team through to the completion of the project. As we get better and better at working as a team, things improve and change, and this is what Tuckman’s ladder describes.

There are five stages in Tuckman’s ladder.

We’ve got Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and adjourning at the end. These are the differences between them.

Forming

When we’re forming the team, this phase is where team members meet and learn about the project and their formal roles and responsibilities. Team members tend to be independent and not as open in this phase, so we’re still not really a collective team, we’re just independent people coming together. We’re still a little bit wary.

Storming

Next is the storming stage. During this phase the team begins to address the project work, the technical decisions and the project management approach. If the team members are not collaborative or open to different ideas the environment can become counterproductive. This is where we’re storming through those issues, trying to become one team eventually and you’ll see this happen all the time. All the independent people are working through those methods to become one collaborative team, and that’s where we start our norming phase.

Norming

In the norming phase we’re starting to work normally together. The team members begin to work together and adjust their work habits and behaviors to support the team instead of just working individually or thinking that everyone has a better way. Maybe we’re starting to come together as a team. The team members are learning to trust each other.

Performing

The next stage from here is when we are performing as a team, and this is where it’s a well-organized unit, we are we are really thinking as one team here. We’re interdependent, not independent. We have our skills but we are working towards one goal very collaboratively, and we work through issues smoothly and effectively because we all feel as though we’re the one team.

Of course with any project there is that adjourning stage, where a project will end. It is a temporary endeavour that delivers business value and so in the adjourning phase the team completes the work and moves on from the project, and it can be very sad if you’ve had a wonderful project team with a good performing stage. This typically occurs when the staff is released from the project, as deliverables are completed by the project or as part of the close project or close phase process in the PMBOK guide.

And that is Tuckman’s ladder.

– David McLachlan

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