NLP in the not-for-profit sector - July Newsletter

Tony Gibbs is founder of charitytraining.com and author of ‘How to make it as a charity manager’.

Welcome to the July 2005 edition of the free Tony Gibbs Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) newsletter. In this newsletter you’ll find –

1. When is a group a team?
2. News for charity managers

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1. When is a group a team?

I’m often asked how to address teambuilding issues within organisations and so if you get to the end of this article you can find out how you can receive a free self-audit tool that will enable you to assess what stage of development your team has reached.

You can then decide for yourself if you need to call in a really helpful, friendly, effective, consultant, just like….

Team or Group?

There are several factors that separate teams from groups:

Roles and Responsibilities –

Within a group, individuals establish a set of behaviours called roles. These roles set expectations governing relationships. Roles often serve as source of confusion and conflict. While on the other hand, teams have a shared understanding on how to perform their role. These roles include: leader, facilitator, timekeeper, and recorder.

Identity –

While teams have an identity, groups do not. It is almost impossible to establish the sense of cohesion that characterises a team without this fundamental step. A team has a clear understanding about what constitutes the team's 'work' and why it is important. They can describe a picture of what the team needs to achieve, and the norms and values that will guide them.

You’ve probably come across references to the various stages of team development described as either Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning.

These definitions were developed by Bruce Tuckman. The Tuckman model describes the five stages that teams go through: from Forming to Storming to Norming to Performing to Adjourning.

Forming
In the Forming stage, team members are introduced. They state why they were chosen or volunteered for the team and what they hope to accomplish within the team. Members explore the boundaries of acceptable group behaviour. This is a stage of transition from individual to member status, and of testing the leader's guidance both formally and informally.
Forming includes these feelings and behaviours:

• Excitement, anticipation, and optimism
• Pride in being chosen for the project
• A tentative attachment to the team
• Suspicion and anxiety about the job at hand
• Defining the tasks and how they will be accomplished
• Determining acceptable group behaviour
• Deciding what information needs to be gathered
• Abstract discussions of the concepts and issues, and

for some members, impatience with these discussions. There may be difficulty in identifying some of the relevant problems. Because there is so much going on to distract members' attention in the beginning, the team accomplishes little, if anything, that concerns it's project goals. This is perfectly normal.

Storming
During the team's transition from the "As-Is" to the "To-Be," this is called the Storming phase.

All members have their own ideas as to how the process should look, and personal agendas are often rampant. Storming is probably the most difficult stage for the team.

They begin to realise the tasks that are ahead are different and more difficult than they imagined. Impatient about the lack of progress, members might argue about just what actions the team should take. They could try to rely solely on their personal and professional experience, and resist collaborating with most of the other team members.

Storming includes these feelings and behaviours:

• Resisting the tasks
• Resisting quality improvement approaches suggested by other members
• Sharp fluctuations in attitude about the team and the project's chance of success
• Arguing among members even when they agree on the real issues
• Defensiveness, competition, and choosing sides
• Questioning the wisdom of those who selected this project and appointed the other members of the team
• Establishing unrealistic goals
• Disunity, increased tension, and jealousy

The above pressures mean that team members have little energy to spend on progressing towards the team's goal. But they are beginning to understand one another. This phase sometimes take a while before arriving at the Norming phase.

Norming
The Norming phase is when the team reaches a consensus on the "To-Be" process. Everyone wants to share the newly found focus. Enthusiasm is high, and the team is tempted to go beyond the original scope of the process.

During this stage, members reconcile competing loyalties and responsibilities. They accept the team, team ground rules, their roles in the team, and the individuality of fellow members.

Emotional conflict is reduced as previously competitive relationships become more cooperative.
Norming includes these feelings and behaviours:

• An ability to express criticism constructively
• Acceptance of membership in the team
• An attempt to achieve harmony by avoiding conflict
• More friendliness, confiding in each other, and sharing of personal problems
• A sense of team cohesion, spirit, and goals
• Establishing and maintaining team ground rules and boundaries

As team members begin to work out their differences, they now have more time and energy to spend on the project.

Performing
The team has now settled its relationships and expectations. They can begin performing by diagnosing, solving problems, and choosing and implementing changes.

At last team members have discovered and accepted each other's strengths and weakness, and learned what their roles are.

Performing includes these feelings and behaviours:

• Members have insights into personal and group processes, and better understanding of each other's strengths and weakness
• Constructive self-change
• Ability to prevent or work through group problems
• Close attachment to the team
• The team is now an effective, cohesive unit.

You can tell when your team has reached this stage because you start getting a lot of work done.
Adjourning
The team briefs and shares the improved process during the this phase. When the team finally completes that last briefing, there is always a bittersweet sense of accomplishment coupled with the reluctance to say good-bye.

Many relationships formed within these teams continue long after the team disbands.

So, what stage of development has your team got to? To claim your free self-audit tool, just email admin@tonygibbs.net with the word ‘Teambuilding’ in the subject line and I’ll send you an easy to use questionnaire to help you work out what stage your team normally operates in. I trust you’ll find it helpful!

2. News for charity managers

I’m delighted to say that after working on a brand new management qualification for almost a year, I’m involved in the launch of a new BTEC Professional Certificate in Voluntary Sector Management that you can now take with effect from September on a distant learning basis.

This is a recognised qualification that you can study in your own time over a year, or on a more traditional basis by attending monthly workshops in various parts of the country.

This qualification is certificated by Edexcel and is available exclusively through charitytraining.com. To find out more, just go to www.charitytraining.com

That’s all for this month!

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All material contained in this newsletter © 2005 Tony Gibbs.

Web site: http://www.blogger.com/www.tonygibbs.net or call 01778 341586 or 07957 188004 (UK).

You can write to me at 24 Park Road, Deeping St James, Peterborough PE6 8ND.

Thanks and acknowledgements to Michael Beale, Peter Freeth and you know who …