The Forecast Is Conflict

Springtime in Boston is a mess- you need snow boots, an umbrella, and sunglasses by your front door because the weather is so unexpected. One day it's sunny and 65 degrees, the next day it snows.

It's also the season when it starts raining new hires. January-March is typically a good season for hiring: budgets are approved, new goals have been set, backfill roles are approved, recruiters are hunting, etc. By the time the crocuses are peeking, organizations have finished vetting and making offers to candidates and are starting to welcome their newest members to the team.

Thus begins the next seasonal cycle: Tuckman's Stages of Group Development.​

Back in the 60's, Bruce Tuckman proposed that groups go through four (and later, five) phases: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing- and then added in 1977- Adjourning. These five phases are pretty inevitable, but a lot of team leads either forget the inevitability or simply don't know how to best handle each phase.

Today's TL;DR- Choosing the right apparel for your team's current "weather."

1. Forming

Today's forecast: Sunny 🌞

Recommended apparel: Teambuilding 🙌

The Forming stage marks a team's inception. Members are introduced, orient themselves to the task and each other, and begin to understand the group's purpose and goals.

It's worth calling out here that the word "team" is a loose definition. This can be a formal team (the Product team), but also includes cross-functional groups working on a new project, a manager with a new employee (or vice versa), an existing team tackling a new kind of project, etc.

If the team members OR task OR context is new/changed, consider this a "new team."

This weather is sunny because members avoid controvery and are optimistic about their new endeavor. People are polite, avoid conflict, and start to form cliques. Don't be fooled that the good vibes mean people are productive: there's a lot of ground to go before the team is producing work at the rate and quality that they could achieve.

For leaders, your focus should be on providing direction and clarity. Define and communicate the mission, goals, initial structure, and individual roles explicitly. Actively facilitate intros, curate space for team members to get to know each other, and role model an atmosphere of psychological safety where questions are encouraged. Be visible and accessible, but don't suck all the air from the room.

For team members, lean in. Ask questions, share your background/skills/interests, and participate in defining the work. Bring your growth mindset and authentic personality to work, and don't be shy about setting up 1-1 coffee dates with your new colleagues.

2. Storming

Today's forecast: Thunderstorms ⚡

Recommended apparel: Conflict Resolution 👉😱👈

Hello conflict, my old friend. This phase is when individual personalities, working styles, values, and opinions clash. It involves sorting out the group's hierarchy, including power, status, and roles.

This is a necessary stage.

Let me say it again for those in the back: conflict is necessary to produce a healthy and productive team.

Members vie for leadership, processes are questioned, mission and goals will get scrutinized, and people start to say what they really think...and it may not be pleasant. Productivity decreases as energy is directed into airing greivances and hashing out interpersonal issues.

The risk is that teams don't progress through this stage. It could be a leader's aversion to getting into the touchy-feelies, or team members don't feel psychologically safe to say what they really think about Karen, or a broader cultural pressure to skip this stage and focus on meeting aggressive timelines and deliverables.

If you want to be truly productive, you gotta storm. When issues are addressed constructively, the team builds resilience and strengthens cohesion. On the flip side, avoiding conflict or handling it poorly leads to unresolved tension, simmering resentment, and potential dysfunction. Successfully navigating Storming lays the essential groundwork – mutual understanding, trust, and established ways of handling differences – required for the Norming and Performing stages.

For leaders, acknowledge that conflict is normal, necessary, and yes, we ARE going to talk about the elephant in the room. Be cautious about resolving conflict through fiat: instead, be the coach who facilitates healthy disagreement and is a role model for how conflict should be approached. Adjust timelines to account for unexpected feelings talks, remind the team about shared goals, and highlight similarities between members.

For team members, break out your Active Listening pants. Put yourself in the shoes of others, but also don't be shy about describing how your shoes feel. This takes courage to express opinions and disagreements honestly but respectfully. Be open to different ideas, working styles, and approaches. Be transparent with your leader about how you are feeling and remember that you are not only on your leader's team, but you are on your team.

3. Norming

Today's forecast: Partly Cloudy ⛅

Recommended apparel: Process Mapping 🙋‍♂️

Is it going to rain or shine? Welcome to Norming, where conflicts still happen but "how we do things around here" begins to solidify.

Team members start cooperating more because they've hashed out how they don't want to work during the Storming phase. Task accomplishment skyrockets because routines and standard operating procedures start to really stick. Leadership becomes more shared and/or the team trusts the leader more. People feel more comfortable saying what they really think, providing vital feedback that improves work quality.

The biggest pitfall in this stage is groupthink. Teams crave sunshine and may try to rush harmony over conflict, leading to complacency or regressing back into Storming. However, healthy dissent is what elevates a team from good to great.

Changes in processes or tasks, adding/losing a team member, or context changes should be seen as mini detours back through Forming and Storming. If you've done God's Work during the first Storming phase these detours will be much faster, but you still have to allow the space for it to happen.

For leaders, you should be a facilitation machine. Promote the good stuff- solidifying procedures, documenting what works, endorsing team member leadership/decision-making behaviors- and help air the bad stuff- challenging groupthink, curating space for disagreement, calling out unproductive behaviors. Being an active leader without becoming a domineering leader may be tricky, but keep your eyes on the prize: a team that crushes goals and is a great place to work is on the other side of those clouds.

For team members, own it. Take responsibility for team decisions, weigh in when you disagree, and be open to critical feedback. Don't accept mediocre routines. If you've drifted away from your 1-1 coffee dates, try to get them back on the schedule.

4. Performing

Today's forecast: Super Sunny 😎

Recommended apparel: Recognition 🎯

This is the weather you've been waiting for. Your team is mature, organized, effective, and joyful. People know what to do, how to get it done well, and how to handle disagreement. Team members are independent, roles are clear yet flexible, and there are rituals and inside jokes that keeps team members engaged.

One challenge for the Performing stage is keeping the good vibes rolling without falling asleep next to the pool. Context may change, but if everyone keeps cracking jokes, your team can lose track of the plot and produce high-quality work that doesn't really work anymore.

On the other hand, for highly-driven teams or high-expectations contexts, staying ahead of burnout becomes a focus. A leader may say to themselves, "This team is really great! Let's give them more work!" At some point, the high expectations erode psychological safety and productivity/quality diminishes.

For leaders, you have to take your newfound time and invest it in looking ahead and looking closely. You'll be having less feelings-meetings, but your team needs you to keep abreast of organizational or context shifts. You also should regularly question if "how we do things around here" is really the best way or if there's a better way. Having regular reflections like a quarterly offsite can make sure you've got enough sunscreen on.

To forestall burnout or complacency, make recognition a focus. Highlight excellence, write thank you notes, send a gift, and embrace Summer Fridays. Performing is not a destination but a habit: high performance requires constant attention to relationships, processes, communication, and adaptability.

For team members, same thing as leaders. Stay curious, praise often, sweat the small stuff, and take the victory lap when it's earned.

5. Adjourning

Today's forecast: Drizzle 🌦

Recommended apparel: Reflection 💕

This phase was added later, but shouldn't be seen as optional. Human beings and organizations aren't cogs and machines, but meatbags with feelings and memories.

Projects end. Teams get reorganized. A colleague leaves. A new goal begins.

Functionally, there are tasks that need to be completed, loose ends to be tied, and documentation to be written. This is when teams evaluate their efforts/impact, recognize contributions, and help embed hard-earned best practices into organizational memory.

Emotionally, the feels are intense. Grief, restlessness, lethargy, and nostalgia can all happen at once. If you've built a truly remarkable team, this emotional closure can be particularly intense. These emotions can inhibit the very valuable work of finishing things off and transferring knowledge.

Unfortunately, most organizations don't provide the space for this to happen.

If an organization skips the Adjourning phase, individuals can be left with unresolved feelings and a sense of being unappreciated, carrying that baggage into their next team. Organizations who skip Adjourning are also mortgaging the wisdom, knowledge, and processes their team generated in exchange for...well, not much. Over time, this emotional baggage accumulates: team members are less willing to be vulnerable, to change, to trust, etc. because they anticipate being ripped apart by big corporate's capricious whims.

For leaders, intentionally plan and facilitate closure activities; don't let the team just drift apart. Create opportunities for reflection, evaluate outcomes, and formally acknowledge individual and team contributions. Pay it forward- provide support and resources for team members transitioning to new roles or projects so the next leader doesn't have to clean up YOUR mess of skipping Adjourning.

For team members, reckon with the emotion. By recognizing that endings are natural, you can best process the emotions and offer constructive feedback. Attend the celebration party and be present: the interstitular time between projects/roles can be the most memorable part of doing great work. And who knows- you might get the gang back together for a reunion tour someday.

Looking for a bit more tactical guidance? Download the free guide, 30 Things To Do In Your First 30 Days, and Form-Storm-Norm-Perform-Adjourn like a real weatherman.​​

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A TL;DR from the CRO

March hires bring April showers bring May flowers.

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

I lost my voice earlier this week when running eight hours of training. Afterwards, I was updating my lesson plan to integrate lessons learned and asked myself, "What did I do to destroy my voice?" Was it my overenthusiastic roleplays? Was my ratio of instruction-class contribution off? Was it simply just the total duration of the day?

Through this reflection, I realized that I was staring not at a facilitator's guide full of talking points and activity guidance, but a script.

It hit me as a completely unexpected-yet-obvious realization:

To me, "training" is immersive theater.

When I step into the training room, it's really stepping onto a stage:

• I arrange the set- flipcharts, workbooks, candy, seating arrangements.
• I set the tone- background music as people enter, greeting and welcoming my learners.
• I lay out the structure- agenda, What's In It For Me, participant expectations.
• I invite the audience to join- discussion questions, activities, reflection questions.
• We tell a collaborative story- participant contributions, connecting activities to real life, keeping momentum going.

I think I lost my voice because when on stage, the show must go on. Perhaps I didn't drink enough water or sleep enough the night before, but when my throat resisted me when I clearly and loudly wanted to deliver critical plot points, I forced it to finish the show.

When I'm teaching, it's so much more than just a training, but a journey. An actor can't adjourn when you're halfway through the performance.

Anywho, I've taken a vow of silence until Monday.

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Where the proscenium is a Powerpoint,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. THE MAN ON THE MOTORCYCLE PUNTED BAXTER OFF A BRIDGE​