Tuckman doesn’t mean Teams

The Myth

I’m sorry to have to dispel one of the great myths of teams. Tuckman’s Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing model, does not relate to teams. Yes, it does relate to groups. But not teams.

I’ve just read an article by someone at INSEAD on virtual teams who quotes Tuckman’s model as a “classic for teamwork”. Tuckman may be seen right across business (and academia) as a classic for team work, but it was never intended to be used to develop teams.

The Reality

If you read the original paper that Tuckman wrote, he conducted secondary research on “psychoanalytic studies of therapy or Tgroups” as well as training groups. Tuckman research is on groups not teams. Why is this important? Because if we really want to be able to improve performance of teams, we need to be clear what we are talking about. Too often people think that a group of people is a team. Is the House of Commons a team? No, but it’s a group. Is a trip to the shops with your family a “team” event? No, it’s a family group going shopping. Does sitting with other people in a waiting room of a doctors’ surgery constitute a “potential team”? No. It’s just a group. We need to be clear about what is a team and what is a group. They are different.

Real Teaming

Teams have the capability of achieving exceptional objectives. And because of this, we need to better understand what they are, how they work and how to harness their power. And to do that we need to challenge deeply held assumptions about “teams”.

I encourage everyone to start/continue to read more widely on teams so that the common myths are replaced by what really happens in organisations.

And for the record, I think Tuckman's model is good - when applied to groups - as he intended.

Comment on this article or give us feedback in our Community