How does a team progress through forming, storming, norming, and performing stages?

How does a team progress through forming, storming, norming, and performing stages?

• A. Through parallel, independent work with little interaction.
• B. By deferring all decisions to leadership until the performing stage.
• C. Through sequential phases where trust builds, conflicts arise, norms are established, and high performance emerges.
• D. By starting with high performance and then refining roles.

Answer: (C)

Teams grow by moving through stages where they build trust, address differences, establish ways of working, and then reach a high level of collaboration. In forming, team members meet, learn about goals, and start to rely on guidance as roles are clarified. During storming, conflicts and competing ideas surface as power dynamics and boundaries are tested. In norming, shared norms and stronger cooperation emerge, with clearer roles and better communication. Finally, performing is when the team operates smoothly, with high trust, self-management, and productive collaboration that drives strong outcomes. The best answer captures this sequential flow: trust builds, conflicts arise, norms are established, and high performance follows. Choices that suggest little interaction, deferring all decisions to leadership, or starting with high performance misrepresent how teams actually develop.

Teams grow by moving through stages where they build trust, address differences, establish ways of working, and then reach a high level of collaboration. In forming, team members meet, learn about goals, and start to rely on guidance as roles are clarified. During storming, conflicts and competing ideas surface as power dynamics and boundaries are tested. In norming, shared norms and stronger cooperation emerge, with clearer roles and better communication. Finally, performing is when the team operates smoothly, with high trust, self-management, and productive collaboration that drives strong outcomes. The best answer captures this sequential flow: trust builds, conflicts arise, norms are established, and high performance follows. Choices that suggest little interaction, deferring all decisions to leadership, or starting with high performance misrepresent how teams actually develop.