The Forming Stage

In my opinion, the team is at the performing stage, but still working with the storming and norming stage under the circumstances and difficulties the team is confronting.

The forming stage was successful; interaction was facilitated, with personal references and work schedules exchanged. Strengths, weaknesses and expectations clarified with the first meeting. Also Christine was elected as team leader.

At the storming stage was evident the conflicts among the team members, as every one of them has different personalities; Diane, never volunteers, but give great ideas when is asked; Mike, the "clown" of the group, always making excuses; Steven, by the book, wants to meet the agenda, doesn't matter if the goal is achieved; Janet, always giving the extra mile for the group; and Christine, meticulous and organized, very committed on giving the best on everything she does.

The norming stage is where they have a sense of cohesion and teamwork, except for Mike who miss meetings and don't take responsibility for his part, even with Christine trying to arrange meetings to suit the team.

At the performing stage, the group is working well, all of them working on their part except for Mike, who just handled some rough hand written notes. The project process might be delayed because of the part Mike haven't done.

The adjourning stage may cease to exist meeting their goal and expectations, excepting the minor crisis caused by Mike.

If Christine had followed the concept of the five development stages, the team should have eventually transitioned to the performing stage comfortably. Christine needed to understand more effectively the strengths and weaknesses of the team members, and what each one of them could bring from the beginning. She waited until week 5 to analyze and try to get a solution. She could tried a different approach to Mike in order to get him involved, and given him a different role in order to leverage his capabilities and amusing attitude.

The storming stage is the hardest one to get through, but Christine could have done a better job facilitating better communication. In this stage the would have resolve their basic conflicts which actually caused problems on the other stages. This would have helped the team in going towards performing and adjourning stages rather easily as they would have been able to spend more time and energy on the task instead of managing the interaction problems.

Christine could seek advice earlier, and take the situation to Professor Sandra, before allowing Mike probably taking down the team. There's no doubt it would be a mature and cohesive team if Mike's situation was under control. And she could utilized every team member skills and talents wisely, to assign better their roles, and establish an effective communication.

I think the 10 points to measure the maturity of a team