Norming

The norming stage feels like stability, Everyone knows how to work together, how things flow, who is responsible for what and how each individual likes to work. The norming stage, when cohesive, is engaging, empowering, motivating and team members feel like they belong. Unfortunately, many team normalise dysfunction to some degree. This is where much of my work is spent - moving from dysfunction to cohesion.

Behavioural Level:

The team is more stable and should be making progress towards goals. Their is a rhythm to the work, and the jigsaw pieces are fitting together. Goals are clear and relationships are more established, enabling members to draw on each other’s strengths and freeing members up to collaboratively. Team ‘norms’, or habits of behaving and working together, have become well established, so the team no longer needs to invest energy in how to get things done. Natural leaders have emerged, and leadership is therefore more distributed.

Now, many organisations have aspirational values plastered over the walls. The real values and culture is what you see in the team norms. Teams, even within a bigger organisation, will have their own team norms. As a leader, you observe whether they are aligned to the organisational norms, if they are helping or hindering performance, and whether to intervene.

Psychological level: 

Team members begin to feel a sense of WE and I. They understand where they fit in the team and how it contributes to the performance of the team. People are valued not by their job title, but also for who they are, their values, strengths, weaknesses and patterns of behaviour. They feel able to be themselves and take off the masks. If you aren't seeing this, then you are probably still stuck in storming or forming.

Members of norming teams feel more confidence in their ability to resolve disagreements and positively challenge and engage in solutions. They understand others personalities, and have found productive ways to work together. A sense of loyalty grows. Members may feel safe to offer time, expertise and resources with each other, for the good of the team. 

Leader’s role: 

If you've reached this stage, and the norms are cohesive, you are doing well. You can step back a bit, manage less and lead more. Team members will want to step up and assume more responsibility because they care about the outcomes. Leaders facilitate healthy debate, stretch, grow, develop and inspire the team to be more, do more and have fun along the way. However, Leaders must keep a holistic view, so they can spot any negative relationships, norms or behaviours that creep in. Notice when deadlines are missed, blame creeps in or engagement drops. Act fast before you slip to dysfunctional norms.

Transitioning into the norming stage is when people find a way to resolve their differences, appreciate colleague’s strengths and weaknesses, and respect the authority of the leader. Theoretically, the team moves to high performance. Yet this is normally the phase most teams get stuck in. 

On a positive note, norming teams may engage in socialising, informal conversations and ask each other for help and provide constructive feedback. There is a rhythm to everyone's work, and what feels like flow. People develop a stronger commitment to the team goal, and you start to see progress towards it, taking a level of autonomy and personal responsibility for their work.  

Conflict subsides, but often to the point that no healthy conflict exists. People get in their lanes and stay there. This might sound like the dream team, but often norming means settling for ease over striving for performance. 

As new tasks or methods come up teams may fall back into storming, but the leader can progress to norming through open dialogue and practicing trust and communication.