From Storming to Performing: What Tuckman’s Model Teaches About Teams

From Storming to Performing: What Tuckman’s Model Teaches About Teams

· by Alicia Hue, MBA - Founder of Within Pages™

Every team carries potential. Yet the path from a group of individuals to a high-performing team is rarely smooth. Conflict, misalignment, and uncertainty are not signs of failure; they are indicators of growth. They are natural stages in team development.

Understanding the Stages of Team Development

In 1965, psychologist Bruce Tuckman described four stages of team growth: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. Teams do not leap straight into high performance. They evolve through tension and trial. The storming stage, often marked by conflict and frustration, is essential for building trust and clarity. Without it, teams risk shallow harmony that crumbles under pressure.

Why Storming Matters

Leaders often see conflict as a problem to be solved quickly. Tuckman showed that storming is not dysfunctional, but a stage that prepares teams for deeper collaboration. When managed well, it surfaces hidden assumptions, tests boundaries. It sets the foundation for psychological safety, the environment Amy Edmondson (1999) describes where team members feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, and learn together.

Psychological Safety as the Bridge

Storming only becomes constructive when psychological safety is present. Without it, conflict leads to fragmentation. With it, differences spark innovation and growth. Leaders who invite open dialogue, acknowledge uncertainty, and model vulnerability turn storming into a pathway toward norming and performing.

From Performing to Renewal

Teams that reach the performing stage operate with trust, accountability, and shared purpose. Yet even high-performing teams cycle back when new challenges or members arrive. Reflection helps leaders guide their teams through these cycles, ensuring continuous growth rather than linear progress.

Closing Thought

Conflict is not the enemy of teamwork. Avoidance is. Leaders who embrace storming as a natural stage of team development help their teams move toward authentic collaboration, resilience, and lasting performance.

Teams grow through challenge, not in spite of it.

Follow Within Pages™ for more reflections on building resilient teams, or visit www.withinpagesjournal.com to explore how structured reflection can strengthen both leaders and teams.

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