Tuckman's stages of group development

Tuckman's stages of group development is a model the psychologist Bruce Tuckman proposed in 1965 after reviewing fifty published studies of group behavior in therapy and work settings, arguing that a working group predictably passes through forming, storming, norming and performing on its way to becoming effective. In forming, members feel out the group's purpose and their own place within it; in storming, differences in working style and struggles over informal power surface as real conflict; in norming, the group settles its disagreements and builds shared expectations and cooperation; and in performing, it applies those settled norms to work efficiently toward its goals with comparatively little oversight. In 1977 Tuckman, working with Mary Ann Jensen, added a fifth stage, adjourning, describing how a group manages its own dissolution and reflects on what it accomplished once its task is complete. Often called the Tuckman ladder, the model remains widely used in project management, therapy and organizational settings, though later commentators stress that real groups rarely move through the stages in a strict straight line, often slipping back to an earlier stage after a change in membership, leadership or circumstances.