Wednesday Wisdom: From Storming to Clarity with Liftoff

 Today's Wednesday Wisdom is brought to you by Mike Cantrell, Agility for All follower and new contributor. Do you have a question? Post it in the comments.

Today's question is, what is the fastest way to get through the storming stage of a new team in a remote environment? This question refers to Bruce Tuchman's forming, storming, norming, performing, and journey model, which describes a team's journey to become efficient, effective, and high performing. 

For a new team, the storming stage is where each team member's work preferences and personalities start to clash. So what is the fastest way to get through that? There are a lot of different methods and points of view, and they're all valid, but I'm going to focus on what authors Diana Larson and Ainsley Nies say in their book Liftoff.

They explain that problems inevitably arise later when a team starts without a clear purpose, aligning for teamwork, or understanding of context. 

So let's break that down. Purpose answers the what am I doing here question by explaining why they're needed and is comprised of three parts. Vision -  where the team is headed, team mission - the work  that needs to be done, and mission tests - indicators to tell us if  the right work is being done. 

Alignment is the shared understanding of not only the work to be done, but the value that each individual adds to that work. Alignment answers the how and is composed of three parts.

A simple set of rules that helps guide decisions for the team and the team members. Core Team  membership, which is where the group forms an approach to the work by understanding each team's member's strengths, capabilities, and commitments. And third is working agreements. These ensure that the team shares responsibilities in defining expectations for how they will function together, reinforces team commitment and allows joint accountability to achieve the team's mission. 

And lastly, context. Context is understanding how the team and their efforts fit into the larger picture. Context. Gives the team the information they need to make better decisions by knowing how the work affects the organization and its goals.

And that is today's Wednesday Wisdom. Don't forget. If you have a question, post it below. Tune in next week for our next segment.

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