9/16/11
Part I: Group Development
Five stages of team development are as follows: (1) Forming, getting to know each other. (2)Storming, dealing with tensions and defining group tasks. (3) Norming, building relationships and working together. (4) Performing, maturing relationships and task performance. (5) Adjourning, disbanding and celebrating accomplishments. With Mike, the team never could get past the storming stage. Without Mike the group is at the performing stage. By understanding the stages of team development, Christine could have seen and solved the primary problem during the storming stage. The cafeteria incident where Mike walked away upset, was part of the storming stage and that was in week three. The group is now in week five. As the team leader, Christine should have addressed the problem so that the entire team could approach and move to the Norming Stage smoothly and harmoniously together as a team. Instead, they left Mike behind and moved on without his presence. The team at week five is now ready to present their case and is now in the Performing Stage. Mike only has some rough handwritten notes. Knowledge of the Team Development Stages should have helped Christine fix problems during the Storming Stage before moving on to the next stage clean and fresh.
Part II: Problem Identification The primary problem is Mike, the secondary problem is Christine. During the first group meeting, Mike showed resistance to get together before class. Then as time went on Mike missed most of the meetings. But Mike left brief notes to Christine, which she was supposed to discuss for him at the meetings. In week three there was a cafeteria incident where Mike walked away with drama. Then on week four, Mike confides to Christine that aside from the job, the coursework, he now has girlfriend problems. On week five, Mike could not attend the meeting because he was campus security for the night. Mike clearly