Tuckman's Model Of Group Interaction

When facing any challenge in a new environment, you may encounter many difficulties at the start. For instance, let’s say that you just got hired by a new company and are now part of the American work force. At your new job, you might encounter difficulties adjusting to the new environment, especially in group tasks and projects. This is what Tuckman’s Model provides help with. Tuckman’s model is composed of five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Understanding the steps and functions of these stages will allow you to become a more beneficial member of your team and can help you and your team move quickly and efficiently. The first step in Tuckman’s Model is known as the “forming” stage. In this stage. Most group
members are meeting for the first time and their attitudes towards their other group members are often positive and polite. This was very clear when meeting my classmates in our group for the first time. I had never met or talked to any member of my group in class before our project. After meeting and familiarizing ourselves with each other, I found out that two of my five group members were from New Orleans just like me. Helen Hafner went to Dominican High School, which was my high school’s “sister school” and Christian Archaga went to Jesuit High School which was our rival school. After meeting and talking with them for a short amount of time, it turned out that we had many friends in common as well as having similar interests and bonded over the fact that we were all from the same place. Learning about all of these similarities that we had eased us into becoming more comfortable and familiar with each other very quickly. Once the ice was broken, we all started to feel out which roles we would be participating in our group. At this stage, normally a leader would emerge from the group, but I feel in our group that each one of us acted as a leader of equal importance. We began working on our project very quickly and it hardly took any time at all for everyone to start contributing ideas to the group. The second stage of Tuckman’s Model is what is referred to as the “Storming” stage. This is the stage where group members begin coming up with and sharing ideas with the other people in the group. At first, our group was having a tough time agreeing on a topic to address for our presentation. That is until a collection of Grace Foil, Tyler Romero, and myself put out the idea of if the United States should lower or raise the drinking age. Once we brought up this idea, everybody in the group’s face brightened up and generated a spark of different ideas from everyone in it. Often, in this stage, group members would usually be jockeying for position, but for us this was not the case. Everyone throughout the whole process contributed just about evenly across the board with no one person emerging as a clear leader in the group. Everyone in our group consistently stayed on task and were very understanding and compromising to each individual’s ideas and thoughts.

The third and final step that our group had reached for the assignment is known as the “norming” phase.
This is the phase where group members are supposed to start becoming familiar with each other and start recognizing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Team members, in this stage, will begin socializing with each other and might be able to ask one another for help and provide constructive criticism for ideas put forth in the group. Our group reached this stage within meeting together only twice. I was expecting it to take multiple weeks’ worth of meeting with each other before we felt comfortable enough with each other to make any progress, but I was wrong. Every member of our group also made it to every meeting (outside of class) on time and was fully prepared to work each time we did meet. I was starting to see more commitment from each group member to the tasks at hand and could tell that everyone of them was acting as a team player. Not a single person once put up a fight, made an excuse, or was unprepared for when it was time to work. We have met multiple times practicing and putting the final touches on our presentation tomorrow, or the “performing” stage of the Tuckman Model. We feel very confident in the information that we have found and each feel as if we have a persuasive argument for why the drinking age should be
lowered. Overall, I am very satisfied with the work that each person put forth within our group.
After analyzing Tuckman’s Model, before we formed our groups, I was worried that it was going to be difficult to get along with and work with people who I had never spoken a word to prior. I was honestly surprised that we all got along so well from the very beginning. I believe that our group bled the lines of the traditional Tuckman’s Model and we all worked as one cohesive unit. We build trust, respect, good relationships, and most of all teamwork with each other. Our group always remained positive no matter how late we met or how tired we were. Everybody took responsibility for their actions and was always prepared for any situation. I am excited to have worked with and began developing friendships with each member in our group. Instead of one person becoming the leader of the group, we all acted as leaders and I hope that this presentation won’t lead our group members to the fifth and final stage of Tuckman’s Model; the “adjourning”
stage.