When first reading about Tuckmans team storming (Tuckman and Jensen 1977) I believed this was an exageration. We experienced a significant upheaval in the team this week.

Activity

I spent several hours working with the team leader this week to resolve some ongoing issues. I pride myself on being a peacemaker in most situations. However, sometimes, people should move on. On this occasion, the decision was made with short notice, leading to many logistical challenges.

Time was invested in re-bootstrapping our discord channel, miro and google drive files, and Trello board. While we lost some history and file fidelity from a hasty emergency backup of google drive, we didn’t lose any critical files.

At this time, we have not had confirmation from the tutors or supervisors if we are allowed to continue with only four team members, but we are confident that, if the decision is up to us, that we want to continue.

We focused on reaffirming our commitment to a single game idea during our weekly standup and encouraged more open and honest communication. In addition, we discussed the election of a new team leader and suggested that we will all take on additional responsibilities to help share the load.

Examine and Analyse

Higher levels of personality diversity, especially groups with high extroversion, are more likely to succeed (Peslak 2006). While the group haven’t all taken MBTI style tests, the results from the Big 5 indicate that the entire team are introverts.

A team that has a fear of conflict leads to the creation of other unresolved disputes. These challenges are characterised by lots of backchannel communications, avoidance of critical topics, and waste time and effort on posturing (Lencioni 2000). Upon reflection, all of these items were visible within the team and continue to be an ongoing issue.

There is also evidence that the team is suffering from the Lencioni characteristics of lack of commitment. We continually discuss features and mechanics that had already been decided on and documented. Some of these have affected me personally and will significantly affect the quality and effort required to produce an artefact in this module.

The Lencioni view on lack of accountability is also visible in much smaller amounts in that there is visible resentment between team members on performance standards.

All hese issues are enhanced by unnassertive and uncoopererative avoidance behaviour. (Thomas and Kilmann 1976)

Learnings and Actions

When something goes wrong, someone is going to tell the story. You’ll be better off if it’s you. (Fried and Hansson 2010)

When the group leader left the team, this left a hole, and communication was lacking. I stepped in, ensured that the team knew what had happened, proposed a path through the unknown, and proactively reached out to the course supervisors.

Lencioni poses several healing activities for each of the dysfunctions we are experiencing.

Fear of Conflict Healing Activities

Mining - a miner in this situation is someone who extracts buried disagreements and sheds the light of day on them, with sensitivity and tact. The team then works together to clear and resolve the disagreement.

Real Time Permission - permission to interrupt when a team member is becoming uncomfortable with discord and offer encouragement that healthy debate and discussion is important to trust. (Lencioni 2012)

Conflict avoidance seems to be the most damaging of the five dysfunctions in our group at the moment. So I will incorporate these elements within our team charter to ensure that conflict is raised and brought into the open and not kept in backchannels to grow.

References

  • FRIED, Jason and David Heinemeier HANSSON. 2010. Rework. 1st edition. New York: Currency.

  • TUCKMAN, Bruce W. and Mary Ann C. JENSEN. 1977. ‘Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited’. Group & organization studies 2(4), 419–27.

  • LENCIONI, Patrick. 2000. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable.

  • LENCIONI, Patrick M. 2012. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Team Assessment. 2nd edition. San Francisco, Calif.: Pfeiffer.

  • PESLAK, Alan R. 2006. ‘The Impact of Personality on Information Technology Team Projects’. In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference on Computer Personnel Research: Forty Four Years of Computer Personnel Research: Achievements, Challenges & the Future. 273–9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/1125170.1125233.

  • THOMAS, Kenneth and Ralph KILMANN. 1976. ‘Thomas-Kilmann Conflict MODE Instrument’.