Being Part of a Team Blows-Which is What You Need to Sail Your Boat
Carolyn Scott
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What do you think of when you hear the word team? If you're anything like me, you associate it with all that stuff happening on your TV screen most Sundays of the year while you are trying to read. Seriously, though, I do tend to associate teams with sports and since I am way past my athletic days i 
t's often a concept of which I feel I am more of an observer than a participant. Recently I have been forced to revise my view.
Years ago when I worked for companies in work groups, or teams, moving through the inevitable process of coming together, learning each others' quirks and strengths, and getting the work done seemed natural if not easy. If someone had asked me then if I was a good team player I would not have hesitated with my nauseatingly resounding, "yes!"
Later when my work moved to an increasingly solitary nature I discovered that I could get a lot more done without worrying about or waiting for whatever piece of the puzzle the team provided. Even then if asked if I was a good team player, I would have delivered a not-quite-so-nauseating, but still firm, "yes." I even would have believed it.
When my work took me to working for myself, mostly by myself, I found I had an academic understanding of the work team concept. I remember reading Bruce Tuckman's theory of team dynamics, Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Sadly, I was no longer a team player, good or otherwise.
Recently a group of three other similarly independent businesspeople and I came together to work on a project. Wow. Talk about shifting gears. So, as Mr. Tuckman predicted, we formed. We were each, for reasons that satisfy our own agendas, brought together by our common goal of making an event a success. It sounds easy. It should be easy. It isn't easy because we are people. So, again true to Mr. Tuckman's prediction, we stormed.
Storming is the conflict stage of team development during which we learn each other's idiosyncrasies and strengths, we define our roles, and basically just learn to get along. From someone who has known the joy of absolute autonomy, I can tell you this stage really does stink.
Years ago when I worked for companies in work groups, or teams, moving through the inevitable process of coming together, learning each others' quirks and strengths, and getting the work done seemed natural if not easy. If someone had asked me then if I was a good team player I would not have hesitated with my nauseatingly resounding, "yes!"
Later when my work moved to an increasingly solitary nature I discovered that I could get a lot more done without worrying about or waiting for whatever piece of the puzzle the team provided. Even then if asked if I was a good team player, I would have delivered a not-quite-so-nauseating, but still firm, "yes." I even would have believed it.
When my work took me to working for myself, mostly by myself, I found I had an academic understanding of the work team concept. I remember reading Bruce Tuckman's theory of team dynamics, Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Sadly, I was no longer a team player, good or otherwise.
Recently a group of three other similarly independent businesspeople and I came together to work on a project. Wow. Talk about shifting gears. So, as Mr. Tuckman predicted, we formed. We were each, for reasons that satisfy our own agendas, brought together by our common goal of making an event a success. It sounds easy. It should be easy. It isn't easy because we are people. So, again true to Mr. Tuckman's prediction, we stormed.
Storming is the conflict stage of team development during which we learn each other's idiosyncrasies and strengths, we define our roles, and basically just learn to get along. From someone who has known the joy of absolute autonomy, I can tell you this stage really does stink.