■ Creating a Shared Space

role is important in this stage because it’s the most clearly defined role and helps the rest of the group feel less anxious about what’s to come. ■ Storming In this stage, people are starting to get to know each other and personalities start emerging. The leader might feel a little challenged as people jockey for position and assert what they do best. Storming can bring out personality clashes and struggles over authority. People might push back on deadlines, “forget” to do important tasks, or rebel against the group in others ways. Things might just not be a whole lot of fun as many skirmishes and struggles rise to the surface. ■ Norming As a result of the tumultuous nature of the storming stage, norming brings a sense of organizing for the team. The group begins to establish norms that enable members to know how and when things are submitted, who is in charge, what the reporting will look like, who to go to with problems, and so on. In the norming stage, team members are also getting to know each other better and might turn to each other for help with tasks or questions. As a result, the team begins to feel more like a team and starts to build trust and cooperation. ■ Performing This stage is the productive phase of the team. With the earlier stages out of the way and with the benefit of the organizing that went on in the norming stage, performing enables the team members to do what they need to do to meet the group goals. Tuckman later added a fifth stage, called “adjourning,” in which the group finishes its work, celebrates its successes, and disbands. Note that not all teams go through this process exactly this way—some skip steps, and some seem to get stuck in a particular stage and never get out of it. It’s an interesting paradigm to keep in mind as you watch your own team come together, though, and it can be reassuring if you find your team in the tumultuous storming stage.

One of the challenges of working in the cloud is that, well, you’re working in the cloud. It’s a bit more difficult to look at someone across a desk and talk about something face to face (although you can use Lync Online and your webcam for some real facetime). Your weekly staff meetings in which each person gives an update of his or her part of the project are harder to pull off. People might be in or out of their office—how do you know?