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Directors and other leaders in early learning settings frequently find themselves with teams that are in conflict with each other, losing good educators and frustrated with the chaos of a lack of collaborative teamwork.
To say that this is stressful is an understatement! It feels as though things are spiralling out of control and it can be hard to know where to start or what to do to improve the culture.
A good starting place is getting to know the five steps and stages of team formation. If you can identify where your team is in this framework, you can start to form a plan of action.
Bruce Tuckman, an educational psychologist, identified the five stages of team development way back in 1965 and they still hold true today:
Let's briefly explore these stages and what leaders should do in each stage...
When a new educators and other staff start working together, the team is forming. This can happen at a new service or even when a new educator is employed or educators change rooms.
In this stage, team members are very polite and are getting to know each other and familiarise themselves with policies, procedures, the children and families and day to day life at your service.
During this stage, leaders need to be available, provide lots of information, be clear about who is responsible for what and facilitate the development of respectful relationships.
After some time, the team starts to become more familiar with each other, the politeness starts to wear off and conflict can start to develop as they jockey for their position in the team.
People may start to push the boundaries, question the leader's authority and preferred working style's start to become evident.
During this stage, leaders need to be coaches, reinforcing the expectations established in the forming stage, continue to be available to address issues or problems early and to not be frustrated when needing to repeat themselves.
In this stage, the chaos and stress experienced in the storming stage starts to settle. The teams knows each other better, knows the expectations and who should do what and starts to appreciate other's strengths and abilities. Team members may even start to socialise with each other.
During this stage, leaders need to enjoy the calm but not be complacent. Keep building teamwork by working closely with individual educators in the team to strengthen their skills and understanding of requirements. Continue to communicate and meet regularly as a team and celebrate the successes within the team.
In this stage, teams are really working well together and meeting the goals of your service. Hard work gets done in making real improvements and it feels as though you're getting somewhere.
During this stage, leaders can delegate tasks more easily, relax a little and continue to concentrate on developing individual staff. Continue to communicate and be available even though there will be less demands on your time in resolving problems and conflict.
In this stage, teams may come to an end, for example if a service closes, one of the team members leaves or educators form new teams in new rooms.
During this stage, leaders need to communicate, provide support, be available to listen and provide celebrations or occasions to mark the conclusion of one era and the start of a new era for the team. This helps the team to process what is happening and support each other.
The good news is that these team stages are fairly predictable and if leaders can take the time to step back and observe what is happening, they are more likely to be able to strategise and support their team effectively.
The not-so-good news is that it is not possible to know how long the team will take to move from one stage to another. Neither do the stages necessarily progress in order. And neither do teams keep moving forward, they can move back to another stage. This can be triggered by changes such as new people joining the team or others leaving.
As a leader do not give up, be persistent and realistic about what can be achieved. Be flexible but determined to work with your team and support them to be in the "performing" zone.
Here are some resources for extra professional learning about leadership and leadership: