Tuckman's stages of group development

Tuckman's stages of group development is a model of group development made by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. It has four phases: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.

  1. Forming is when the members of a team just got together.
  2. Storming is when they are in conflict and are not agreeing with each other.
  3. Norming is when they have finished deciding what is "normal".
  4. Performing is when they are working together efficiently.

Tuckman believed that these stages are all necessary and always happen in order for a team:

  • to grow
  • to face challenges
  • to tackle problems
  • to find solutions
  • to plan work
  • to deliver results

This model has become the basis for later models.

More reading on this topic can be found here: [1]


  1. Performing this is a stage of a fully functional group where members see themselves as a group and get involved in the task.