A seven stage model for creating healthy new teams

For those of you not familiar with Tuckman's?forming–storming–norming–performing ?model of group development , it offers a way of understanding group behaviour and mentalities, and is especially relevant for growing teams. Each team goes through a cycle, from forming (going from independent thinkers to discovering some common goal), storming (finding their differences, gaining trust), norming (resolving conflict), through to performing (highly successful, functioning team) and then adjourning (Tuckman added this stage later, as a way to represent the eventual break up of a team, and the emotions & behaviours that accompany this stage). As this is often represented as a loop, the process can continue over and over again.

During my time at Snyk , we went through a continuous phase of hypergrowth over 6 years, doubling every 6 months. As a result (through trial and error) I've discovered a really nice way of growing new teams from successful teams. It's a method that (although not fool proof) provides some certainty over the resulting team's success, and at the same time gives autonomy to the people within the team(s) in order for them to create their own distinct processes and identity. It maps nicely to Tuckman's model, as well as something called mitosis, which is the process of cell division.

As a way to best communicate my thoughts behind this method, I've settled on mapping the stages of cell division (mitosis) to Tuckman's stages of group development . I'm no scientist, so the comparison will likely not bear scrutiny, but even though, I hope this seven stage model is helpful for you to learn and adopt.

Stage One - One performing team

Unlike Tuckman's model, we start with a performing team, this is our prototypical team, one which we'd like to "clone". I use the word clone hesitantly, because as we all know, no two teams are alike, but let's just say that this team has some qualities we'd like to replicate. Perhaps it's a team that's doing exceptionally well within the company, or perhaps it has some domain knowledge, or maybe it's simply the only team at this stage of the company's development. For some reason we're going to take this team, and eventually end up with two performing teams.

In mitosis (the process of cell division), the interphase is?the period when the cell is in a non-dividing state. This is our starting point for cell division.

In this stage, and all subsequent stages, when I refer to a team lead, I mean a people manager. Some teams will have other leads such as a technical lead, design lead, product manager etc. For simplicities sake, let's look only at leadership from a rather simplistic viewpoint of the person who has line manager responsibilities.

With this in mind, let's list the ideal attributes of our team at this stage.

• One team - kinda obvious, but in later stages you'll see when we've arrived at two teams.
• One team lead - Remember, the person with people management responsibilities.
• One (shared) identity - The team feels a kinship, they feel a sense of shared purpose, they are a performing team. Ideally the team should be highly independent and autonomous, as this will give them the best chance of growing rapidly in the next stage.
• Approximately 5-7 team members - This is often referred to as the "two pizza" sized team, it's a team that can order two pizzas, and walk away full. If you've ever managed a team of this size, you'll know how enjoyable it is.
• Some ideas of potential new lead(s) - They may or may not be apparent to you at this stage, but it's important to start asking this question early, and seeking out the person who will grow into this role. In some cases you may not have such a person within the team, in which case you should seek to bring a strong potential leader in to the fold at this early stage.

Apart from this team make-up, you'll likely also have some reason to grow from one team to multiple teams. Knowing what expectations the new team (as well as the existing one) will have going forwards can help you to make great strategic decisions, and will likely shape the following stages in some way.

Stage Two - One adjourning team

In stage two, we deliberately increase the size of the team to almost twice the size over a period of 1-2 months. This is done in preparation for creating a new team out of this original one. By doing so, we actually change the team dynamic, and in such a short timescale, your team will internally be experiencing hypergrowth. We don't want to harm the original team, and so it's vitally important that our selection process for new team members is as rigorous as ever. Ideally for every external hire you make, there's another person joining the team from within the existing company, but we know that there are times when this isn't possible. Use your creativity to enable the smoothest transition for the team possible. Because they were previously performing, they'll handle this transition well.

Let's take a look at those team attributes again at this stage:

• One team, one team lead - No change here.
• One (shared) identity - Again, it's still one team, so even though they're growing, they have the same purpose.
• Approximately 7-12 team members - This is the only major change at this time, and it is a big shift. It'll require dedication from the team lead, as well as support from all the original team members to onboard new folks to the team.
• Optionally mentoring someone to lead - If you know of one or two people who might make good team leads, it's worth talking to them about this now, and giving them safe challenges to grow within the team.
• Time span of 1-2 months - If you can afford to spend longer on this phase, it'll make the transition more gradual and easier. In my experience, when a company (and therefore team) needs to grow, it needs to happen fast, so time is a luxury we cannot afford.

Stage Three - One team, two leads

This is where things start to get interesting. It's at this stage that we will have two leads within one team. This is perhaps a slightly unorthodox thing to observe, but hear me out, it does have some big advantages.

The main advantage is that by having two leads within one team, it gives the new lead a chance to try out their skills in a safe environment. It also allows for the other team members to gradually get used to having someone else lead them, and to give constructive feedback.

For the existing team lead, this means that their time is now divided between mentoring the new team lead, and line managing all the members of the team. The small respite offered here, is that the team will not be growing as considerably as it did in the past 1-2 months, with only a handful of new recruits, getting ready for the team split.

Here's how the team attributes look at this stage:

• One team, two team leads - This is the biggest single change at this stage.
• One (shared) identity - Although the team now has two leads, it's still a single team and as such has a singular focus, mission and identity.
• Approximately 10-14 team members - We're now at a stage where team division can occur, in terms of numbers. This size of team can be a little unwieldy to manage, so the existing team lead will need to delegate to the new team lead in order to manage everyone effectively.
• Mentoring new lead in a safe environment - By now our new lead is really getting ready to lead. It may be that you go through this process with two to three people, depending on how many people are looking for this role, and are capable of it.
• Time span of 1-2 months - We don't want to spend too long in this position, as we have a large team with an unusual amount of leads. Just long enough to validate that the new lead is being set up for success, and for them to learn what it's like to lead a team.

Stage Four - Decision/inflection point

Now that we've prepared for the split, we're at a point where we need to make a final decision, and then announce to the team that they'll be splitting into two teams.

Before making any decision, it's important to work with your own line manager to ensure that the plan makes sense, and that the new team leader is likely to be successful in their new role. It's impossible to entirely de-risk this decision, but doing your homework, and asking the right questions will prove invaluable here.

This stage is incredibly sensitive, and it's important to follow the right steps to ensure that everyone has a chance to speak, and that they feel a sense of involvement and psychological safety.

Hopefully you already have regular 1:1s with each of your team members, but if not, schedule a 1:1 meeting with each of them to talk through the upcoming changes with them, allow for them to ask any questions, and try to get a sense of which team would be a best fit for them. It's helpful if you can provide quite a lot of detail to the individual team members, so prepare for these meetings by going through the two teams focus areas, and try to give an unbiased account of each team's mission statements.

It may not be possible to make everyone happy at this stage, and so it's important to acknowledge this from the start, and to set realistic expectations with your team members. They may not get to choose which team they join, but you'll take their feedback into account and try to make a best plan for everyone.

Stage Five - One team, two identities

Now that the announcement has happened, we can start organising into two separate teams. This is a halfway house stage, where there's still technically only one team, but within that team there are two discreet groups, and a high degree of independence.

Ideally there should be a major, but not too high risk project that the new team lead can take, along with approximately half of the team. It may be necessary to pull some strings at this stage in order to secure such an ideal project. The payoff for doing so will be an excellent team lead who had a great initial experience of the role.

In terms of Tuckman's stages, we're likely to be in a storming phase at this point, and as such we can expect some conflict to arise. It's important to reassure team members at this stage, by giving them as much information as you are able to (without making false promises), ideally in an individual setting such as a 1:1. Whichever project they're working on at this stage, they could still end up on either team.

Let's look at the team attributes for this stage:

• One team, two team leads - Although this seems the same as before, now that the team split has been announced there's more visibility over the role, and the significance of it.
• Two identities - Now that we're preparing to split, and now that one half of the team are working on a separate project, we can start to see two identities forming within the team, this is not only ok, it's a good thing, as it allows for each team to feel empowered, and a sense of purpose.
• Approximately 10-14 team members - No change here, although it may feel like two teams of 5-7 members each in some ways.
• Continue evaluating new lead's skills in a safe environment - By this stage you really want to observe the new team lead taking their own initiative, and learning from their mistakes. By now they're likely to report directly to a separate line manager from the original team lead (e.g. at a director level) in addition to having 1:1s with their original manager.
• Time span of 2 weeks to 1 month - We should move past this stage swiftly, as long as we have confidence in the new team. This is the final stepping stone to having two autonomous teams.

Stage Six - Two teams

We're nearly there! By this stage we have two teams, and the temptation would be to declare the process over, but we want to make sure that both teams are through the storming phase, and into the norming phase before we can do so.

At this stage, the new team lead will be shadowed either by the original team lead, or by their new line manager. It's important that as they discover obstacles and challenges they have someone that they can trust to support them with this. Of course we all need this support no matter where we are at in our careers, but it's incredibly important for new team leads, as well as for new teams.

In this stage our two teams will have the following attributes:

• Two teams, two team leads - It's important that the two teams are entirely separate from one another by this stage, and should have all their own ceremonies, plans, 1:1s and anything else you'd expect of separate teams.
• Two identities - This would be a great moment to run a workshop within each team in order to align on the team's mission, and to gain awareness of the roles of each person within each team. I find the Team Charter Miro template especially useful for such a workshop.
• Approximately 5-7 team members - In terms of team size, we're now back where we started, but with twice the number of teams. Two pizzas per team, the ideal number!
• Shadowing/supporting model - Expect to be more hands off by this stage, try asking open questions, and allowing them to make as many decisions (right or wrong) as possible. It's the fastest way to learn.

Stage Seven - Two fully independent teams

This stage bears a lot of similarities to the first phase, except for now we have two independent teams where once there was one. The whole process should take about 6 months, and if your experience is anything like mine, you'll be starting the process again at this point, ready to double and split again in another 6 months.

I haven't always followed this process, sometimes we have no option but to create a new team from many different teams, or almost entirely external hires (or an acquisition). But if possible, the benefits of this method are that both teams will be performing within a short space of time, and will closely mirror the existing values, culture, processes and policies within your workplace.

Let me know in the comments if you've done something similar to this, or different in the past, and how that worked out.