What team?
Tuckman's 5 Stages of Group Development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjouring. We see this in everyday life and when thinking on how people in my personal life are affected by the 5 stages, my 16 year old brother Matthew is the first thought to come into my head. Growing up and having the dream of following my cousins sports path, his only goal was to succeed in lacrosse. His freshman year of high school, he tried out for his schools lacrosse, making the varsity team, at only 14 years old. Playing with boys who are seniors in high school was intimidating, even I felt nervous for him. Walking into a newly formed team for the new school year, Matthew knew he needed to play his best. Telling me the stories of his first few days made my heart sink to the ground. But as the days went on he told me that the team that was "formed", collected all the boys strengths in order to collaborate and make the best team in the region. Dealing with the stage of "storming" he was practicing with this team after school from 3-6 everyday. Practicing and practicing, they were able to fix the kinks in their plays and become more of a time through these certain plays. They moved past the idea of specific plays and came together to figure out what will allow them to win the game. As the days went on, the boys continued to give feedback to one another, wether it was constructive criticism or motivation they showed an example of the "Norming" stage. Matthew coming home everyday and allowing me to hear the stories of motivation, it gave everyone in our town the ability to have faith in this team that they came together as a team to win games. "Performing" and "Adjourning" can be grouped as one in this example. On the big day of the final game, my 14 year brother along with the seniors lined up ready to prove their hard work to the high school. Throughout the game, they spoke to each other, motivated each other as well as pushed each other to the end, winning the game 9-7. As a senior in high school, it was so bittersweet to see my 14 year old brother on the varsity lacrosse team, winning the game he has been looking forward to since he first started. Reviewing how this relates to Tuckman's 5 Stages of Group Development, it is mind-blowing to see how his team first started off compared to the end of the season. Looking back on this high-school experience that I was able to share with my brother for a year, he is now getting offers from D1 schools, all around the country, following my cousins lacrosse path.
https://twitter.com/mustangs_lax - Here is the link to his lacrosse team Twitter, constantly giving the town and high school updates on the games.
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Photo courtesy to US Lacrosse
Hi, Bella! I really loved reading how you broke down each stage with a small backstory of your brother's journey in his lacrosse career! I feel that the whole idea of being a "small fish in a big pond" can be super relatable so it was nice to hear your brother's humbling experience in making varsity at 14 and having to work with seniors that probably didn't want any new members to begin with. With him sharing his stories of practice with you, you were able to realize that his team was able to make wins as long as they would work together. Tuckman's 5 Stages really do come in handy even when you don't realize you are technically using them in your everyday lives.
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