One of my favorite business theories is Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development which argues that groups go through four developmental phases:

• Forming – when the group initially comes together and starts sniffing one another out
• Storming – when the group is like “WHAO, HOLD THE FUCK UP! I DON’T LIKE THE WAY YOU SMELL! AM I SUPPOSED TO MURDER YOU NOW OR SOMETHING?!”
• Norming – “Aiight, so I guess your smell isn’t all bad, I guess I don’t need to murder you”
• Performing – “LOOK AT US! TWO STINKY ASS MOTHERFUCKERS WORKING TOGETHER AND DOING THINGS! HAHA, BUSINESS!

Not really sure where the smell metaphor came from, but there you go. And, maybe in traditional business perspective it’s more like “WAIT! You have different opinions than me?! How dare you?! Don’t you know business is a settled science and I know all the right answers?!”

It’s not. And they don’t.

But, regardless, the storming phase is perhaps the most important in a group’s development or, I’d argue, in one’s personal development in the evolutionary battle with and against themselves to actually do something without being intimidated by imposter syndrome.

Alright, I can smell my own stink on that last one….

My point is, from my experience whether and how a group survives the storming phase sets the tone for everything to follow.

And, to be clear, just because you survive toward norming and some level of performing doesn’t mean you actually are or are going to be successful. Plenty of environments use an endless storming phase to create walls and counterproductive process to shield themselves from their smelly adversaries.

The worst types of organizations are those who never go through the storm and instead constantly retreat into their siloed, safe spaces. Ultimately not much to worry about if you’re not the owner, though also not a pleasant environment to spend your time.

So, how do companies pass through the storm and effectively evolve to norming and performing? I suppose there are potentially a great number – remember, again, we’re talking about applied sociology here, the absolute softest of all science – though from my experience, prioritization is the most important.

A shared set of universally agreed upon things that we’re going to work on as a team. Ideally, addressing a specific problem supported by data though, honestly, collective vibes will also take you pretty far.

And, if you’re presently in a party of one storming phase, the priority list is even more important, otherwise you may find yourself aimlessly meandering from one abandoned project to the next for decades. If it helps personal accountability, maybe sharing the list with somebody you trust or some sort of mutual support group might be a good starting place.

Oh, never mind. Nobody would ever go for that…