From Group to Team: The Journey That Every Project Takes

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Early in my career, on a track replacement project, I thought team management was about getting to "yes". I walked in with project plan print-outs, went milestone by milestone, and secured dates on the spot. Heads nodded. Names went next to tasks. We left "committed".

It looked organised. It wasn't real.

Over the next few weeks, the team challenged me. "We've done this work for years, and there's a better way than what's on that plan." That honesty shifted everything. We talked, disagreed, and eventually aligned on what actually mattered.

By midpoint, we'd found our groove. When delivery day came, we performed as one unit. Issues cropped up but were handled without drama.

Only later did I realise I'd lived through the classic stages of team development.

Great teams aren't born. They're built.

Teams move through predictable stages: Forming (polite and cautious), Storming (tension and conflict as people find their place), Norming (settling into patterns), Performing (delivering well together), and Adjourning (wrapping up and moving on). Most PMs expect teams to jump straight to performing. They don't.

This is Tuckman's model of team development. All teams naturally move through these phases. Understanding where your team is helps you know what they need.

But here's the reality of using this model in practice: it's never a straight line. You'll loop back, skip forward, get stuck. A new joiner might pull you back to Storming. A crisis might jump you straight to Performing. That's all normal.

But when teams thrive, they share four things:

• Clarity: Everyone knows the goal, their role, and how decisions get made.
• Psychological safety: People speak up and admit mistakes without fear.
• Routine: There's a steady rhythm that keeps things moving.
• Care: People get support when they need it.

Your job isn't to avoid conflict. It's to create space where healthy conflict can happen, where people can disagree without it getting personal, and where the team works through tension together. The best teams I've worked with had moments of real disagreement early on. They worked through it. The worst teams stayed polite and never built trust.

Next time you're in a team meeting: Look at your current team. What stage are they at? If they're still being overly polite, create space for honest conversation. Ask "What's not being said here?" and actually listen to the answer.

What stage is your team at right now? Hit reply. I read them all and often feature reader insights in future newsletters.

Want to go deeper? You can read more in the full deep-dive with examples on team development, or try the Mindcast for hands-on practice making these calls in realistic PM scenarios.

Making things happen,
Bilal Jamil