Building a new team is hard. But when a team works well together, it makes the dream work.
I recently went through this journey with a new team, going from strangers to a jelled team over the course of a year. The challenge was huge, involving a project with complex software components, tight timelines, and a dispersed group of engineers working together for the first time. There were ups and downs, joys and stress, but eventually we succeeded and celebrated one of our dearest and most valuable experiences of working as a team.
I will walk you through the five stages of team development (forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning), outlining the practices that helped us to bond, overcome challenges, and perform better as a team, in the hope that you can learn from our experience.
