Personal Reflection On Tuckman's Five Stages

Over a 6-week period I as well as 3 others formed a group (all of whom I’ve never talked to prior to the practice round). We participated in completing 5 rounds (also 1 practice round) of a business simulation game, where we were expected to work as an effective group and come up with strategies to achieve the aims we set. Within this statement I aim to reflect on the past 6 periods and see what happened, evaluate why and hopefully attempt to avoid the negatives in the future. I have also kept a weekly log where I kept notes of what happened during the seminar (Appendix 1).

During the practice round which was also the first time all 4 of us met and became a group. We all worked as individuals, attempting to understand how to play the business simulation. We had little communication therefore a lack of understanding and blurred purpose of the group and, what was expected of each of us. This lack of consensus caused confusion amongst the group, this may have been the case because we were all uncertain of what we were to do. Therefore, it would be argued by Tuckman that we were in the first stage being ‘forming’ within his 5 stages of group development.

We advanced to the next stage in our group development because we were able to understand what behaviors and actions are acceptable and what is not tolerated, such as from the previous round of James making a critical decision without the groups approval. Furthermore, I felt as though my opinions were heard and we were all deciding the direction we wanted to go in. However, in the final round there Kumani again was absent and it felt as though we took a step back to the second stage of ‘storming’ as there was a lack of communication again. Therefore, it would be argued by Tuckman that we were an unsuccessful group as we never got to the final stage in group development being