As noted in Part One, the Team Success Survey provides a snapshot of where each member sees a team. Now we’ll discuss the Summary Report which combines all the responses to show how the team perceives itself.
The Summary Report shows which in which stage a team perceives itself, Forming, Storming, Norming or Performing. The responses to the 32 questions in the Survey are grouped according to a corresponding stage. When the responses are totaled, the highest number indicates in which stage the team perceives itself.
This report is from six people in a network marketing company. They first took the survey three weeks after the team had formed (July 2008).Totaling up the responses from the team, here is what the Summary Report showed.
Forming Stage: 28.0 Storming Stage: 23.6
Norming Stage: 24.9 Performing Stage: 26.3
At that time, on average the team perceived itself as being in the Forming Stage, which is consistent with a newly organized team. We worked with them addressing the issues raised in the report and in September 2008, the team re-took the Survey. Here are the results:
Performing Stage: 29.0 Forming Stage: 26.4
Storming Stage: 22.4 Norming Stage: 28.2
Understanding the Results
The highest of the four scores indicates which stage you perceive your team normally operates in. If your highest score is 32 or more, it indicates a clear sense on your part that your team is in this stage. On average, this team does perceive itself as being in the Performing stage, but the results indicate a member or two may be less sure.
If two of the scores are close, your team may be going through a transition phase. However, if you score high in both the Forming and Storming phases, then your team is likely to be in the Storming phase. If you score high in both the Norming and Performing phases, then your team is likely to be in the Performing stage.
One benefit of this checklist cum survey is the elimination of guesswork. Without playing the blame game, members can see how they are progressing through the four stages. If there are roadblocks, such as the responses to question six (We take our team’s goals literally and assume a shared understanding) are not positive, then the team knows what needs to be addressed.
Find out for yourself how your team is performing, by going here.
Note that the cover page requires a participant’s contact information, but the Summary Report generated from all the completed surveys is anonymous. A team should include from four-to-eight members, as suggested by J. Richard Hackman.
