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What is the Storming Stage?

This article is the third in a six-part series on the team life cycle.

Navigating the Storming Stage: Fostering Collaboration and Resolving Conflict

In the journey of every team, there comes a stage where opinions clash, tensions arise, and conflicts emerge. This stage, known as the Storming Stage, is a crucial part of the team life cycle. As leaders, it is vital for us to understand the dynamics of this stage and guide our teams through it with patience and tact.

What is the Storming Stage?

The Storming Stage, which is the second stage in the team life cycle, involves team members expressing their opinions and ideas. Consequently, conflicts and tension often arise within the team. As individuals become more comfortable in their roles and assert their viewpoints, disagreements may surface regarding approaches to tasks and power dynamics. Therefore, it is crucial for leaders to understand the underlying causes of these conflicts in order to effectively address them and foster a collaborative environment.

Key Considerations for Leaders during the Storming Stage

To navigate the Storming Stage effectively and transform conflicts into opportunities for growth, leaders should focus on the following strategies:

  1. Facilitating Open Communication: Encourage team members to openly express their ideas, concerns, and viewpoints. Moreover, actively listen to each individual and ensure that their perspectives are heard and acknowledged. By creating a safe space for communication, we can foster trust and transparency within the team.
  2. Promoting Constructive Conflict Resolution: Conflict is inevitable during the Storming Stage, but it can be channeled toward positive outcomes. Encourage team members to address conflicts in a constructive manner, focusing on the issues rather than personal attacks. Facilitate discussions where conflicting viewpoints are explored, and resolutions are reached through collaboration and compromise.
  3. Establishing Common Goals: Revisit and clarify the team’s goals and objectives to ensure that everyone is aligned. By reiterating the shared purpose, we can help team members redirect their focus from individual agendas toward collective success. Emphasize the importance of teamwork and highlight how collaboration benefits the entire team.
  4. Providing Support and Guidance: As leaders, it is essential to provide support and guidance to team members during this challenging stage. Be approachable and available for discussions and problem-solving. Offer guidance on conflict resolution techniques and provide resources or training if necessary. By showing empathy and understanding, we can build stronger relationships and create an environment where conflicts can be resolved effectively.

The Path Forward: Progressing through the Team Life Cycle

Navigating the Storming Stage is a significant milestone on the journey toward a high-performing team. Successfully overcoming conflicts and building a culture of collaboration sets the stage for the subsequent stages of the team life cycle: Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.

Conclusion – The Storming Stage

Understanding and effectively managing the Storming Stage is crucial for leaders who aspire to build strong and successful teams. By facilitating open communication, promoting constructive conflict resolution, establishing common goals, and providing support and guidance, leaders can navigate through this stage with confidence. Embracing the challenges and opportunities presented by the Storming Stage will set the foundation for a high-performing team that can overcome obstacles and achieve remarkable results.

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How to Apply Rupture and Repair Therapy as a Leader

The concept of “rupture and repair” is widely used in the fields of social work and community services. It has origins in attachment theory founded by John Bowlby (1958) and is well known in therapeutic disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, and contemporary trauma-informed practice disciplines such as neurobiology. It is also something you can adapt to your leadership practice with great benefit.

In simple terms, “rupture and repair” is about breaking, fixing, and improving relationships. Specifically, it is about a breach or disconnect in a relationship followed by the restoration and positive continuation of that relationship.

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My experience with rupture and repair comes from my work with children and young people with trauma/abuse histories. The majority of this population has been betrayed by their loved ones, and as a result, they have ongoing trouble forming attachments and building trust. By using the rupture and repair approach as a way to promote healthy conflict resolution, we could assist in their healing by showing them that they are safe and appropriate people in the world with whom they can communicate openly.

From a leadership perspective, this approach can be invaluable. Conflict in the workplace is inevitable. If a leader reaches across the divide to help reconnect their employees after a conflict, it can improve and strengthen relationships across the team.

How Professional Relationships Can Break Down

Let’s say you have received an email from a staff member. They are unhappy with a work policy and demand to know what you plan to do about it. Imagine that the employee’s tone is blunt to the point of aggression and very accusatory, attacking your abilities and competence as a leader. 

You may be tempted to match the employee’s tone by going on the defensive, matching their aggression with your own in an attempt to shut them down or “be right.” If you are experiencing additional stress in other areas (such as a looming deadline or a sick family member), that might further fuel your ire. The moment you hit Send, however, you have created a rupture in that professional relationship.

Repairing Professional Relationships as a Leader

Regardless of who is “right,” it is your responsibility as a leader to fix the situation.

To start the repairing process, take the following action:

  1. Reach out to your employee and apologize. Do not make excuses or try to justify your actions. What matters is that your poor communication caused the rupture. Ideally, you should do this as soon as possible after the rupture. However, make sure you fully acknowledge and accept your responsibility for the situation before you reach out. If there’s a chance you will return to a defensive posture, it might be better to wait.
  2. Let them know how much you value their contributions. This whole thing started because this employee was trying to bring a potentially problematic issue to your attention. That kind of proactiveness and concern is what makes them a great team member.
  3. Listen. Whether they need to vent further about the initial problem or they want to talk about how the rupture has made them feel, give them plenty of space to speak freely. They may say some things that are hard for you to hear, but hear them you must. It is your job as a leader to accept those critiques instead of thinking up ways to defend your behavior.
  4. Assure them that you will address their initial concern as soon as possible. You might even consider asking them to assist you, giving them an even greater sense of ownership and input over the resolution.
  5. Follow through. If you’ve told them you would have an answer for them by the end of the day, do it.

By addressing ruptures quickly with a desire to fix what is broken (instead of a need to win), you are more likely to come out of the situation with a stronger professional relationship than you had before the rupture. 

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Learning From Ruptures

At  Eighth Mile Consulting, we believe that mistakes are opportunities for reflection and improvement. Next time you experience a rupture, spend the extra ten minutes repairing things regardless of who you think was at fault. More than likely, you will both come away with a greater sense of trust and support. This could translate into improved performance and productivity down the road.

We also know that accountability and accepting critique doesn’t always come naturally–it takes training. If you’re looking for a straightforward lesson on how to face your mistakes head-on, explore our 8-week online personal development and leadership program or contact us for personalized coaching.

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Where Did All The Jesters Go? The Role of Comedy in the Workplace

Team building, motivation, workplace culture, and telling uncomfortable truths are the benefits of well-crafted workplace comedy. The manager who understands it builds resilient teams with confidence in their leader. The manager who doesn’t will be resented as a scold and — worse — leave teams brittle and unable to endure challenges. Workplace comedy invariably offends someone. A wise manager must balance the risk of offense against the necessity of comedy in the workplace.

Every Court Needs a Jester

The term “jester” is derived from the Anglo-Norman (Old French) words gestour or jestour, meaning storyteller or minstrel. Over time, the role of this entertainer became far more vital than mere entertainment: The jester could tell the truth that could not otherwise be told. Who could tell the king he had lost a battle? Who could declare taxes were too high or confidence in military leadership too low? This guy — unless an unwise king ordered his hapless jester beheaded.
To the wise business manager, comedy in the workplace serves the very same function — with the same caveat.

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A Jester Beheaded

When I was a new Lieutenant, I had a soldier in my platoon I’ll call “Steve.” Steve was an experienced troublemaker with a natural charismatic aura. The other soldiers respected and looked up to him, and he in turn asserted himself socially as their representative. The secret of his success was perfectly timed and executed comedy.

Gaining Insight

Steve had the rare ability to point out the elephant in the room, the thing no one else wanted to acknowledge or address. With surgical precision, he would crack a joke that would draw attention to the forbidden and make his teammates laugh it off.
What turned this comedian into a leader was how he shaped and targeted his humor to hit everyone equally but fairly. His jokes were pointed but never mean, his demeanor was always friendly, he didn’t hold back because of rank, and his jokes always contained an element of truth. As a result, his leaders found him as valuable as his teammates, and no one felt unfairly treated. To a wise manager, he was a walking informal complaints department who provided an unofficial way to deal with problems before they became official.

Losing Perspective

To my regret, however, during a period of weakness brought on by too little sleep and too much responsibility, I lashed out at Steve when he was doing no worse than just being Steve. The result of this lapse in judgment was a break in rapport, who abruptly retreated into his metaphorical shell. I had beheaded the jester.
Suddenly, I was blinded to the needs and feelings of my men. The section commanders did an adequate job of allaying the soldiers’ concerns, but even the best section commander is somewhat detached due to rank and hierarchy. Comedy in the workplace was my back channel, and now it was gone.
Luckily, after some time had passed, Steve regained his confidence, thus restoring the team dynamic of my platoon. Once again, he became a reliable source of information. And I learned a permanent lesson at a — thankfully — temporary cost.

Gaining Perspective

In essence, the Jester is and has always been the last line of defense in the battle for common sense. They have forever been the pressure tester of ideas and the illuminator of idiocy, hypocrisies, and inconsistencies. They identify social patterns and have the courage to communicate their observations. By their very nature, they are incredibly intelligent and observant.

Political Correctness Also Kills

During my time in the infantry, I noticed it was invariably the class clowns who bonded teams. Their jokes knew few limits, and no one was exempt. An officer who could take a joke on the chin and walk it off demonstrated his strength of character and earned the respect of his team, who rightly expected he would demonstrate equal resilience in other, more challenging situations.
Conversely, how can you trust an officer with the lives of his men if he can’t even handle a joke? The teams with the best-developed comedy in the workplace were the ones who survived the greatest hardships, plain and simple. The leaders who were unable to value comedy in the workplace destroyed morale and fractured teams.

Private Sector Fun Police

When I transitioned from military officer to business management, widespread censorship hit me with the subtlety of a freight train. Even my top-secret work had never been this censorious. It was as if an unseen presence imposed an unspoken taboo that to give offense was the gravest of crimes, forbidden under any circumstances. Even a hint of workplace comedy earned the would-be jester an interrogation by the Fun Police — uptight managers who kept the workplace on edge and the workers wound tight.

Is Offense Subjective?

What is okay for one person might be highly offensive to someone else. As such, it is impossible to uphold a policy of “never offend anyone, and yet many workplaces accept that as the preferred mode of operation. Have they never learned that comedy in the workplace is the key to getting through tough times? Have they never experienced “tough times”? Perhaps Gabrielle Union was right:
“Drama can feel like therapy whereas comedy feels like there’s been a pressure and a weight lifted off of you.”
I’d seen brittleness turn to failure before, and I knew what it took to endure hardship: a sense of humor — some comedy in the workplace.

Conformity By Exhaustion

Nevertheless, the censorship was there, always pressing down. The best practices I’d learned in the field prompted “correction” so often that I, too, began to conform. Slowly, the humor drained from the workplace, and with it the insight it brought. Looking back, I see how avoiding humor translated into avoiding problems by not addressing them.
I finally realized how I’d let myself down when, at a leadership conference, I answered the question, “What do you think is the most important function of a leader?” Drawing from my own experience as a leader, I said, “Good leaders are those who can articulate and contextualize the truth.” At that moment, I realized I wasn’t living up to my own leadership standards.
Political correctness also kills. No leadership, no jester. No jester, no truth.

Offense Taken, Not Given

Though modernity may have killed the fearless jester, comedy in the workplace need not follow. Applying balance to what is acceptable (while taking subjectivity into account) is how good managers must confront the challenge. To address this balance, I’ve developed three principles:
  1. Bullying vs Banter. Banter is good-natured. Bullying intends to harm. The difference is in the intent. A wise manager divines the intent before addressing a conflict.
  2. Problem vs Person. A good jester can delineate between the problem and the person responsible, and target their joke appropriately. Subtle changes in language can mean the difference between constructive criticism and personal attack. The most proficient jester can talk about the elephant in the room and leave out the person behind the pachyderm.
  3. “Time and Place” vs. “In Your Face.” There’s a time for jokes and banter, and there’s a time for seriousness and decorum. A good jester needs to read the room, and a good manager needs to provide guidance on how to do that.
Ultimately, to fear the jester is to fear the truth. To kill the jester is to sail in willful blindness toward whatever peril might be lurking before you. Are people going to take offense? Of course. Will you allow them to destroy morale and turn your teams into fearful, wounded wrecks? Not if you want to weather the storms that inevitably lie ahead.

Comedy in the Workplace and Learning Leadership

To conclude, be mindful when silencing your jesters, particularly if they might be telling you something you need to hear. If you have a jester in your team or organization, be grateful — and careful. Too much offense might ultimately expose you to legal liability, sure. But if you behead the jester who provides truth and common sense, you may not see key issues in your team until it’s too late. Wise managers must nurture healthy, resilient, and capable teams. There’s no better way to do that than by introducing a little comedy in the workplace.

Workplace comedy is serious business — and we’re brave enough to say it. The Eighth Mile offers an 8-week leadership course where we share all the important lessons (and some hard truths) we’ve learned from our experiences as leaders. View the course page to see if this program might be a good fit for your career journey.

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