The impact of change can feel relentless, especially when the change affects team dynamics.

Psychology Professor Bruce Tuckman identified four stages of team development – Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing – that any team can go through, whether they’ve been together for a while or are affected by the comings and goings of team members during huge change programmes.

Elements that can influence team development include content (what the team does) and process (how the team works towards its objectives).

Every time a team changes – with colleagues coming into the team, or leaving – it finds itself back at the Forming stage (even if only for a short time).  It can take enormous time and effort to get a team to Performing: team size, geographical location, ability to get together frequently, maybe time pressures.  And the effort?  Well obviously, it must be a shared team responsibility with every team member contributing and communicating.

But the real challenge?

It’s leaders who don’t help the team’s journey because they overlook another essential element: the feelings of the people who remain, and the feelings of the person who leaves (the mourning, or adjourning stage).

I like Mr Tuckman’s model.  It makes sense.  It so easily, so often, explains how and why teams are behaving and performing (or rather not).

Perhaps a little more focus on the team leader might help to pull them through.