Team members begin drawing upon their cumulative experiences for working out their problems and pulling together as a cohesive group. This process should result in the team establishing procedures for handling conflicts, decisions, and methods to accomplish the team projects. During this process the team leader needs to continue with activities that empower team members, create trust, provide a vision of what the team can become, and teach decision-making and conflict management skills. Performing Performing is phase four and is where the payoff should come. In this phase the team has achieved some harmony, defined its tasks, worked out its relationships, and begins to produce results.
Leadership is provided by the team members best suited for the task at hand.
Members have learned how to work together, manage conflict, and contribute their resources to accomplishing the team's purposes. After reaching phase four the team leader needs to remain alert to the team's needs in skill development, conflict management, trust building, and improvement of attitudes. When changes occur that affect the team's task, membership, or other areas of concern, it is not uncommon for the team to repeat the four-phase cycle. However, the process should be much smoother after the first time around. 22, No. 7, Today's Office.