If they don't surprise each other and themselves during the process, then they will bring into being a creation that keeps them from advancing, innovating, living. Therefore, in the traditional application of the Design Formation, the Evaluation stage is a measure of the gap between performance and expectations. In the more expanded sense of the model, the Evaluation stage measures the degree to which the performance of the final product can adapt to new, unexpected conditions. Discovering that you don't know something is the first step to knowing it. Formation is a clever and beautiful word whose two principal meanings complement yet contrast with one another and establish a sense of tension in wholeness.
Formation is the process of producing.
It's a noun that refers at once to the creation and the process by which it is brought into being. There's no separation between the two definitions that is not artificial. One cannot learn the process of formation without learning the formation itself. One cannot study the tangible aspects of the thing formed without simultaneously perceiving the process. An old proverb that's widely used in the consulting industry emphasizes the greater benefit in teaching someone who's hungry how to fish rather than merely giving them the fish.