No Rain No Rainbow

Summer is here! We just celebrated a weekend in Disney World. A fun surprise for my son as he wrapped up kindergarten. The grandparents came along and all had a blast.

Florida's been especially rainy though, and on our first day at the Magic Kingdom, the skies just opened up. With heavy lightning on its way, and our train ride cut short, we were pinned down in the Main Street station. Huddled with other disappointed families and restless children.

The skies darkened. The wind picked up. And this time, it did NOT look like a typical passing Florida storm...

Over the past 20 years, I've lived in both the academic and corporate worlds. Finishing up college with an chemical engineering degree, I then took on various sales & marketing roles. Later I returned to night school for my MBA in Marketing while expanding my role at work.

In many regards, the academic and corporate worlds speak two different languages...but I have found one area of convergence.

The focus on teams.

Bruce Tuckman discerned a model for the evolution of a team in 1965. And this lead to much further study and interest.

It's a simple model, but one that I've found to repeat itself time and time again...and in multiple areas of life.

Much like many of life's secrets.
Simple and surrounding.

The model is:

Form. Storm. Norm. Perform.

Much has been written on this model...and here's a quick primer from my view on each sequential phase of team building...

Form
The first phase of any team development. I call it the "lovey dovey" phase. Team members meet each other. Interested in making good first impressions and possibly even new friends. Best behavior is at the forefront. The early discussion about the challenges and objectives of the team are interesting and energizing. It's easy to rally the team to action. Still, the level of understanding of the true objectives and potential pitfalls is actually quite low.

And trouble is...everyone is still working mostly on their own.

And each person assumes the others are tracking right along with them. (Cue the lightning!)

Storm
Inevitably, all teams will be hit by the storm. Prior assumptions by each team member hit the wall. Emotions fly. Ideas are confronted. Motivation and morale plummets.

Depending on the situation and people involved, sometimes the storm passes quickly. Other times, the storm breaks up the team forever.

But one thing is certain...the storm can not be avoided. And in fact, the storm is necessary for eventual success!

Contentious, unpleasant and possibly even painful to some team members, it's here in this stage where tolerance, perseverance, and patience pay off.

Norm
The clouds clear. The prior competitiveness evolves into a balance of skillsets...an appreciation for each others uniqueness.

Established team rules, and guidelines have been developed. A better understanding and respect for each other's value sets has lead to a critical element...TRUST.

The sense of achievement begins to re-energize the team and gain further motivation to proceed.

Perform
A few highly successful teams reach the performing stage where team members anticipate each other's moves...working together seamlessly, and efficiently.

Sure, disagreements still surface, but now they are handled quickly, directly, and without hard feelings.

The hard work has truly become fun as participants enter the "flow" of the experience.

So, how exactly does any of this apply in the real world?

...you know, outside "lala-land" of academia and corporate teams...

First, a "team" can be as simple as 2 or more people working on a mutual objective.

So do this...try looking for the Form-Storm-Norm-Perform stages in several places...and you'll truly gain the key insight. You can find these stages everywhere, but here are a few places to get you started:

Your marriage
Story line in that book you're reading
Or favorite movie
Making new friends
Family trip to Disney
A new job
A new home
Day at the park with the grandchildren
Neighborhood association meetings

And, yes...Your legacy efforts...

Each and every team...every group you belong experiences the 4 stages. At work, in family, at Church or other social organizations.

You and your grandchild.

Timeframe is relative too. Look and you'll find the stages can repeat on a daily basis...sometimes weekly, and you can likely identify even longer timeframes where macro-stages can take years.

So where are you in your legacy efforts?

Forming initial thoughts...hopes & dreams, and aspirations of greatness? (Bluebirds on your shoulder, are they?!)

Have you given up? Lost hope for one of one thousand potential reasons? (Know that the storm is natural & necessary. Don't give up!)

To enter the Norming phase, you'll have done the deep dive into self analysis and also analysis of your grandchild's personality and value sets. For you, the lightbulb has been lit.

Have you moved further into self actualization? You are blessed in the performing stage...and in hindsight, you now realize it was more work than you first thought. Turned out a little different than you first thought.

And best of all...the reward was greater than you could have ever imagined!

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After Thought

Have you seen the recent Sprint commercial themed "If film crews ran the world"? The setting is a wedding, and 7 seconds in you'll hear the line "No rain, no rainbow."

I don't know why, but the delivery of that line makes me laugh.

And in the midst of our recent Disney downpour, it came to mind. Thousands of soaking wet families streamed out of the park mid-day...abandoning the happiest place on earth for the dryness of their hotel rooms.

Patiently, we waited, and waited. Coffee and pastries helped pass a few hours...and still we waited. And suddenly, just at the moment when we too had all but given up...the skies cleared.

And there we were in Disneyworld. One of the busiest times of the year where lines for rides had been reaching a staggering 100 minutes...and suddenly we found ourselves in a nearly empty park with the sun shining!

The next time you experience the Storm...remind yourself the rainbow is coming!

No Rain No Rainbow