We have all experienced it, the ambiguity associated with adjusting to new organizational structure and to working with new teammates. The marketing department at my firm has been experiencing change.
Adjusting to this change, as someone who is still fairly young in the professional world with only a little over two years of experience at my firm, was a truly eye-opening experience. I remember the day my boss told me that my department would be experiencing a leadership change. I felt fear. Change was coming and I wasn’t sure what that change might look like. Many of the more senior members in our department seemed open to the change, as it was something they had experienced before during their careers. I, on the other hand, had yet to experience a department restructure.
I am a member of a Pitch & Pursuits team. We function as an extension of the full marketing team and we see not only our firm’s lawyers, but the practice team members, as our clients. We work with all of the firm’s practice groups. As such, we are directly impacted by team changes globally.
During the past two months, our Pitch & Pursuits team expanded changing our group dynamics. We had reached the fourth stage of group work, performing.
According to Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 work, there are four stages of groups including, forming, storming, norming and performing. The forming stage is pretty straight forward. It simply involves peers coming to together with one common goal. This stage can be the easiest to navigate, but the group is typically less productive during this time. Once the group has formed, they move into the storming phase. Storming involves teammates pushing boundaries and can be prompted by confrontation. Norming occurs once conflicts are resolved and solutions are identified. During the norming phase, the team becomes a cohesive group able to share information on both a personal and task level, and has put into place processes that work for them. The final stage, performing, is characterized by the interdependence of team members and the cooperation of the group as a whole to solve problems and work efficiently (Tuckman, 1965).
My team had spent two years covering these stages. We had reached performance. We were interdependent and efficient and were able to communicate on both a personal and task level. The additions of new team members meant we went back to phase one, forming. We became a new team. This meant each of us had to renegotiate our role as a teammate. We had to get to know new people and learn to work efficiently. Meanwhile, these changes are happening within the larger context of our full marketing team and the structural changes of the marketing department that are both directly and indirectly influencing our Pitch & Pursuits team. So, not only are we figuring out how to work together, we are adjusting to the shift in expectations for the work our team covers.
I am sure for most of my more senior Business Development peers this time of expansion warrants feelings of excitement rather than stress. Regardless, adjusting to this type of change requires rethinking how you operate on a daily basis within your role. Navigating the type of structural shift can often warrant cognitive dissonance and requires a step back to examine the larger picture.
My team currently functions within what Tuckman termed the storming stage. We are still identifying processes and best practices as well as negotiating the best responses to problems as they pop up during our day to day. We are at a critical juncture because the storming stage is often what determines the success of a group. I have full confidence that our team is moving into the norming phase and will experience success, but for now, I have identified some tips for new groups that may also be navigating the storming stage of development.
1) Use humor. Confrontation among team members is largely inevitable and is usually sorted out during the storming stage. We have all experienced it and will continue to do so for as long as we are social beings navigating any sort of professional environment. Humor is a great way to manage uncertainty and reduce stress. Humor can also help solidify a sense of belonging within the group and as a member of the organization itself (Heiss & Carmack, 2012). My team uses humor often. It is well received among members and helps to foster our unified identity.
2) Fake it until you make it. The best advice that I ever received as a student and young professional was that there will always be lessons to be learned. It is better to make mistakes and to have experiences than to try to avoid uncertainty. As a new employee, or as a new member of a team, sometimes you just have to fake it until you make. Don’t be afraid to learn, but also don’t be afraid to reach out and to lean on the more senior members of your group. Their institutional knowledge can be extremely valuable. This advice is useful for senior members of a group as well. As the veterans of a group, you are the bearers of institutional knowledge and the setters of expectations for new team members. New team members will look to you for advice and will sometimes ask questions that you have yet to encounter. You may not always have the solution, but you always have the authority to seek one out.
In conclusion, as members of marketing teams and larger organizations, we can expect to feel the currents of structural change. We can expect that we will inevitably experience departmental restructuring at some point in our careers. We can also expect that the people we work with will change. It is critical that we use the forming and storming stages of our groups to set expectations and to focus on the bigger picture.
References
Tuckman, B. (1965) Developmental Sequence in Small Groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399.
Tuckman, B. & Jensen, M. (1977) Stages of Small Group Development. Group and Organizational Studies, 2, 419-427.
Heiss, S.N. & Carmack, H.J. (2012). Knock, knock: who’s there? Making sense of organizational entrance through humor. Management Communication Quarterly, 26, 106-132.
By: Sarah Clark, Pitch & Pursuits Coordinator at Orrick