One under-appreciated aspect of team building is that it's a process with distinct stages that takes time. You can't throw a bunch of individuals together and expect them to "figure it out," not overnight anyway.

Bruce Tuckman's four-stage model of team development is a useful way of understanding how and why team building takes time.

Let's take a closer look at the four stages...

Stage #1: Forming

This is when individuals first come together. Co-founders meet, early employees join, or a corporate project team is formed. But just going "Avengers, Assemble" is not enough in reality (and even the Avengers had issues). Because right after this stage...

Stage #2: Storming

Comes "storming," where teams realize they're a collection of individuals with different styles and goals. People disagree on direction, things get rocky and friends start to question if this was all a mistake. Think bickering superstar teams like the Shaq and Kobe Lakers before they got Phil Jackson, or hastily assembled corporate teams from different departments trying to protect home turf. This is a painful but necessary stage as teams work out their collective identity and mission, setting aside egos in order to get to...

Stage #3: Norming

Norming, when things start to click. Members stop worrying about how they individually look, make the extra pass, and appreciate others' contributions. The Triangle Offense is clicking, the sales to ops process flows, and the team finally feels like it's...

Stage #4: Performing

Performing as a coherent whole, with open communication, clear leadership, and an earned understanding of where teammates will be on the court, field, or market. We imagine our end state here. But we can't get here without the stages before.

Team building involves baby steps, even for adults

Most teams go through a similar process on the road to building a high functioning, well-oiled machine. Recognizing the challenges ahead is the first step.