I grew up having access to good education. My parents supported me; endured my computer gaming addiction and welcomed my wish to study computer science.

From my first day at university till now, I was working in a team setting. Real collaboration not just cooperation. It was common to share notes, work on problems together, help each other out. At university we were rated as a team on most assignments. Once I landed a job as a software engineer the same common understanding of collaboration existed. At the time Agile (with a capital A!) picked up and the idea of working as one body felt natural. Did you notice, that the 12 Principles behind the Agile Manifesto always talk in plural and takes working in a team as granted?

Teamwork takes effort, sometimes it is even painful, and in the end even the best jelled team breaks apart. To analyse what happens to a team when one of their members is leaving it is helpful to look at the stages of a team development and refelect on how the team was was formed. Specifically Tuckman’s stages of group development. Based on the stages and identifying what made the group a team one can reason about what is lost when a team member leaves the team and what has to be worked on again.

Stages of group development

Everything starts with a team forming. This applies to a person joining an existing team or the forming of a complete new team of strangers. The void is filled with personalities and it is established who is given authority. It is a time of uncertainty and getting to know one another. They learn who to learn from; who to ask for advice on certain topics.

In the storming phase disagreement on team related topics emerge and become a source of conflict. Cliques may form around strong personalities. To overcome this phase the team must find a common understanding of team goals and accept individual differences. It is a time of competition and arguing with team-performance degrading.

Once the dust has settled, the norming stage begins. Members take on roles, consensus related leadership has been found and the team stars working towards team goals. The group is moving towards unity and strong cohesion.

Finally the performing stage has been reached which is identified with a well-functioning team. Disargreement is dealt with in a constructive way and the team is focused on problem solving. The team is committed to the team’s mission and everything “just works”. It is a phase of joy and every challenge is being tackled with a “we can do it” attitude. In the book Peopleware, Tom DeMarco calls this a “well jelled” team which can be identified from the outside by

• Low turnover
• Strong sense of identity
• Sense of eliteness
• Joint ownership of the product
• People take enjoyment from their work

At some point the team enters the adjourning stage where the team disintegrates. Especially the it-sector has a high turn-over rate. Individual members leave the company or switch teams and the cycle of forming a team starts again.

Not all is lost

So what happends if a team members leaves a mature, well-structured and organized team currently in the performing phase and what can one do to remedy the pain?

• In the forming stage areas of expertise have been identified. Now one of those areas is not covered anymore. The team can not rely on this one person to ask for advice. Maybe another team member is willing to fill the technical void which incurs a cost of training. As a manager one can help to identify those areas and provide training opportunities. An aknowledgement about accepting team-performance degregation should take place.

• The found trust for one another in the storming phase can now be in question. Why did this person leave, are others also thinking about leaving the team? Allowing the team to reassert the trust should be a priority. As a manager one should provide opportunities (I am not talking about 1/2 hour pep-talk) for the team to voice their concerns and find own solutions.

• The internal power structure which was formed in the norming stage is in jeopardy. It might be that the one prominent advocates is leaving the team; with the team now open to decide to take a different route and or technical decision. The cohesion of the team is now in danger as well and the norms under which the team performed so well are in question. As a manager one should help the team finding the right balance between taking a risk and staying with proven choices. Experimenting with methodologies and or technologies that were “blocked” before can be source of revitalization and fun. It can also be helpful to identify and highlight the norms the team developed and under which the team operates.

• The common goal which the team worked towards to did not change, because a team member left. But for the remaining team, the question of relevance might arise. It can be helpful to highlight the goal more prominent in the organization and support the team in validating the relevance of their common goal. To reassure that the external parameters such as financing under which the team operated did not change can help to stabilize as well.

To work in a well-jelled team is liberating and exhilarating. It feels empowering. Seeing a team mate go on the otherhand is unsettling and raises a lot of questions and doubts. Aknowledgeing that it took effort to get to that high-performing state of team work also means that this state can be reached again. Yes, it is a journey, and yes it takes effort but the team did succeed in the journey to the promised “performing land” before - and it will do so again.