The Basis for Goal-Oriented Cooperation – the Norming Phase in Group Development

Welcome back to our BusinessMind blog series on (virtual) group development. Having already run through the phases Forming and Storming, today we continue with the third phase: the Norming.

Now that you are reasonably sure of who ticks how, and all conflicts are resolved and everything is clear (your participants took care of this during the Storming phase) they can now (unconsciously, of course) slip comfortably into their respective roles and the group is on a good path to cooperatively tackle the virtual meeting’s goals.

Your participants have, in the first two phases, obtained a first impression of the strengths and weaknesses of the others, and can now work together accordingly.

As the moderator, you can support this by sending the participants into break out sessions according to their respective strengths and weaknesses, in which they can support and inspire each other. Here we recommend a good mix so that you don’t have all your Omegas in a heap (you may want to read the blog article about rank dynamics according to the model by Raoul Schindler again) or all the newcomers together or only experienced participants.

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Old hand helps newcomer

If, for example, you are using a virtual collaborative tool such as miro or PADLET, ask your participants about their experiences with the said tools in a questionnaire sent in advance, and mix the experienced ones with the inexperienced. Then the group members can support each other rather than you having to constantly step in, losing valuable time.

This way, also, you ensure that your group does not fall back into the Storming phase because one or two people don’t know how to do an exercise.

In any case, get your technical support to help you by organizing the break out sessions in the background so that you can fully concentrate on moderating.

Your role in the Norming phase

In this phase, the main aim is to cement the relationships built in the Storming phase and to avoid slipping back into bad habits or conflicts. Your participants normally feel comfortable in their skin, trust themselves more, interact more, with the result that, for the first time, you will have more time left over without having to micro-manage every situation.

With regard to your moderation style, this means that you can step back slightly from the strong leading role you played in the first two phases and take more advantage of your participants’ expertise.

Concentrate on building your participants‘ self-confidence. The Norming phase is also a good time to assign more difficult and complicated tasks to your participants for them to solve independently.

Method meets meeting rules

A good method for the Norming phase is, for example, Brainwalking. This modification of the classic brainstorming follows a round of collecting individual thoughts (e.g. on a virtual whiteboard), a round of working in small groups in which the individual thought collections are clustered, added to and analyzed as well as a round of exchange and discussion of results in the plenary. This exercise thus makes a good bridge between the Storming and Norming phases: individual thoughts are worked on collectively. The person who likes to assume a leadership role can present the results to the plenum following the group exercise.

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Clear rules make working together in the Norming phase easier. Ideally, you should define these together with the group and – in case you are using a virtual whiteboard – make them visual. If you don’t have time to lay down the rules together, be sure to obtain your participants’ agreement on the rules that you propose.

By taking all these tips into consideration you should get through the Norming phase without any hitches, and be prepared for the fourth phase, the Performing, which we will present to you in one of the next blog articles.

We’re looking forward to hearing about your experiences with the Norming phase and other ideas for methods – feel free to share your comments with us!

All the best,
your BusinessMind Team