Like any group of people, the swing band that I am in is going through the stages of becoming a performing
teams. I think anytime you get a group of people together they inherently “want” to be a performing team, but
whether they can go through the phases is a test of character and dynamics
- Forming
- Norming
- Storming
- Performing
Right now we are at stage 2: Norming. Right now the group is getting to know more about each other, jokes are
starting to fly a little more and we are getting to know more about each others stories. Now, the trick is
this next stage…can we do it? The Storming stage is were people start to talk about others behind their backs
like “Nick’s Solo completely sucked ass!” I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s a part of life. What
needs to really happen at this stage is someone says to me “Nick, you solo completely sucked ass!”, in which
my response would either be “@$)& you!” ( note: for the group to stay together this must be an accepted form
of response ) or “I didn’t know that, where did it chomp?” The storming phase is all about being able to talk
about the bad with the good. And if a group of people can successfully get there, then they are definitely on
the road to bigger and better things.