Team Development Model

Team Development Model

When I was first called as the Venturing Advisor, I was pretty excited. I thought it would be a really great calling to have and was looking forward to it. My enthusiasm was pretty high. But I didn't know anything about Venturing. My skill level was low.

As I started to learn about Venturing and get into things, my enthusiasm started to drop. I still didn't know much about Venturing or how to do it (skill level still low, but slowly increasing). Furthermore, it seemed like nobody knew anything about Venturing. I had only one boy who would come to activities (hard to do much with one boy…) and he almost never talked. And when he did, it wasn't ever serious. (Example: he suggested our crew uniform should be a loin cloth.) It was maddening. The more I tried, the more I seemed to fail. I got discouraged. Round table, for me, became a therapy session more than anything. My enthusiasm and skill level were both low.

Eventually, I started to get better. As my skills improved, through training, and round conferences, I started to make progress. I got more boys and was able to implement more activities. I got them out of the gym and away from the basketball. I introduced the Venturing awards and even saw some interest. My skills were improving and my enthusiasm started to go back up.

Now, ideally, a person will get to a point where their skills are high and things are running smoothly. Their enthusiasm likewise is high.  I say ideally because, to be honest, I don't know that I'm there yet. I know enough about Venturing to know everything we're doing wrong. And I'm not sure I have the skills (or have used them well enough) to get things there. It's still a struggle. I'd like to do better. For illustrative purposes, though, we'll say I've made it.

At the beginning, I had low skill level but high enthusiasm. As I started out, I got discouraged and my enthusiasm dropped. Eventually, both skill level and enthusiasm start to rise until both skill level and enthusiasm are high. Teams actually go through the exact same stages as they develop: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing (Cohen & Bailey, 1997).

As a team starts out, everyone is excited and has high enthusiasm, but their skill as a team is not very high. Individual team members may be ...