Business Relationships
A Nurturing Potential report
Business relationships, like romantic relationships, tend to start euphorically and progress through a series of predictable stages. Many business relationships do not survive and in this respect also they resemble the typical progress of a romantic relationship. A key to understanding the cause and effect of this progression has been provided (in a slightly different but equally applicable context) by the Bruce Tuckman model.
Bruce Tuckman
published his famous 'Forming, Storming, Norming and
Performing' model in 1965. Despite the many
changes in the structure of business and organisations
since that time, his conclusions are still valid and
useful.
FORMING
This is like the 'dating phase' of a romantic
association. At the forming stage, people
are focused on the mission, vision and goals of the
relationship. When a business
relationship is forming, those involved have a sense of excitement,
anticipation and optimism.
Awareness of the stages of the
Tuckman model helps associates to avoid some of the
early possible pitfalls. It's important to be clear
and focused about
the mutual expectations. Drawing up a legally
binding and formal written
agreement about roles, responsibilities and financial
issues really focuses the mind.
STORMING
In this
stage, people are adjusting to working together. Storming
is like 'living together' and learning to accept each
other's personal habits.
As business associates try to
combine differing working styles they may experience
argument, conflict, confrontation and dissent.
This may be about how
work is performed, how records are maintained, how clients
are billed, how expenses are paid. Differences of opinion over how
these things
will be done need to be addressed in a constructive way
to find the 'best practices.' Failure to resolve conflict
in a positive way usually results in the
end of the business relationship.
NORMING
Business
relationships that make it through storming emerge into
a new stage in which people begin to integrate their way
of working in a positive manner.
Norming in business resembles
settling into a long term relationship in marriage.
In the norming stage, people feel a sense of
belonging and are comfortable sharing ideas and feelings
and giving and receiving feedback. Norming
involves moving beyond the work into socializing and enjoying each
other's differences.
PERFORMING
At this
stage, group members achieve interdependence. This
means that they work well together, achieving more
together than they would as individuals. The
romantic relationship analogy for performing might be successful
parenting in
which the partners work as a team to handle the challenges.
MOURNING?
A fifth addition to the model is sometimes described as "mourning". This marks the breakdown of the relationship. But here we are concerned only with the positive, so we will not dwell on failure. In fact, in its original conception, the Tuckman model in this appended stage, regarded the purpose for which the association was set up as having been successfully concluded, and the participants used this stage (sometimes alternatively known as the "adjourning" stage) to consider what had been achieved.
Learning how to cope and survive the various stages of a business relationship is vitally important if a business is to succeed. Using the Tuckman model as a tool for this purpose, if only to keep the mind focused on objectives, on what has been done, what needs to be done, and how you are coping, makes it potentially of enormous value.