Tuckman's Stages of Team Development
A model describing how teams progress through forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.
Tuckman’s ladder describes five sequential stages a team moves through: forming (orientation, polite uncertainty), storming (conflict over roles and direction), norming (shared norms and trust emerge), performing (high productivity with minimal oversight), and adjourning (closure as the project ends). On the PMP exam it links leadership style to team maturity — a servant leader coaches heavily during storming, then steps back nearing performing. The key nuance: storming conflict is expected and healthy, not PM failure. Suppressing it tends to stall the team in storming, so the PM facilitates that friction rather than eliminating it.
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