The Festive Five transformed and developed a great deal throughout the semester. We started as a group of five people brought together in a classroom ready to conquer the assignment at hand and slowly became a team with a supportive social structure where each individual adapted their behavior to optimize their contribution. When a group initially forms, they are generally working toward a common task. We were a loose group that consisted of individuals that were working together to achieve a common task, but were doing little else to become effective. To become an effective and high performing team we needed to develop and form a social structure with in the group. We needed to develop social relationships that would help the members gain trust among one another. We eventually became the well functioning and effective Festive Four we are today. We had some small events and some major turning points throughout the semester that came in many shapes and sizes. For example, we were very fortunate to have experienced conflict early in our development. Hidden agendas were at cross purposes with the dominant group goals and of course trust was a major issue early on in team development. .
Approximately, midway into the semester, the task of creating a peer evaluation forged a bond of trust and mutual respect that was unmistakable with all but one team member who then dropped the class. Our team identity reigned in stronger as we met for our real world observations, attacked the group exam, and celebrated our successes with gusto.
In the beginning working together on the team fantasy and trying to make decisions as a team was difficult at best. Initially I thought our problems were due to poor communication but it was much more that. According to Thompson, "decision making is often complicated by uncertainty, status differences of members." I think a lack of the formation of trust due to our newness was paramount at this stage in our development.
