The second stage of team formation is the storming phase. The honeymoon period of team formation is over at this point; during the initial excitement of forming, the teams have got to know each other and the business problem they were being asked to solve and at this point, they are in full swing of trying to deliver.

It's at this stage that team members might start to show visible frustration around both progress and process, either directed at the other team members or the leadership group.

Individual team members may find that assumptions they made on how our team might work together or their understanding of the team mission start to become challenged. Assumptions have the habit of becoming expectations unless identified and handled. When these expectations are out of alignment with others, tension will start to become tangible.

For example, acclimatizing to a new way of delivering software isn't easy and will make our team feel unproductive at first. The cause of tension is most likely differences in opinion in how to do this Agile "thing."

This will feel uncomfortable for our team and may result in team members trying to resort to doing things in the way they did previously. This will cause conflict with the ones who are trying to adapt to the new way of working.

We can see this as all part of a team’s formation process. In most cases, our team will gel, and we'll move through it. Unfortunately, sometimes a team gets stuck.

If this happens for too long, the conflict will cause a toxic atmosphere and people will leave because they feel unable to do their jobs. The only avenues at that point are somewhat radical and time consuming for all involved. However, because we know this stage for a team will be coming, we can prepare for it.