The faces model of high performing team development

Abstract

Presents the faces model, a new model of team development which describes teams using five common patterns, called “faces”. The model assumes that teams wear one face, then move to wearing another in a somewhat random order, unless members proactively drive their teams to wear a face or engage in a pattern which they believe is more desirable than the others. Describes the “performance” face in detail, since it is the most desirable pattern for most teams in organizations. Also describes approaches for moving typical teams from each of the other faces to the performance face. Takes issue with many popular development models which describe most groups as moving through a specific sequence of patterns.