From Group to Team: Skilled Facilitation Moves a Group from a Collection of Individuals to an Effective Team

School-based learning depends on teachers' capacity to engage with each other around central issues of teaching and learning. While such collaboration is readily welcomed by some educators, others remain wedded to an "independent contractor" concept of teaching. Supporting teachers to view themselves as team members and to perform effectively as a team demands more of leaders than simply establishing structures and identifying tasks. Even assuming positive intent on the part of the participants, the journey from a group to a team can be daunting. Without skillful facilitation, groups are likely to encounter personal dynamics that not only provide unanticipated challenges but may also serve as deal breakers in becoming a high-performing team. An experienced, astute facilitator who models interpersonal skills and dispositions needed for effective team work can make the difference between a group that remains a collectivity of individuals and one that forges the bonds of cohesiveness and trust that allow great things to happen. One of the most useful tools that is used to support work in facilitating teams is the Team Performance Model developed by Drexler, Sibbet, and Forrester (2009). In this model, the developers identify seven stages--orientation, trust building, goal clarification, commitment, implementation, high performance, and renewal--that describe a team's evolution from formation through task completion and renewal. In this article, the author describes the first two of these stages with a focus on what happens when issues are unresolved for team members. Following each of these descriptions are suggestions for facilitators.