In today’s workplace, we can’t afford to simply form teams—we need to build cohesive ones.
Cohesive teams are aligned, trust each other, navigate conflict gracefully, and operate with
shared purpose. Whether you’re a training manager, an L&D leader, or an instructional designer
leading cross-functional projects, the success of your initiatives often depends on how well your
team functions.
So, how do we build cohesive teams that don’t just meet goals, but thrive while doing so?
Start with the Stages of Team Development
The path to a high-performing team isn’t linear—it flows through five stages:
1. Forming: Members are polite, tentative, and trying to find their place.
2. Storming: Conflicts emerge, roles are unclear, and friction may rise.
3. Norming: Roles solidify, trust builds, and goals become clearer.
4. Performing: The team hits its stride—collaborative, innovative, and results-driven.
5. Adjourning: The project winds down, and members reflect, celebrate, and move on.
Understanding these phases gives leaders insight into how to guide their teams with empathy
and strategy—responding to uncertainty with structure during Forming or offering support and
feedback during Storming.
Here is a Stages of Teams Job Aid that really defines each stage in more detail and provides you
with things YOU can do to help your team at each stage.
Relationship Banking: The Currency of Team Cohesion
At the heart of every high-functioning team lies a web of strong, trust-based relationships.
Enter Relationship Banking—a concept that encourages leaders and peers to think of
interactions as deposits and withdrawals in an emotional bank account. Every time we make a
deposit to someone on our team, the bank account of trust, respect, and understanding builds.
This is important so that when we need to take withdrawal, we don’t go into the red, and
negatively impact the relationship.
Deposits include:
• Building trust
• Getting to know how each person works
• Active listening
• Recognition and praise
• Offering help
• Being transparent
• Keeping commitments
Withdrawals might look like:
• Ignoring someone’s ideas
• Breaking trust
• Avoiding conflict
• Undermining a peer
• Failing to communicate
Leaders and team members who consistently make deposits build emotional capital that can be
drawn on during the challenging “Storming” phases or during project crunch times. It’s
about investing in trust so the team has resilience when it’s needed most.
From Theory to Practice: Building Cohesive Teams
Here are five actionable steps you can take to strengthen team cohesion:
1. Map Out Your Stage: Have a candid conversation about where your team currently
stands. Are you forming? Storming? Acknowledging the stage reduces friction and
increases self-awareness. Additionally, recognize that when you add a new member to
your team, you may go back to a previous stage as that person integrates onto your team.
2. Facilitate Relationship Banking Moments: Build intentional opportunities for check-
ins, feedback, and appreciation. Set the tone that connection matters.
3. Define Roles and Goals Together: Teams function better when they co-create structure.
Involving members in setting expectations increases ownership.
4. Establish Team Norms: Co-create a team charter or set of agreements that everyone
abides by. Revisit and revise as needed.
5. Celebrate the Journey: Whether your team is closing out a big project or reaching a new
milestone, take time to reflect, appreciate, and celebrate.
Want to Learn More About Team Dynamics?
In our membership group this month, join us for our upcoming workshop “Stages of Teams and
Relationship Banking: Ideas for Creating Positive Team Dynamics”, where we’ll explore
the Stages of Teams, Relationship Banking, and how to leverage digital tools to foster
collaboration across departments and time zones.