PayDay Loans FAQ

The longer a group has been together and the greater the trust among its members, the faster it will return to the highest stage of development it had achieved before the interference. Groups that return to Norm and Perform levels despite changes and new challenges are invaluable human assets. Because of the time and effort needed to build good partnerships, keeping high-functioning groups together makes sense.

Now that you understand the theory behind the Stages of Relationship Development, I want to show you how to use them as a tool for developing partnerships. Although many people cognitively understand the stages, they promptly forget about them in a group setting. Yet this is when they are needed the most.

The relationship then moves into the Perform stage. In this stage, creative energies surface, increase, and flow abundantly as partners generate synergy. Now people perform at highly creative, efficient, and productive levels. The partnership achieves goals that often exceed expectations at the outset.

Partnerships, like most things in life, are not cut and dried. People move back and forth between stages as the dynamics of the relationship change in response to outside forces and influences. For instance, let’s say a group of people representing different departments in the same organization have joined together in a partnership to address the issue of quality. Currently in the Norm stage of development, they’ve functioned well for months. Then suddenly, the vice president of one department informs the group that the team’s objectives have changed. Some members object that the vice president is manipulating the group to focus efforts on improvements for his department at the expense of others. As conflicts arise about the team’s former objective versus the new objective, the group reverts temporarily to the Storm stage. If the team as a whole can clarify and agree on new objectives, the group will return to the Norm stage. Because members of the group have already established a level of trust among themselves, they should be able to move forward. Ideally, they will feel confident addressing issues and resolving them in an open manner and with group consensus. Rebounding from Norm to Storm and back is inherently easier than the initial evolution from the Storm stage.

When a relationship is in the Form stage, the members of the group are generally polite to one another. Most are reserved and allow a group leader or dominant individual to control activities. Others may not reveal much about themselves or disclose their reasons for being involved in the group. They sit back and take a wait-and-see attitude.

But the Form stage is optimal for members’ investing time and energy toward clarifying issues, objectives, and dynamics of the relationship and expressing their needs. During this stage of development, they need to address questions about roles, rules, procedures, and the partnership agenda. “What are we doing?” is a question frequently heard in the Form stage, and during this period people need to ask themselves how much they want to invest in the relationship.

They need to decide whether they are in or out—and, if they are in, what the price of admission is. Consequently, the Form stage needs a strong leader to give direction and set the tone of the partnership until trust is established and situational leadership can emerge in a natural way.

These matters, if not addressed up front, will resurface later and can sabotage the development of trust. Some partners are so eager to “do the deal” that they forget they’re interacting with other people who have their own needs and wants. Impatience at the Form stage is a signal of a potential “one-night stand” relationship.

Analysing the available options will highlight the best approach and inform the way in which it is executed. A strategy to expand internationally requires a champion, someone with dynamism and commitment, and ideally with local expertise or expertise in setting up a similar expansion elsewhere. Such a champion must be flexible enough to make adjustments as necessary to make the new strategy succeed, and must have (or have a subordinate who has) good project management skills in order to provide focus and prioritise actions and aims.

Structuring international operations. It can be unproductive and a waste of resources to make a new international firm fit existing systems and procedures. But core management issues such as communications, structure and leadership are best resolved early. Managers must ensure that information and expertise flow freely throughout the organisation.

In particular, best-practice information should be widely disseminated and available for everyone in the organisation. Deciding the degree of autonomy given to international business units is fundamental. Reporting structures, responsibilities and authority levels need to be clear. An organisation benefits from being integrated and cohesive and should be fair and consistent in its practices and with its employees. Local factors should be taken into account, but an organisation should be true to its values. Co-ordination and control are important; if left to drift, international operations become disconnected from the rest of the organisation, even in conflict with it.

Leading and motivating people, setting direction and making decisions are all made more difficult across borders. Empowerment often provides a solution, enabling people to work within clearly defined areas of responsibility. Mentoring schemes can provide individuals with support and coaching, helping to integrate international business units into the organisation as a whole.