Tuckman's Group Development Theory
The first stage of becoming a team is norming, which is everyone coming together with shared goals. This took place at the beginning of the movie when two groups of different races were merged into a single team. They undoubtedly were not a team when they initially came together, but nevertheless, they all had the same goal in mind; to play football and to win. The following step is storming. …show more content…
This is a challenging step in the process which consists of the group recognizing their problems and differences, figuring out how to communicate, and fighting over leadership. This was particularly demanding for the Titans because their team was now combined with white and black players, which they were the only team with both races. Throughout this time period, blacks were still looked down upon and the blacks still resented the white folks. This triggered much conflict within their group, especially because each group had a leader prior to being merged into a team. Gerry and Julius were the two main leaders and they both focused more on their differences than they did their similarities.
The third step is norming. This is more of a turning point when the players begin to agree upon their roles and begin to negotiate. This point for the Titans could be mostly contributed to the team meeting called by Bleu, Gerry, and Julius. These three finally swallowed their pride and understood they had the same long term goals and needed to work together. At the meeting, they argued about how things needed to change if they wanted to keep playing. It was a success in bringing them all together and symbols the point in the movie where the Titans begin win games and play together with real teamwork. The final step is performing. This is the phase when you see the results begin to pay off, such as the last sentence in the prior paragraph. The Titans got past their issues with skin color and didn't care about what the rest of the community thought. They were a team now and represented themselves as such on and off the field. They stood up for and supported each other, even if it was defending them from their own family. Such an occasion was when Gerry introduced Julius to his girlfriend and she was offended that Gerry would even associate with a colored man, but Gerry stood up for Julius rather than go along with his girlfriend. Also, when Gerry took Julius to his home, his mother didn't approve of him being friends with a colored man. However, Gerry continued to attempt to get his mom to like him and was persistent at telling her to give him a chance. Doug Howell's Types of Teams Doug Howell defined a list of five different types of teams. However, the ultimate type