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The team :
meets and learns about the opportunities and challenges,
and then agrees on goals and begins to tackle the tasks.
The team members:
- tend to behave quite independently.
- may be motivated but are usually relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team.
- are usually on their best behavior but very focused on themselves.
- mature ones begin to model appropriate behavior even at this early phase.
The meeting environment also plays an important role to model the initial behavior of each individual.
Orientation:
- The major task functions also concern orientation.
- Members attempt to become oriented to the tasks as well as to one another.
- Discussion centers on defining the scope of the task, how to approach it, and similar concerns.
To grow from this stage to the next, each member
- must relinquish the comfort of non-threatening topics
- and risk the possibility of conflict.