The forming stage

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.