Mmm... in the military I got thrown into so many teams in real and artificial environments. Its amazing how much culture matters. Beware, if you're the domina

Mmm... in the military I got thrown into so many teams in real and artificial environments. Its amazing how much culture matters. Beware, if you're the dominant personality, the culture is going to reflect your personality. i.e. if you're quick to look for someone to blame when something goes wrong, be prepared to see a blame culture emerge at your company as others copy you. Another thing that always stuck with me. Every team goes through this process of forming, storming, norming, and finally performing. Forming is the stage when everyone comes together. Everyone is cordial and polite. This is the friendly but ineffective stage. Storming is where personalities start to clash. Leadership is a social designation and at this point personalities are vying for who will lead the pack. Roles and responsibilities are informally sorted out at this time and everyone is sizing each other up. Norming is when the storming starts to settle down. The team is coming together to get things done. Most of the important roles and informal rules of the team are sorted out. I say roles and rules but keep in mind its often a subconscious designation in a small org. Performing is when the team is rocking and rolling. Everyone has a compatible mental model of what they can expect of others and what the others expect of them. There is no questioning of leadership... things are happening. Bringing new people in, bringing people in fast, etc. can easily disrupt the performing or norming stage and take you right back to storming. Be aware of this.