Research shows that the stages described above are independent of time. For example, if a group is formed to go through a mini-project over two days, they will start the meeting at 9:00am and go through the Forming stage in one hour. In the next two hours they might be involved in Storming to work things out until finally settling into the Norming stage for the rest of the day when processes are setup and tasks are accepted. The next day people may go through the Performing stage to finish off the job.

In contrast, if they were involved in a 6-months project, their stages may take considerably longer!