Last night my son and I settled in and watched a football game that I would probably not otherwise watch. But it was Tuesday and it was the only Football game on.. so being the football fans that we are, we watched the Temple Owls play the Ohio Bobcats in a pretty ugly game.
Temple was behind for three quarters, they played hard, but seemed to not be able to move the ball. Ohio on the other hand scored 10 points real quick, but that was about it for their offense. They moved up and down the field ok, but could not punch it in.
Both teams played their collective hearts out… to use the cliche, they left it all on the field.
What killed them was penalties and bad decisions. They would move the ball 15 yards, then get a 10 yard penalty. They would throw a long pass, then get a 15 yard personal foul.
Every time they moved forward, they were sent back.
1 step forward…2 steps back.
If you have ever tried to move across a room taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back, you will soon come to realize that you are not getting anywhere… fast.

As we watch our Patrols develop, we often see them going through this 1 step forward mode. They call it Storming in the stages of team development. It usually results in the team getting frustrated and conflicts begin. It is ok to be in the storming mode for awhile, but it is the test of the team, or Patrol, to get out of it… to move forward.
It takes the team leader, or Patrol leader to recognize that they are getting nowhere and rally his Patrol, motivate them, to move in the direction they need to go. Leaders understand the purpose and direction of the unit and strive to get there, even if it means conflict along the way.
Storming is a normal part of the team development process. The Patrols need to be coached through it and allowed to make the mistakes it takes to learn so they can move forward.