Using the stage diagnostic in your next 1:1

The diagnostic in the Module 2 template turns the model into a Tuesday-afternoon tool. Here's how to actually use it.

The downloadable template at the end of this module (the Tuckman + Neurodiversity Stage Diagnostic) gives you a one-page read of your team's current stage and one concrete inclusion move per week. We'll walk through using it.

Step 1: Run the diagnostic once, with one team, this week. Don't try to do this for every team you work with at the same time. Pick the one you're most worried about, or the one you care most about getting right. Fill out the diagnostic with your own observations first, before talking to the team.

Step 2: Triangulate with the team. In your next manager 1:1s, share the diagnostic with each report. Ask them which stage they think the team is in and why. Where their read differs from yours, the gap is the data.

Step 3: Pick one move. The diagnostic ends with a 'one inclusion move this week' field. Pick one. Not five. One. Write the stage, the move, the date, and the owner.

Step 4: Note the result in two weeks. Bring the diagnostic back two weeks later. What happened? Did the move land? Did it produce the friction you expected, the friction you didn't, or no friction at all? All three are data.

Step 5: Re-run it when the team changes. A new hire, a re-org, a manager change, a major project shift: any of these resets your team toward Forming. Don't assume the previous stage carries over.

One pitfall to avoid: do not use the diagnostic as a way to label individual colleagues. The diagnostic is about the team's stage. If you find yourself writing 'X is the difficult one in Storming' — stop, and rewrite as 'the team is in Storming and we haven't built written conflict practice yet'. The fix is mutual, not personal.