This week my blog will focus on the last stage of
team development. There are five stages
of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The adjourning phrase is when a “project or
task has come to an end.” (O’Hair and
Wiemann, 2012) Most of the groups I have
been involved in had an easy adjourning phase.
I was happy for the group projects to be over because the entire process
was very stressful. The stress often
came from others not doing their part for the grade or from others trying to
control the assignments given to another person. Those teams just disbanded without
conversation or reflection. However, I
can recall an adjourning phrase of a team for a project in one of my Early Childhood
education courses. Our team cooperated
effectively and we planned a dinner to celebrate the ending of the
project. During the dinner, we had the
opportunity to discuss our “accomplishments and failures as well as determine whether
the group will dissemble or take on another project” that was due to start in
the coming week. (O’Hair and Wiemann,
2012) Our team chose to continue to work
together but we had to add some other people to our group which made the new project
more challenging.
I am facing an
adjourning phrase in my journey towards receiving my Master’s degree. I began to feel sad as I read the
instructions for this assignment and I realized that I will not be
communicating with some of my colleagues in the future. We have all reached a point in our degree
process in which we will start our specialty tracks. I will miss communicating with those that
will be heading on a different track but I would like to take this opportunity
to thank those that have been inspiring to me.
However, I am looking forward to meeting new colleagues that are seeking
the same specialty area so that I can create new collegiate connections that
will be essential in the future. Although
I will be saying goodbye to some colleagues in the next two weeks, I plan to
maintain a connection via the blog posts that I have subscribed to during the
past year. It is amazing how fast the
year has gone by and I am so proud that we have all made it thus far. I encourage my colleagues to continue their
journey even when the courses may seem overbearing. We have made it this far and we can make it
to our expected end! As we all fly off in our separate directions, we will always remember where we have been and the people that we have met.
Resource
O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Janine,
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading your post. I agree that the adjourning process gives the group a chance to elaborate on every obstacle that was faced. This process can also prepare people for the next team activity. As we participate in more team activities; our skills should sharpen. Thank you for sharing your post.
Chere'e
I agree with your point about low performing groups being easy to leave behind. I think it is still an important step though, however low performing the group may be, because we can reflect on mistakes and lessons learned by the whole group and maybe even share individual lessons so that more than one person can learn from one persons mistake. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Janine, I enjoyed reading your post. I agree that the reflection process and the knowledge and insight gained from it can be as valuable and I feel in some instances perhaps the most valuable aspect of what was accomplished by the team. I am a firm believer in the importance of learning from every experience even if we don't feel that it was positive. Once again, I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this. Cindy Ferguson
ReplyDeleteHi Janine,
ReplyDeleteWe were in many group teams and formed the blog together too, you taught me many things about the blog that I did not know. I guess you can say, you were the group leader. I thank you for being there, and allowing me to grow with this new found opportunity. I hope you will continue on your with your educational journey. I sure, we will cross paths again. Tamarah