Team Development

This week we studied the five stage of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Abudi, 2010).  In considering the adjourning phase there are many aspects of group collaboration that make it difficult to say good-bye.  I would have to say that out of the groups I have been involved in that high-functioning and high-performing groups are harder to say good-bye to than low-performing groups.  When relationships are formed and we learn to rely on others to complete certain tasks, this can often make it harder to end the relationships.  

As a director and trainer in a large company, I am often selected to be part of planning committees for professional development days for our employees.  This would be considered the ‘forming’ stage.  I find these planning committees to be very rewarding.  As the ‘storming’ stage begins, we create a vision for the day’s training and brainstorm topic ideas.  Once topics are decided upon, we make commitments to ensure a successful day by assigning specific roles.  Throughout the process relationships and trust is built and the ‘norming’ stage is underway.  Once we are all working on attaining the same goal and commitments are made, we begin ‘performing’ stage and function at high levels in order to get the training day planned successfully.   The last stage of team development, the ‘adjourning’ stage, can again be the most difficult.  After experiencing the growth of a team, forming bonds, and working toward similar goals, it is difficult to say good-bye and watch things come to an end.  While I feel success from working together effectively I also feel sadness that our journey together has ended.

I have experience a multitude of closing rituals.  Some of which are basic and others are more in depth.  A few examples are saying good-byes and thank you in person, having a celebration dinner following the completed task, and follow up meeting to discuss the results of the training day.

Working with my colleagues through my master’s experience has been very rewarding.  I have felt support by many and bods have been created.  When the adjourning stage comes for us there are a select few friends that I would like to keep in contact with.  These are friends who I have asked for support from and they have reciprocated.  We have been encouraging to each other and celebrate our successes.  It will be a void in my life to not have daily communication and interactions with them.  I appreciate the adjourning ritual that Walden has put into place at the end of each course.  We always have the opportunity to express our gratitude to our colleagues and wish them luck in their future endeavors.  I think this is an essential stage of teamwork so that others know how important their involvement was to the success of the team. Each of us is a piece of a puzzle and together we form a completed project.

 Reference:

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html