Adjourning in Team Development

This weak I learned about the five stages that teams or groups go through.  The adjourning stage is a process the groups encounter when they are disbanding (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).  This is the time the group reflects on accomplishments and/or failures they experienced along the way.   Some groups don't disband; while others may never work together or see each other again after completing a group project.  I've had several chances working with others during my military career and during my educational career.  As a HR, we constantly had group projects and often times I worked with the same group for various projects.  It wasn't until after I decided not to reenlist that I experienced adjournment and had to say farewell because there would be no future projects for me.  In education, I get to work with my kindergarten team weekly in meeting academic goals within six week increments for the young children assigned to me.  We won't experience adjournment until the end of the year, if the team has to disband.  I don't think high performing groups, as with me and the Armed Forces were hard to leave.  It’s expected and comes with the job.  We are well aware of the turnover rate in the military sector.  For me, it would be harder leaving a smaller high performing group.  As always there are good bye rituals in place especially for members who have invested a lot of time or made a major impact on reaching the common goal of the organization.  When I left the military, those I worked with the most, we had lunch together.  I still contact some of them until this day.  When I left the early learning center for a public school teaching position, my colleagues and I enjoyed my last day on campus by bringing our classes together and celebrating my new opportunity.  Gifts were given, pizza was delivered, party trays displayed, cards and well wishes were expressed, etc.  I still remain in contact with some of the ECE professionals from my first campus and it was hard to say goodbye.  As I get closer to completing my master’s program with WU, I'm not sure how I will adjourn from the group of colleagues that I have worked with for the last two years.  I know we will all be excited about reaching a professional goal and graduating from the program, but I'm not sure how we will bring it to a close when it's the final week of the very last class we have to take.  Adjourning is essential to teamwork because it provides closure to the group project and to relationships that are meant to be long term or to continue.  It definitely helps to understand and improve any areas of weakness that may have been discovered during the project.  

Reference:  O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012).  Real communication:  An introduction.  New York:  Bedford/St. Martin's.