The Adjourning Phase
According to Abudi (2010), groups go through the adjourning
phase when they are going their separate ways and the project or team is coming
to an end. In college, I was in an Acapella group, which is where I made some
of my closest friends. Towards the end of my senior year, we started going
through the adjourning phase because many of us were graduating. Saying goodbye
to this group was extremely challenging because we all had spent so much time
together throughout college, and knew that it would never be the same
again. I believe it was
challenging because it was a high-performing group that was very committed to
performing and working together. We learned a lot about each other and
respected each other on many levels. Not only did we get together for
rehearsals and shows, weekly, but we also hung out with each other multiple
times throughout the week outside of scheduled projects.
We went through many closing rituals such as the end of the
year concert, our “goodbye party” for seniors, and our senior photo shoot with
the group. The group always felt like a family to me, but having these rituals
demonstrated how close we had become and how hard it was going to be to leave. I
believe I began to truly appreciate the opportunities and friendships the group
provided me, once we were parting ways. Therefore, I think adjourning is an
essential stage of teamwork because you can reflect on all of the hardships and
positive outcomes that have risen from them. I think that the group of
colleagues we have met in this program will experience an adjourning process
but on a different level. We have not met in person, and interact with each
other solely through online communication. However, we have gotten to know each
other through the program and have worked side by side to support each other
through the courses we have taken. I think it will be a strange transition to
go from speaking to each other weekly, to not speaking at all. I hope that my
colleagues keep in touch, and I hope to learn about their future endeavors as
we pursue our professional dreams!
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
Tara, it sounds like you created a special relationship with that group in college. I can understand how difficult it was to leave that group. I also found it difficult to leave a group where you were not only successful, but very close with the members in the group. Sometimes, you create life-long relationships. As you said, the relationships we formed with our colleagues at Walden are different because we strictly communicated online, however, we learned so much about one another and communicate weekly, it will be weird to not communicate with everyone daily.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!
Brianna
Tara,
ReplyDeleteAgain, such a wonderful post! I love reading your blog posts each week. I understand what you mean about how many of us have developed a "working" relationship with each other through these different courses. It will be very odd when we no longer are relying on each other for support each week to work through these different classes. However, I do hope that we can stay in touch, as I would love to see where you end up in your career.
Tara,
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving me such a beautiful thank you on my blog. I have also enjoyed having you in so many courses and have also learned from your weekly posts and blogs. It has been wonderful and enlightening to see your perspective on the many different topics we have discussed together. Good luck in your future courses and I hope to see you again!
Trish
Tara, thank you for always sharing your thoughts and kind words throughout this course. I have enjoyed learning with you and reading your weekly discussion post as well as your blog post. I hope we are in another course together in the future as it is always nice to see a familiar colleague!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck,
Brianna
Hi Tara,
ReplyDeleteIt has been a pleasure having you in another course at Walden. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and input through your posts and responses. I wish you success in every part of your life and I hope to see you in the next course.