Week 6

·         Blog Assignment: Week 6<p>

This week you read about the five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Consider the adjourning phase for several of the groups in which you have been involved. Think about which aspects of the groups made for the hardest good-bye. Are high-performing groups hardest to leave? Groups with the clearest established norms? Which of the groups that you participated in was hardest to leave? Why? What sorts of closing rituals have you experienced or wish you had experienced? How do you imagine that you will adjourn from the group of colleagues you have formed while working on your master's degree in this program? Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork? <p>

 

After reading about the five stages of team development this week, I do think that high-performing groups would be the hardest to leave. I say this because when you think about this type of group, it would be a group where the people in most cases have become close and very similar to how a family works together. When I worked for the county as a SACC teacher, I was part of a five person team that I thought was working great together-but all good things must come to an end. I found out that one of the head teachers was taking credit for what the rest of were doing and making it look like she was the only one working, therefore we ended up in a very uncomfortable situation that became too much to handle and three of us decided to make formal complaints and then leave. This was still very hard to leave since we had been working as a cohesive team. This type would probably be hard to leave also because it seems that everyone is pulling their part and have realized how important each member is to the team. So far I think my SACC team was the hardest to leave because of the friendships build and what I thought was a great set of team members that shared ideas and resources. I wish that we had been able to get together away from the worksite and just relax and talk about how much we had learned from each other when it was time to leave. <p>

 

When it comes time to adjourn from the colleagues that I have worked with in at least one class since starting at Walden (received my Bachelors in October 2012) and then continuing on with my Masters degree that we will finish this year, I will say it’s going to be very hard to say good-bye. I have learned so much from everyone and maintained a solid routine over the years by asking what works for others and trying it out for my own use. I am really hoping that I will be able to keep in touch with at least some of my colleagues to see how our goals work out after this part of the learning is done. I know that I will always have questions and hope my new friends will still help me to learn as we continue to grow outside of the classroom/online community. Routines are important and so is closure in all parts of our interactions with others. <p>