Stage 5: Group Adjournment

As I review the information on Stage 5 of the “Five Stages of Team Development” developed by Bruce Tucker I would like to reflect on the adjourning process with two different groups; one group of Head Start employees for a program where I was the Director for two years and one group of Office of Head Start Training/Technical Assistant contracted specialist for whom I worked with for two years.

When adjourning with the Head Start program employees we were provided resources and opportunities to reflect on our two years together as a group; reflecting on our successes and addressing challenges with potential solutions we may want to use in the future.  During a farewell pot luck lunch we were able to share our future goals and we were able to collect personal contact information.  This was a sad adjournment process for me because as a team we turned so many challenges into successes over the course of two years.

The second group adjournment with fellow Training/Technical Assistance Specialist was not as successful.  Since we all work from our home offices in different geographic locations getting together to reflect on our successes and challenges was not as easy.  The main mode of communication was e-mail where we exchanged personal contact information and wished each other best wishes for the future.  Because the Training/Technical Assistance network if pretty small I think we all assumed we would eventually be working together again in the near future so we did not place much emphasis on closing out our contract at the end of August 2011.  It is now April 2012 and we are still not working together and it is sad that we did not take any steps to put closure on our work.  A teleconference to discuss our work and hear each other’s voices may have supported a less emotional transition as we venture into different directions and may have provided us with new insights that we could carry forward in our work with new team members.

Regarding the group I have been working with on my Master of Early Childhood Studies program we are about to venture into our specializations and this is my last core class.  Several of my colleagues in this program have been in every class I have taken since February 2011.  Even though this is distant learning I feel as if I know some of you very well because I have read about your passions, your families, and your emotions in many discussion questions and blog posts.  Since we are geographically located in different locations across the world, we will not be provided the opportunity to participate in any formal closure activities so I plan to gather personal information from some of you so we can stay in touch in the future.  Our group has been dynamic and each of you has added so much value to my life; I really hope we can see each other at a graduation ceremony.

References:

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved April 2, 2012 from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html