Adjourning

This week, I learned about the group development, which includes five stages, that is, forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Abudi, 2010). Now I am experiencing the adjourning stage in which our ECLC2 team plan and performance for Chinese New Year came to an end. In this teamwork, I found that the high-performing groups are hardest to leave. In our ECLC2 high-performing group, we had been working hard to gradually have clear communication among all members, to come up with new ideas about activities for Chinese New Year, to solve problems or conflicts in a peaceful and effective way, to value different perspectives to be inclusive, to build up positive and supportive working relationships, and so on. We have been a strong team and I am sure it is hard for this team to say good-bye. We are lucky that even we finished this Chinese New Year project, we still have several months to work with each other on another projects until this schooling year ends. Last Friday, the last day of the Chinese New Year project, the team members went out for dinner to celebrate our accomplishment. We talked about our thoughts about this project, the fun and happy things that happened during this project, the conflicts we experienced, and so on. It was a nice gathering for ending this project and we wish for another project to come since we enjoyed working with each other.

When thinking about adjourning from the group of colleagues I have formed while working on my master's degree in this program, I feel sad but happy, a very mixed feeling. I feel sad because I have to say goodbye to my colleagues who have been sharing great insights and who I am growing together with; happy because it will be time for us to celebrate what we will have learned and grown to be. I hope we can still maintain our relationships even this program ends so that we can keep learning from each other. 

This adjourning stage is an essential stage of teamwork. It means an end and another beginning. It is an end for members to learn from the past and a beginning to move on different directions. As stated, "The group members reflect on their accomplishments and failures as well as determine whether the group will disassemble or take on another project (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pp.258)."

References:

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

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