The Adjourning Stage

When working within an effective group environment, Abudi (2010) refers to the last of five stages of team development as the "adjourning" stage.  Within this stage, the project is coming to an end and team members head their separate ways.  Rather than looking at the management of tasks en route to accomplishing team goals (as was the case throughout the first four steps), this step shifts perspective to look at the team's overall well-being.
 
At the end of each of my college soccer seasons, our coach gathered the team members and their loved ones to ensure that time was taken to celebrate the successes of the season and discuss the goals of the team moving forward.  Abudi (2010) suggests that this is a crucial step in the adjourning process.  It also allowed for the members of the team to say good-bye to the seniors, as the end of the season concluded their work together.  After going through many ups and downs throughout our collegiate athletic careers, departing from this close knit group was emotional for many of us.  We had shared similarly demanding schedules of balancing college life with soccer practices and traveling to games. Our collective efforts had allowed us to feel the joys of victory and the agony of defeat together. As we adjourned, we also bid farewell to the established norms that helped develop the team culture that allowed us to be an effective unit.  Moving on from those norms and the individuals that helped make them is often difficult for effective teams (Abudi, 2010).  It certainly was for us.

When I consider what the adjourning stage will be like as we conclude our program, I feel that the most difficult component of heading our separate ways will be the loss of the camaraderie that exists amongst us. Working towards the common goal of bettering ourselves professionally to advocate for young children and their families, we share similar passion and a similar workload. Having colleagues to bounce ideas off of and gain insights from has been enormously helpful to my professional growth. While I will hope to maintain collegial relationships with those in this program, it will be difficult to depart from working so closely with a group of individuals sharing similar passion and desire to improve the quality and effectiveness of early childhood programming.  

References

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