WEEK 6 : Teem Work and Adjourning

Week 6 - Communication and Collaboration.

        Anytime you connect with someone to work together, you have formed a team. Whether we admit it or not, there is an emotional and physical connection that takes place. I have been fortunate to be part of many teams and groups since childhood or college days, as a Girls’ Brigade, Scripture Union Pilgrims Group, through official office teams and now my professional online learning group. As a Church leader, I have led teams and groups to work on special projects and assignments. Each time the assignment is over, we generally celebrate our achievements of job well done and we dismiss the group and focus on the next line of assignment. I did not know the importance of adjourning in a group.

        I strongly believe that an effective high performing team will be the hardest to leave, this is essentially because the team members have connected together in positive ways, they had brainstormed and gone through some hardships to arrive at the success of the team, so there is a positive link between the individual members that will not be easy to pull out because the group has become a major part of their identity. There is clear vision, mutual respect and trust and the team members have invested time and energy in to the purpose of the team. Working with people builds new relationships and when we learn from each other and contribute together to achieve results, there is great fulfillment. According to Abudi (2010) in the "adjourning" stage the project is coming to an end and the team members are moving off into different directions. This stage looks at the team from the perspective of the well-being of the team.

      As I think about the group and the aspects I found difficult to adjourn, I remembered my team at Haggai Leadership Institute in Maui. We had been together for four weeks, did projects together and worked intimately as a team, even though we came from about 23 different nations, we had connected together very strongly for world evangelism. When it was time to depart, we realized how close we had become. There was valedictory message, closing dinner and celebration of friendship, photographs and speeches; it was a powerful connection that is still making impact on me till today.

       I imagine that adjourning from my colleagues will be not be too easy. As online colleagues, we have formed teams and friendship in a way that is not very visible but quietly there is a relationship. We have discussed and shared ideas in some ways that have linked our hearts together. I agree that a Performing team will keep in touch with each other as they have become a very close knit group and there will be sadness at separating and moving on to other projects independently (Abudi, 2010). Even though I will be happy to be through with the program, I am unhappy to miss my colleagues. Adjourning is important because nothing lasts forever, even life will end one day and so we need to move on to other things and focus on our next goals. It will benefit the organizations we work for and help us to grow up professionally if we can end a team and start to transfer the knowledge to something more significant.

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