Adjourning: The Fifth Element of Team Development

Over the course of my professional and educational careers, I have had the opportunity to be apart of many groups. As I work with these groups the final wrap up is always the hardest. I guess it is the hardest, it normally means the end and as we continue on our own paths. Working in groups, I had the opportunity to work with some awesome individuals, these individuals accepted my ideas, thoughts, and even helped to open my mind to the point of views of others as it relates to the goal we were all working to achieve. As it relates to the performance of the groups,  whether they were high performing or a regularly performance group, the relationships that were and are built make it harder to walk away. Working in groups, it was much harder for me to walk away from those group where I had made friends and the closing rituals that I have experienced made it even harder to say good bye. At the close of a project or course, especially when I was  actually going to a classroom, we would have end of project or course potlucks or we would meet at a near by restaurant to celebrate the end. All of this was great I believe, because it showed that not only did we value the input of the person as a contributor, but we valued the person as a whole as an individual. So adjourning is always in my case has always been a bitter sweet ending.