Development of Groups; Week 6

This week there has been a wealth of resources that will be of great assistance to me both in my professional career as well as my personal life. I have learned what successful communication looks like, but also how to make a group excel in communication. The 5 stages of development have been quite helpful and I will ensure I have each stage readily available when I am in group settings in which we are working towards a goal.

As far as saying goodbye to groups, I would say the high-performing groups would be difficult to leave because you know everyone has a desire to work towards their goal, and the group does what they can to achieve that goal. When you are in a high performing group, you develop expectations and you carry those with you. Should you end up in a group that is not working for towards the goal, and do not bond with one another, you can be let down and are more than willing to say goodbye to the group. I believe the same would apply for the groups that had the high norms because everyone felt so comfortable with one another and they worked diligently to achieve their goal. They put aside their individual thoughts and desires to work towards the goal. I can remember working with a group of friends on an assignment in my undergraduate work, and I could not wait to get out of that group because I was doing the brute of the work. I had no help, but everyone reaped the benefits of the A we received. It was not a comfortable group to be involved in.

I can remember a group I worked with during my undergraduate studies that was very high performing and clearly stated objectives and goals. I was the president of an organization, the Student Education Association. I had officers that worked extremely hard to accomplish what we needed to do, and I loved working with this group. We became very close during that year, and I was saddened when we had to say good bye to one another. We had worked so hard and I knew we had formed such close bonds and communicated very well. We would have many dinners outside of school where we could come up with great ideas and thoughts about what was best for the students involved in education. It was truly a memorable group. When we finally did adjourn, we sat down and discussed how we worked as a team and all of the wonderful things we accomplished. We just said our goodbyes and wished each other well. Those goodbyes bring closure and allow everyone to feel accomplished.

During my time here at Walden, I have been in classes with many of the same people. However, because I took a course out of order, I am not longer in the courses with anyone I started with. I am somewhat saddened because I feel like I developed some "personal" relationships through blogs and discussion postings. However, it is another lesson to put in my pocket because I have learned so many new ideas for early childhood education. I have received feedback from old and new colleagues that I will use during my time as an educator.

Abudi (2011) reminds us the adjourning stage is the closing of the project and the movement on to other projects. During this time, group members are able to analyze successes and failures, and make notes of what would aid in better success in the next group. O'Hair & Wiemann (2009) also remind us some group members can remain friends even after the group has adjourned. This is certainly the truth as 2 of the members of my group and myself have remained friends.

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. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.