Team Development

   I feel that anytime I work in a group it is hard to say goodbye. When you are working closely with people you get to know them and get to learn about their backgrounds. If you are lucky you become friend's with these people and hope to keep the friendships going for years. Yes, I feel that high-performing groups are especially hard to leave because you spend a lot of time with these people both at either a work or school setting and also outside of either work or school. When you have a high-performing group you all tend to share the same common goals and are all compassionate about the work you put into the project.
  For me the hardest group for me to leave was when I had worked on a group research project. My group had done a paper and PowerPoint presentation about Asperger's Syndrome and I had really learned a lot even though I had one group member who had not helped out much at all. I love working with children who have special needs and was glad to have the opportunity to work on a project where I was able to learn more about Asperger's Syndrome. I knew a little about the disability before starting the project, but I had gotten so much more out of the project afterwards. It was hard for me to leave because my other group mate was a lot of fun to work with and because her brother has the disability I was able to find out how the disability not only affected her brother, but the family. I still keep in touch with my group mate and had just learned that she is obtaining her Master's Degree in Special Education and that it was because of the way I had encouraged her throughout the paper and how often I told her that she is very compassionate when working with other people and seeing her desire to teach others.
  The closing rituals I would have liked to see more of was seeing what other projects my teammate was working on and seeing her succeed in her other courses. I think that we should have celebrated us getting a great grade and helping each other out.
  I am hoping that once the class is over and we are obtain our Master's Degrees that we will still keep in touch and continue to encourage each other. I have learned a lot from my colleagues and have always been pleased with the way we encourage each other and help each other out. I have learned so much from my colleagues and feel that these ladies are not only my colleagues, but also my friends. I want to take a moment and thank my friends for all their help, advice and guidance throughout the program. I have had some rough times in my personal life, but because of the strength of my friends in these courses and the encouragement I know I can be successful and I can get through anything that life throws me.
  The reason why adjourning is an essential part of teamwork is because I feel it is important to take the skills we learn from one project and use them again on all the future projects we work on. Building friendships are important and having a network of people guiding you and giving positive encouragement motivates you to want to strive hard to obtain your goals.