Adjourning Stage of Development

Adjourning Stage:

I believe that the hardest part about leaving a group is when you have invested much of yourself and taken in the others you have been working with. What I mean is, that if I was going to do a job with a team of people, we come in for our day, we work, hardly talking unless it has to do with our project and at the end of the day punch out, and go home. There is no vested interest in the people i am working with, only the need to get the work completed. Those connections have been made so saying goodbye at the end, whether successful or not would not be difficult for me. I believe that many of us can say the same thing.

Being able to say goodbye to those you have built those strong connections with can be extremely difficult. You are involved with them on a personal level and it can create lasting relationships even after the project is over. Having rituals is important to saying goodbye. Some places have a small party, or sign a card to give to the person leaving. Sometimes it's going out to have a drink to celebrate a job well done. Whatever the case may be, the rituals we have helps to put a finality to the ending state.

I believe that it will be easier to leave this group of colleagues that I have here over say leaving where I work for a new job. Even though we have been engaged and working with each other for over a year now, those one-on-one connections are not as strong through an internet based course. I am not saying that this is how everyone feels, but this is just my feelings. I think I have to have those in person conversations when you can look a person in the eye when talking to them to help form those bonds. We have the commonality of going through the same experiences together, and working together but not the interaction and that is a totally different thing.