This week you read about the five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Consider the adjourning phase for several of the groups in which you have been involved. Think about which aspects of the groups made for the hardest good-bye. Are high-performing groups hardest to leave? Groups with the clearest established norms? Which of the groups that you participated in was hardest to leave? Why? What sorts of closing rituals have you experienced or wish you had experienced? How do you imagine that you will adjourn from the group of colleagues you have formed while working on your master's degree in this program? Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork?
Focus groups can be hard during adjourning process. We conducted plenty of focus groups. Some were for only one time meeting, where others met more than once. Because we recruit the respondents ourselves, we kind of get to know the respondents a little bit and gain information about traveling and so forth. I was living in Lancaster, California at the time and we had focus groups on a large scale over a couple of sessions,we would recruite respondents and they would travel to Santa Barbara, for example, to partake in these discussions. With that said, when the first group session was over for the day, we would find out from the client that they wanted to reduce the group and they give us names of those they no longer needed. We had to tell these people thank you for your opinion, pay them and tell them that they would not be needed for the other group. Some were okay with it and then others was not. As I said, these people lived in our area and shopped in our mall which is where our office was located (Palmdale). Imagine having to run into them again and ask for their help.
Adjourning in this situation could been a little smoother had we known ahead of time so that we can tell the respondents they would possibly attend 1 or 2 sesssions. Our respondents need to know they can trust us and that their being valued. "Atlernatively, some groups may decide to continue to work together on new tasks" (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, p 258).
Reference
O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Focus groups can be hard during adjourning process. We conducted plenty of focus groups. Some were for only one time meeting, where others met more than once. Because we recruit the respondents ourselves, we kind of get to know the respondents a little bit and gain information about traveling and so forth. I was living in Lancaster, California at the time and we had focus groups on a large scale over a couple of sessions,we would recruite respondents and they would travel to Santa Barbara, for example, to partake in these discussions. With that said, when the first group session was over for the day, we would find out from the client that they wanted to reduce the group and they give us names of those they no longer needed. We had to tell these people thank you for your opinion, pay them and tell them that they would not be needed for the other group. Some were okay with it and then others was not. As I said, these people lived in our area and shopped in our mall which is where our office was located (Palmdale). Imagine having to run into them again and ask for their help.
Adjourning in this situation could been a little smoother had we known ahead of time so that we can tell the respondents they would possibly attend 1 or 2 sesssions. Our respondents need to know they can trust us and that their being valued. "Atlernatively, some groups may decide to continue to work together on new tasks" (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, p 258).
Reference
O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Rhonda, that would be hard for me to tell someone that they were no longer needed I can see that as being hard to do especially when you have to possibly face the person. Thank you for a post beautifully said.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to imagine telling someone that they are no longer needed. Just to imagine how they feel and the dissapointment on their face makes it a hard choice to make. This was a very informative post.
ReplyDeleteRhonda,
ReplyDeleteI agree that they should have been informed before hand. I use to work in retail and it was always hard for me to tell them that I was going to have to cut their hours or that I was going to have to take them off the schedule. These were people who shopped in the store and brought more customers in. Eventually I was able to bring them back, but I had to see their faces every week when they came in to check the schedule.
On another note, I noticed that you were from Greensboro, NC. I use to live in Greensboro, but not from here originally. I recently moved to Whitsett which is about 10 miles from Greensboro.