Blog Week 6

Adjourning…What makes it difficult? 

I have been a part of many groups.  Last year I participated in a Christ Renew His Parish group from my church.  After the initial weekend retreat, we met weekly to discuss topics related to our faith journey.  It was a very valuable experience for me.  I cherished it.

The aspect of the group that made it hardest to say good-bye was that I enjoyed learning about my faith from experiences of others.  For our group, we had one assignment.  We had to pray and organize (and put on) a retreat weekend for the next group of women.  We learned a lot about each other during this time.  As our closing ritual, we prayed for our upcoming week.  We prayed for the women in the next group.  It helped me set goals for myself in terms of my faith journey.  I would not necessarily say that the group of 12 women was high-performing in terms of a job; however, I hope that we made an impact on each other and the women that we presented for.  One aspect that did annoy me about our closing time was that it was usually late.  The group could have benefited from a schedule and a person in charge of keeping the group on track.  At the end of the six month faith journey, we presented our weekend and met many new women.  However, it was quite sad because we knew that we would no longer see each other every Monday evening.  We created a group on Facebook (which we all had a site) and kept in touch that way.  We also meet every three months for a social gathering at a Tour the World dinner.  For this social dinner, we pick different restaurants around the city with diverse food (Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Brazilian, Greek, etc).  It is always a very fun night! 

Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork? For some groups, the closeness of the group can make it difficult to adjourn.  However, celebrating our accomplishments by gathering together can lead us in new paths.  For example, I met a lady from my church that also lost an infant child and has a child with special needs.  She cannot drive due to visual impairment, so she asked me if I could drive her to a monthly meeting for mothers of children with special needs.  This is a friendship that I deeply cherish.  I feel that by meeting this wonderful lady at one group, we have a bond and now we are close friends. 

I love meeting new people and communicating with wonderful people!  During my master’s degree program, I have “virtually met” many intelligent people.  I hope that we can continue to stay in contact through our blogs.  This is a personal type of communication that can inform others about our jobs or upcoming events.  It can also share our challenges and triumphs. 

Adjourning is an important part of teamwork because it can show that we cared about the group in which we participated.  It can also make us feel valuable.  By adjourning, we can open up time for other endeavors.       

These are my children's "TEAMWORK" shirts...superheros!  Gotta love them!