Week 8 - Adjournment:

I would like to take this time to say “Thank you” to an AWESOME support team.  You all have been very instrumental in providing me with the knowledge and skills I have gained over the past eight weeks and some even longer.  Your unselfish willingness to share your life experiences have been very inspiring as well as motivating.  I wish you a life of successes through all your endeavors.   Remember, we live in a diverse world and in order to make a positive change, the change must begin with each of us.  God Speed…

 ~Brenda Smith  

Week 6: Team Building

Not all groups make the adjourning process difficult to do.  However, I remember one in particular that made me very sad when it ended and that was the planning of my 10^th year class reunion.  I remember at the end of reunion everyone shared stories of planning the reunion and how everyone began to laugh at the various hurdles we endured throughout the planning process.  Although they were not funny at the time, we were able to look back over them and laugh.  The entire process took about a year to plan and during this time we had created new memories that I had not realized until the last night of the reunion.  We had begun to connect not only with each other but with each other families as well.  It was very difficult to tell my friends good-bye and watch them go back to their individual worlds after staying on the phone until wee hours in the mornings, attending long planning sessions as we drank numerous cappuccinos,  and   hours and hours of licking envelopes, making phone calls and searching the web trying to contact over 400 hundred classmates. 

I feel that high-performing groups are hardest to leave because they represented unity.  Everyone on the team was dedicated and motivated; thus, striving for a common goals.  We had an awesome leader who promoted mutual trust and respect.  She shared her vision for the reunion and was open to suggestions from all the team members.  Everyone respected what the others had to say and in the end we voted on any and all major decisions before they were implemented.   

At the end of the reunion everyone exchanged phone numbers and e-mails so that they could stay in touch.  Some of us hugged, cried, and vowed to stay in touch as well as visit if we were ever in their area. We also took photos to remind us of our time together. 

I imagine my adjournment from my colleagues will be very emotional for me, because we have encouraged each other, shared our experiences and knowledge and supported each other’s ability to learn, grow and develop both personally and professionally.  It is one thing to express our inner thoughts on the discussion board or through our blog, but it will be another to finally meet face-to-face at graduation.  I look forward to meeting each and every one of my colleagues so that I am finally able to put a face with the personality behind the words of articulation.  I think that adjourning is essential because of the need of closure.  The adjourning process gives the members a chance to conduct an after action report so that they can discuss what was effective and what was ineffective for future projects.  This also gives them the opportunity to say good-bye and wish each other well in their endeavors (Abudi, 2010).

Reference

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

Nonviolent Communication and Conflict Management

For the past two years, we have been giving our staff Time Off Award for their dedication and hard work.  This year we decided to budget for Cash Awards to be given to all staff receiving an Outstanding or Very Good Appraisal rating.  As I finished calculating the awards to be issued, my supervisor walked in and asked how much were we paying out.  I gave her the total, but said that I would like to increase it because we still had over half of the money left that we had set aside for the employees’ awards.   She said she wanted to put the money back into the program so that we can show that our revenue was up for the year.  I told her that I understood that; however, we had set aside the money for the employees and reminded her that the staff had not received a monetary award for the past two years.  After going back and forth a few times, debating our viewpoints, I suggested a compromise.   I agreed not to use all the money and she agreed to giving the staff over half of the money for awards.  

This turned out to be a win –win situation for everyone because the staff received a pretty nice monetary award, my boss was able to put some of the money back into the program, and I was able to show the staff how much we appreciate all of their hard work and dedication over the past year.   We were able to effectively solve this conflict because we used corporate strategies that benefited all parties involved.  We were able to look past our individual goals and focus on a solution that would satisfied the needs of everyone.   Although we were both passionate in our verbal communication about our intentions with how the money should be delegated, we did not result to violent behaviors to get our point across.   

 We saved more money than anticipated; therefore, we were able to give more generously to the staff and still have enough left over to show a small profit.   We were able to effectively resolve this conflict because we were both willing to negotiate and compromise.  It is essential that we learn effective ways in which to handle conflict.  Both the 3 Rs and nonviolent strategies are helpful tools to have when faced with conflicts because they promote peaceful resolutions.

Had this lead to an unproductive conflict, what are some of the consequences do you think I would have endured?