Adjourning a Team

I have been involved in different team groups throughout my employment as a Director for a Large Childcare Center. The center was a part of a non-profit organization whose mission was to lead through action to make a difference in people’s lives for all ages. They are a big non-profit in our area and provide programs for families including babies up into late adulthood.

As a supervisor I was asked to sit in a group with other supervisors to listen to all of the workman’s comp injuries for the month, to assure that the company was following protocol and employees were also being truthful about their injury disclosures. The leader of the group was the person who gathered the workman’s comp information from the employee. Other dynamics of the group were her supervisor and 8 supervisors like me.

Our group was very successful. We had a leader that stayed on task and facilitated. Her supervisor was there only as an observer. The rest of us did a good job talking through injury scenarios and really looking at what as a company we could do better to insure staff would not get hurt. One big issue we found was that staff who worked with the brain injured adults had a lot of back injuries because they were not trained properly on transfer procedures and on individual care plans.  

Monthly we would get an agenda of the cases. It was noted that they would serve us lunch. When we arrived they told us that we had been doing such a good job they wanted to give us a nice lunch. They gave us a certificate of appreciation. As the meeting was to adjourn they informed us that this was the last time we would meet because they felt that it would be better if the workman’s comp investigator would meet individually with the supervisor of the injured party and her team leads to come up with solutions within individual departments. We were all dismayed because we felt that we had provided a very important service to the company. They did not ask us how we felt they just made the decision to change their procedures. 

Having a lunch was a good way to adjourn the group as well as giving us certificates of appreciation. Abudi argues when adjourning it gives the team an opportunity to say good-bye to each other and wish each other luck as they pursue their next endeavor (Abudi, 2010). We were grateful for that opportunity to come together for one last time but we were unhappy the group was disbanded.

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