The End

As we wrap up this course and get ready to extend our learning further.  I would like to say that I have really enjoyed this course.   I believe that the skills learned in this course will help me increase my professional performance.  Many of the topics we have discussed I was completely unaware of until this course.  I would like to thank my classmates and our instructor for a wonderful experience.

The Adjourning Stage of Group Development

Inevitably, all groups must come come to an end or adjourn when their task is accomplished.  The last major group that I was involved in was a committee designed to improve the nutrition of our food options for our children.  The group originally spent a lot of time in the storming stage because we were not clear about our goals or how we should work together.  Some members of our group even felt attacked personally because they thought the purpose of our group was to make them do our jobs better.  However, over time we were able to eventually define our vision and learn how to be a team. As a team were ultimately successful, because our goal was accomplished.  If we could have worked together better from the start I believe that we could have worked together better.  The adjourning stage was somewhat difficult because after we "bought in" to the vision we all enjoyed meeting together and performing our jobs.  I also think that we got to know each other pretty well because we did spend a lot of time in argument at the beginning, which also made the team kind of difficult to leave.  Maybe teams that argue the most have the most passion, although it may be misdirected.

Disagreements and Conflict Resolution

In any fast paced environment like the work place, disagreements are bound to happen.  When disagreements arise it is okay to disagree on the points-of-view; however, it is necessary to respect the person.  The Center for Nonviolent Communication (n.d.) has two skills that I believe would be particularly effective in workplace confrontations.  The first is to differentiate between observation and evaluation.  I think that if we learn to just listen to what the other person is saying, without adding our judgments we can begin to "understand" them.  This will allow for communication to be open and honest.  The other skill is to learn to honestly request wheat we would like in a way that clearly and specifically states what we want.  For example, if I were to say that "I do not like it when you yell at me.  Instead, I would rather you talk to me in a calm voice," I would let the other person know what I want out of the communication situation.  I think if we were to implement these two ideas communication situations would improve greatly.