The five stages team development

The five stages team development

By Anita L. Coles

I think the hardest group I have encounter was my social work colleagues group. We had to do a funding proposal. There were four in the group three women and one male.  Although we were familiar with one another’s faces and names, we had not gotten around to any formal introductions.

            Our first meeting classified as the “formatting” (Abudi, 2009-2010, p. 2) took place in our college classroom at that time; we made our introductions, as well as establishing who was going to do what. The assigning parts were not hard because only one member was aware, at the time, of the mechanics of putting together and presenting a proposal of any category and because of deadline date was very short we voted hands down that Earl would be the team leader, however, as other parts were being assigned the conflicts begun.

            Some felt that their assigned parts were either asking of them too much or too little. Earl being the lead person had those individuals who were unhappy with their assignments switch and all was well. There were very little disagreements because the team leader was very knowledgeable concerning the layout of our perspective funding proposal. Although Earl left each member to work on their assigned part of the proposal, he did leave himself available as needed.  In fact, the team met and worked on the proposal at Earl and his wife’s home.  

            The last part of the assignment was conducted in the classroom. The last part of the proposal was tenuous because all the facts and figures had to match so that when the team stood before the classroom and the instructor every part of the proposal should be easy enough for a layman, and professional enough to captivate the funding to team. The proposal was a success. Once the project was over, the team did split up; however, the team became very close. After graduating the College of Social Work, Earl and I were hired and worked at the same job. Other team members worked at different agencies but still kept in touch.

I think even thought my colleagues and I may not know each other than pictures and blog reviews I still feel a certain amount of closeness.

Reference

Abudi, G. (2009-2010). The five stages of team development: A case study