A note to Colleagues

As our course comes to an end, I would like to thank each of my colleagues for all their support throughout this course as well as the previous courses.  You have supported me through your experiences and insights in helping me gain a better perspective of your views, which helped me reflect on my own.  Additionally, you have also confirmed my own personal beliefs about the growth and development of young children and ways you have effectively dealt with them and their families.  You have also reinforced the fact that we are all humans, with the same basic needs and wants.  We all have good days and we all have bad days.  You have confirmed that there are still great people in this world who are willing to self-sacrifice for the good of others.  So, I hope I have supported you in similar ways and I wish you continued success in your specialization classes and even hope to have you in my specialization classes.  I have enjoyed getting to know, your families, your goals, your hopes and even your fears!  Best wishes to each and every one of you!  I hope we can all stay in touch and continue to grow and learn from one another. 

 

Additional contacts:

Janajohnston3@yahoo.com

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The Adjourning Stage of Team Development

Week 6:  The Adjourning Stage of Team Development

 

In tasks in which I have worked efficiently with others as a team it is difficult to say good-bye even when celebrating the completion of whatever the team accomplished together.  I think the higher performing groups are the hardest to leave because they are likely more to have the clearest established norms and are strongly focused on their group’s vision.  Evening through the closing rituals, which mostly have consisted of being rewarded with food that tastes great, but is bad for us, it is still often difficult to walk away from a group of people who formed a strong performing and productive team.  This type of team is more focused on the group than self.  A group focus, rather than a focus on self, seems to flow smoother in accomplishing goals. This makes everyone’s job easier.

 

I imagine I will likely adjourn from my colleagues by thanking them for their insights and participation throughout this program.  I think this stage is an important stage of teamwork because, for me, it provokes reflection on what areas I do well in and what areas I need more improvements.  I think my colleagues’ input is important because they understand our successes and shortcomings because we share a common vision.  I do think it would be nice to stay connected with my colleagues, but this would likely have to be done through social networking as we are all scattered throughout and would likely find it too difficult to physically meet.  Overall, I think collectively we have a lot to offer one another through are vast diversities and experiences.    

Experiencing Conflict

An issue I wanted to address is one that seems to affect every workplace.  This issue involves co-workers who constantly find something to complain about with their boss.  These individuals generally do nothing about their complaints but tell everybody but the person they are complaining about.  For me, when I am on the receiving end of someone’s complaint about another I feel uncomfortable listening to someone talking negatively.  There are strategies I can take use to help manage or resolve this conflict.  According to The Conflict Resolution Network (n.d.), I can empathize with these individuals by asking them questions about their complaints and even inquire what they are doing about it with their boss and how and/or in what ways they think I can by learning about the issues they have with another.  Another strategy I can use is to ask the individuals to think about their expected outcome, such as a win-win outcome or a compromise.  I would also encourage these individuals to talk directly to the source of their complaints.  We may even have monthly meetings set aside to address any issues or concerns from staff and involve the staff on ways to resolve issues and the types of resources/services they suggest.  Overall, my goal would be to support individuals in not going to others about a problem they are not involved, but rather go directly to the person involved in the conflict. 

 

For my particular issue, I used this assignment to ask the very people who were going to others and complaining about another on giving advice to solve work-related problems.  I also asked them about what they also found to likely be ineffective ways in solving problem related to work. I found it interesting that everyone felt it was most important to go directly to the source about their problems, but also confessed they often felt intimidated to do so because often times it was their boss.  I then suggested we ask the boss about monthly meetings to share what worked with patients and our jobs as well as what did not work so well and input on ways to make it work better so we can be more productive for the boss.