Groups!

     This week, we took at look at the five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.  After learning and reading about these stages, I then took a closer look at the adjournment stage and reflected on some of the groups that I have been in and what occurred or did not occur during the adjournment stage.
     I do feel that the higher performing groups were really hard to leave, mainly because trust, respect, and relationships had been built in those groups, which is why they worked so well.  However, I do think that in many of the higher performing groups that I have been a part of, many of us were excited that we had reached our goal, but were not ready to split up as a group.  This often led to my groups deciding to set and pursue a new goal.  We saw that we had worked so well together and this led us to work together on other things instead of adjourning.
     I have left many groups before they ever got off of the ground, and this was easy to do.  I have been in groups in which I didn't agree with the goal that was set.  I may not have been able to deal with so many individuals in a group pursing their own individual goals.  Many times, I have not been able to get past the storming stage and have felt that I didn't want to be a part of a group that seemed to operate in this manner.  Leaving groups that never get past the storming stage has always been very easy for me.
     When I think about closing experiences in groups, I feel like the groups that end in a celebration are the ones that are most memorable for me.  When in groups, you are working very hard to reach a goal.  When that goal is reached, there should be a celebration to mark the fact that the goal has been accomplished.  This is a great way to adjourn with happy and positive memories.
     I feel bad saying this, but I have never had a hard time with adjourning from any of my degree courses and I don't feel that adjourning from my Master's will be any different.  I have never attended any of my graduations and I have never really met any of my fellow students or teacher's face to face.  This makes it very easy to not develop relationships and to not feel as if the others in this same group as me really play a part in my experience.  I am sure that it would be much different if I had actual in-seat classes.

     When reading through other blog postings of my colleagues this week, I find it interesting to hear so many say that there really isn't much conflict at their jobs.  My job feels like constant conflict.  I supervise a group of about 15 other women.  The conflict is rampant.  However, mostly it revolves around who is getting the most break time or office time.  Most of these teachers and aides are stuck in a classroom the entire day.  We are always so short staffed, that break time and office time has really become some kind of myth or legend that is often spoken of, but rarely seen.  While one group is "trapped" in their class, they imagine that the other group is in the teacher's lounge relaxing and really having a great time and getting lots of lesson plans and work caught up on.  This causes conflict between the classrooms.  They keep a close ear and eye out to see just how many minutes each person gets in the teacher's lounge each day and it is normally the subject of most of the complaints that find their way to my office.
     I have tried several different things to remedy this.  I tried doing scheduled break times and scheduled office times.  This was a huge pain because I would spend hours each week trying to figure out a schedule to ensure that each person got two fifteen minute breaks and also an office time.  Then, we would have call-ins and/or people quit, which always threw the schedule right out of the window.  I have even tried having volunteers come in just to give breaks.  No solution that I have seems to last more than a couple of days.  I have tried to convince the classes that their colleagues were in the same boats, but they didn't believe this.  I have tried hiring extra help for the afternoons to relieve staff and get them more office time, but those afternoon workers never stay more than a few weeks.  I have tried moving people around and re-arranging work schedules... nothing ever works out.
     This is frustrating to me because it seems so petty when I compare it to the other things that I have to do every day.  When I have parents coming to me because their child has been molested and I am meeting with children's services and police, and then teachers come in complaining that they only got a ten minute break instead of a fifteen minute break, I almost snap at them.  However, I try really hard to remember that it is not petty to them and that they do deserve to have office times and breaks.  I have just kind of started avoiding the topic and telling them just to do the best that they can do.  Until we can get fully staffed, there isn't a lot that we can do.
     After reading the course material this week, I feel like the answer and solution lies more with the staff members than with me.  They are looking to me for an answer that I don't have.  I need them to work together in order to realize that they are all in the same position.  I wonder if I need to have a meeting and have all of them communicate with each other and work together to brainstorm possible solutions.  Then, it wouldn't be so much about who wins and who looses, or who is getting their way.  Instead, they will be working together for a solution in which everyone is a winner.  If I can get them all communicating and brainstorming a broad range of solutions, then new ideas and solutions could arise from this conflict.  Who knows?  Any ideas?