Theme 3 - Teams

How do we disband?

While a vital membership and effective meetings will help maintain group effectiveness, for long-term strength a group must regularly review the life and purpose of the group.

When the group has achieved its goals, or perhaps ceased to function effectively it may be best to disband. Tuckman called this ‘adjourning’ and did not develop this fifth stage to his model until ten years after the other four. Perhaps this tells us something about how often people forget about the ending of a group.

Benefits of disbanding a group include:

• Marking the completion of a project
• Feeling a sense of satisfaction at completion
• Allowing celebration of achievements
• Freeing people to re-engage in future projects
• Allowing community leaders time-out
• Encouraging future participation by maintaining motivation

Key features of the adjourning stage are:

• The ending of tasks
• Disengaging from the roles and relationships within the group
• Experiencing a sense of loss at the ending of something

Because this stage can involve a sense of grief it is important to plan for the ending of a group and include some useful strategies for helping others to find completion. Planning for disbanding should include:

• From the start a group should have a clear idea of how long the group will function
• The group should have regularly reviewed its life and purpose
• As the group nears completion of its tasks a final meeting, launch or deadline should be planned
• Complete legal requirements

Disbanding is:

• an opportunity for thanks, congratulations, and reflections on growth
• a celebration of achievements
• A time where some members will feel sad, and need to feel this is accepted as a normal reaction
• A time to consider having some future informal get-togethers of past members. Who knows, a new group may start from this