The Essential Guide to Doing Transition. The Essential Guide to Doing Transition. | Page 15

A Transition Berkeley Pot Luck.

Photo: Transition Berkeley.

Performing

This is when you find yourselves feeling that you are being effective and getting things done easily. That feels good! You’ll find your group competent and motivated, with each person clear as to their role and task. There is good communication and people work well together.

The group is good at making decisions together, and can hold people accountable for their tasks.

Differences and disagreements are seen as part of a healthy group culture. Achievements are regularly celebrated, and space is made for reflection as to where the group might like to go in the future.

Mourning

It may be that projects your group initiates will fail, that people leave the group, or even that the whole group stops for one reason or another. It’s important to mark these endings appropriately.

If one or more people leave, mark the occasion: share a meal; give a gift, a card.

If the group is ending, have

a shared event to celebrate all that you have achieved.

Make space to talk about

the loss and sadness people might be feeling, and to appreciate what it is that

you have enjoyed about working with each other.

You may need to agree a

way to pass on any assets

the group may be left with.

Thoughts

In the life of a group it is rare that its evolution happens in the sequence set out here. Often they happen alongside each other. Your Norming could be accompanied by a lot of Storming, for instance!

You should also be mindful that when new people join, there will be a new Forming stage to include the views of who’s joined without losing the valuable work which has gone before.

You can read a fuller account of these stages at: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/groups-develop-infosheet/

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