Team Development

One of the most reading experiences in my life was my first International Tour of Porgy and Bess.  I will never forget the day I found out that I had been chosen for the European tour.  One of my first thoughts was who else is doing this, do I know any of them, what are they like.  I had a little over a year to learn music and make arrangements to be gone from home for 8 months.  The day I arrived in Paris, I had 3 hrs to move into my apartment before going to the first music rehearsal.  We made introductions and then dove into the music.  During the first break, I spoke to several of my colleagues and I remember feeling like I was speaking to people I had known for years. The chemistry amongst us was instant and we carried that onto the stage with us.  
When staging began we hit a few rough patches with the stage director.  Her background was in dance and she had not done any research on what the opera was about.  Usually when Porgy and Bess is being performed it is done the traditional way.  Our director gave it a more urban setting and wanted absolutely no props.  She had spent a great deal of time in parts of Africa observing the people and wanted to use those images throughout the opera.  It took some time for everyone to get used to this new view of the opera, but eventually we all grew to love it and it turned out to be an AMAZING production.  

After a few weeks of rehearsing everything was running smoothly.  During our off days we spent a lot of time together exploring Paris.  The  orchestra was from Miami, Fl and the opera chorus was from Atlanta.  The entire cast was American and besides our love for music that was another commonality we shared.  Opening night comes and we are off and running!  Each performance was always better than the previous and we were all riding high!  We performed a total of 30 operas in Paris before heading to our next location.  2 weeks before the tour was over I remember waking up in the middle of the night crying.  It took me awhile for me to understand why I was upset, but then I realized it was because my time with this incredible group of people was coming to an end.  Yes, I was excited to reunite with my husband and family, but the thought of not being with my other family was stressful.  On the night of our final performance we were having out traditional prayer circle and we all felt a shift in the atmosphere.  We prayed like never before and the music we created that night was the most beautiful music I have ever heard.  I honestly don't know the words to describe what happened that night.  It truly was an emotional closing night and it was hard to believe that it was over.

I chose this particular group experience because it covers the five stages of team development.  I think that high-perfoming groups are harder to leave because you all work so hard to reach that final goal.  And you are proud of all the work that everyone has done to complete the project.  In this case it was getting to opening night.  The first three week we had 12 hr rehearsal days with one day off during the week,  I was jet lagged for almost a month because I never had a chance to just rest.  We all experienced difficult times, but when we came together we all had one goal in mind and that was the production.

As we get closer to completing this master's program, I will be sad not to have our weekly communication.  More than anything I will be proud because we did it!  Balancing work, family, home, and school had been hard and yet we stuck through to the end.  Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because you are able to reflect on all that you have done to get the end result.  If the experience wasn't good then you can see what changes can be made to make the next experience better.