For those of us who work with clients or work in project teams then this is a serious stage of team development that we need to recognise and have tools at our disposal to resiliently bounce back from. After a period of high performance, achieving the desired outcomes over a defined period of time – there will come the natural or defined/contracted end to the team in its current form with its current team members.
As the person “leaving” the team it is very wise for you to recognise you will feel the pain with far greater strength than those who are staying in the team and moving to another project or waiting for a different member to join them.
Start the process by recognising you have shifted from high performing to mourning and notice the impact this has on your emotional state. Be mindful of the emotions you want to share, are ready to share and that are useful to share. Recognise which ones are YOURS to process, manage and resiliently bounce back from. Reflective thinking is highly critical to your ability to engage in this kind of processing and enable this kind of resilience.
As a team leader I think it is highly critical to be mindful of this stage and encourage conversations with the people leaving the team to support the processing of this emotion – especially if they are remaining within the organisation and simply moving to another project and perhaps another team. In my experience this kind of transition has not been managed well.
