May 22nd, 2025

NOTICING AND WONDERING

I’ve been in a few meaningful transitions lately - wrapping up my Groups & Culture class at Harvard with a final reflection group, welcoming a new team member at Groops, and saying goodbye to a teammate who’s been central to our work. In each of these moments, we paused to honor what was ending. And in each case, that pause created a surprising amount of clarity, connection, and care.

In psychology, we talk a lot about termination. It’s not just the end of something - it’s the moment we make sense of what we built together, what we learned, what worked, what did not, and what we carry forward. In therapy, termination is a foundational part of the process - an intentional phase we prepare for, reflect through, and use to create closure.

But in the workplace, I notice we rarely treat endings with that kind of care. We move on quickly, often missing the chance to align around lessons learned, team growth, or what the shift means for how we work together.

And here’s the thing: termination isn’t rare. It’s constant. Someone joins a team. Someone leaves. A project ends. Even the makeup of a team subtly shifts and suddenly what was is no longer. These are natural inflection points but most leaders ignore them. According to Gallup, only 21% of employees feel their leaders manage change well. That’s a lot of missed moments.

In my class, that looked like the teaching team sitting in front of our 100 students, reflecting out loud on why we teach and what we’ve learned from each other. It is moving, connecting, even funny. One of our TAs said I reminded her of a mix between Kermit the Frog, Dr. Wendy Rhoades from Billions, and 007 - which I had never heard before, made me laugh, and I obviously took it to ChatGPT to figure out what that meant! It made my day.

At Groops, it looked like our five-person ops team beginning with this reminder: we are each stewards of something larger than ourselves. We acknowledged the many people who’ve helped get us to this point - and the many who will someday join to help grow what we’re building. Much like a community raising a child, Groops is shaped by collective care, vision, and effort.

From there, we answered three prompts together:

Looking back: What’s a moment or quality that stands out as meaningful during this past chapter of our work together?
Looking forward: What’s something you’re excited or hopeful to bring into this next chapter - either personally or as a team?
Legacy: In what way do you hope your presence contributes to the long-term story of what we’re building?

It makes me wonder what we lose when we move too fast to notice those moments. When we treat transitions as logistical, not emotional. What might shift if we saw these turning points not as disruptions but as invitations to reflect, reconnect, and recommit to what we’re building together?

A QUOTE TO THINK ABOUT

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

— Seneca, Roman philosopher and statesman

DEEP-ish QUESTIONS

How do you usually respond to endings / transitions - do you avoid them, feel loss, relief, or something else?
How does your team handle endings - do you name them or ignore them?
What kinds of endings show up most on your team: people leaving, projects closing, team shifts?
What’s one way your team could better mark those moments?

SOMETHING TO TRY

Choose one recent ending - a project wrap-up, someone leaving, a change in team structure, a goodbye - and make space to reflect on it together.

Try this in your next team meeting:

Name the transition clearly (even if it feels small).
Ask one reflection question from above - about personal reactions or team habits.
Listen, pause, and notice what comes up. You don’t need to fix anything - just create space to be human without defending or explaining it.

Even brief moments of acknowledgment can build trust, reinforce meaning, and shape how your team moves forward, together.

ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW TEAM INSIGHTS EXPERIENCE

We’re excited to share that Groops is now offering a deeper layer of support for teams: personalized assessments that form the foundation of more customized, high-impact coaching programs.

What to expect:

Team Style Profile
A personality snapshot of your team - showing how individual strengths, preferences, and dynamics combine to form your unique team identity. This helps teams better understand how they work together and where they naturally shine.
Cohesion Index
A research-backed measure of how your team is functioning across core dimensions like connection, alignment, trust, and communication. Because cohesion is a key predictor of both performance and wellbeing, tracking it helps teams know when things are clicking—and when a reset might be needed.
Team Member Profile
A self-reflective assessment to help each person understand how they show up on teams—their interpersonal style, preferences, and strengths. It’s like a user manual, designed to support clearer communication and stronger collaboration.

These insights allow us to tailor the coaching experience to your team’s real-time needs. Because team growth isn’t one-and-done, we’re building programs designed for lasting change - with rhythm, reflection, and momentum.

Each team member will also receive 1:1 coaching sessions with a Groop Guide (Master’s or Doctorate in psychology) on top of team coaching and the usual insights.

This is team development with depth - custom, human, and grounded in the science of cohesion.

Thanks for reading and keep on connecting.

Best,

Bobbi

Bobbi Wegner, Psy.D.
Founder and CEO of Groops: helping teams feel and function their best
Lecturer at Harvard University in Industrial-Organizational Psychology

If you are curious about a workplace dynamic or issue, send me an email at drbobbiwegner@joingroops.com and I will anonymously post it and respond. If you are thinking it, others are too. We can learn from each other. Also, if you are curious about the cohesion and health of your team, book a complimentary 30-minute consultation HERE with one of our Groop Guides.