Working With and CelebratingAutistic Colleagues
Module 2 · Stages of group development on a neurodiverse team › 2.3 Performing and Adjourning — output without invisibility
Subsection 2.3

Performing and Adjourning: output without invisibility

~7 min

Reading

Performing is when the team is finally working. Autistic colleagues are often most productive here. The risk: their cost is invisible. Adjourning is when teams end — and predictability matters most for the people who needed it all along.

Performing

Output is high. Friction is low. Expectations are stable. Predictable workflows, clear definitions of 'good', and settled team norms are usually a team's highest-productivity stretch.

The risk at Performing is invisibility. Because output is high and friction is low, managers stop checking on conditions. Mask demand has not gone down (the all-hands, the donor meeting, the unannounced board visit still ask people to perform) but the cost is no longer surfaced anywhere. Burnout builds quietly. Then it lands all at once — most heavily on whoever was carrying the most mask weight.

What helps at Performing:

  • Keep the sustainability check on the 1:1 agenda. Not 'are you fine' — specific questions about mask cost, calendar drag, sensory load.
  • Recognize specific, non-spectacular work. The reliable, week-after-week production is the win. Name it.
  • Watch for performative wellness ('we should all unplug!') that doesn't translate into real time off or workload changes.

Adjourning

The project ends, or the team disbands, or a key person leaves. Tuckman and Jensen added this stage in 1977 because they kept seeing teams handle endings poorly.

Endings hit harder when work depends on predictability. Abrupt transitions (surprise re-orgs, last-minute reshuffles, ambiguous 'we'll figure it out next quarter' planning) cost everyone trust, and they cost the most to anyone who plans their life around predictability — including, but not only, autistic colleagues. So is the failure to name specific contributions when a project closes: the work disappears into 'we all did it together' and the people who delivered the load quietly disengage.

What helps at Adjourning:

  • Announce endings early, in writing, with as much specificity as you have.
  • Name specific contributions. 'X built the data pipeline that powered the campaign' is a record. 'Great team!' is not.
  • Plan the next predictable thing. Even if the next role is uncertain, name what you do know: 'You'll continue to report to me through Q4, and we'll talk in mid-November about next quarter.'

Learner action

Pick a recent project ending on your team. Write what was named, in writing, about each member's specific contribution. If nothing was, write what you would say now.

Action: Complete the learner action above, then slide to continue.