Retrospection at the Entire Duration of the Course BUSI - Coursework Example

Greenwich University A Reflective Essay on My Experiences Studying BUSI 1204 – Personal and professional development 1 by 3/11/2014 One of the greatest sources of our happiness is our relationships with our immediate families, friends, and colleagues. In all these relationships, we play different roles at a subconscious level, some without even realizing. Understanding how to operate efficiently within these diverse groupings is consequently a significant inter-personal skill that we have to keep on developing and improving on for the rest of our lives. Working in teams and groups made up of people from diverse backgrounds at the university is a quite a new experiences that challenges our preconceived ideas of human interactions and getting to know how we as individuals and others function in such settings can save us a lot of hassle later during our studies and even our professional careers. This essay looks back in retrospection at the entire duration of the course BUSI 1204 – Personal and professional development 1. The skills that I learnt during the entire academic year, what I liked and did not like about the course, and what changes I can recommend about the course to help it even be more effective to future learners. Important Team Characteristics For a team to function properly and succeed in its undertakings, certain principles ought to be adhered to ensure this. The team should establish the goals at the onset of the group and every member should make sure that they know exactly the purpose of the group. Team members should also establish proper communication channels to ensure amongst themselves to ensure everyone is doing their responsibility and working towards their common goal. Communication is a critical success factor within any teamwork, and it will determine whether the team succeeds or fails. Teamwork is defined by Scarnati (2001, p. 5) ‘as a cooperative process that allows ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results’. Luca ­­­­­­­­­& Tarricone (2001, p.44) also explain that teamwork calls for cooperation not competition amongst the team members. Finally, progress can be monitored periodically to ensure that the team is moving towards the goal within the specified time framework and if any errors and deviations should be addressed at this point in order to get back on the right track. When it came to goal setting and developing an action plan, our team used a strategy that worked well for us each time. We would come together and just start pouring out diverse ideas. Everyone contributed what was on their minds and then we would sift through all the listed ideas and select the most viable and feasible ones. Then we would refine the ones we had come up with and then go over them further until we got the most suitable one. This teamwork fostered a spirit of cooperation rather than competition because we also realized that it is the team that will be evaluated and not the individual members. Communication was a bit of a challenge in our group because we took quite a while to bond together. However, after a series of meetings communication challenges eased and from then on everything went on smoothly. We also made a point of meeting periodically to review the work that we had done so far, in relation to what we were to do so that we do not end up doing the wrong task perfectly (Lim and Klein 2006, p.404). Features of effective presentations A proper presentation focuses on how a presenter relates with the audience. It considers fully how the presenter can capture the audience’s interest, enhance their understanding, instill some sense of confidence, and attain the presenter’s objectives. However, when preparing for a presentation, there are certain factors one has to consider; structure your presentation to have a beginning, middle and an end. Keep in mind who your audience are, what points you want to get across, allotted time, and visual aids if any. Establish a proper introduction to capture the audience’s attention, welcome them, and state the main objectives of your presentation. The middle of your presentation should develop your argument, outline your main points, and then expound on them keeping in mind not to overload your audience. Finally conclude your presentation by summarizing your main points, leave some time to answer any questions from the audience, thank them, and end your presentation in a positive note (Tymon Jr. and Thomas, 1994) From the onset, our group realized that presentation would be a great skill to master for the sake of our studies and our future careers too. Before we did any presentation, we got together; brainstormed on the objectives of our presentation; got all the main points then we structured the presentation to have a proper introduction, a middle, and fitting conclusion. Similarly, before the actual presentation, we did a mock presentation where some members of the group acted as the audience and some as the presenters. This mock presentation helped us to cover all the blind spots and avoid any curve ball during the actual presentations. We also ensured to make our presentations as brief as possible to allow for ample time for a questions and answer sessions and not to overload the audience. After observing other presentations, I realized that I needed to work on my public speaking skills. I realized that I am naturally a confident person during normal engagements but I felt out of my comfort zone during those times that I had to do presentations in front of a large crowd. This is a skill that I definitely have to develop further (Lim and Klein 2006, p.407). My experiences during the course. I have had varying experiences from time to time during the year while studying Personal and Professional Development 1. However, I have had the best experiences during those sessions that facilitated the involvement of my tutors and classmates in open discussion that allowed the open exchange of information. My interest in the course increased exponentially when I started realizing the concepts I was studying in class was playing out in my group during teamwork. There was this particular occasion at the very beginning where one member of our team never contributed anything during our discussion; he was quiet during the entire discussion. This puzzled us until we later discovered that he was a very intelligent introvert who was shy and had difficulties expressing his thoughts confidently during group discussions. This made me appreciate group dynamics and how different personality types express themselves. I hope that this realization will help me relate better not only with my classmates but also with my work mates in future. I was quick to realize that in order to institute an efficient working group; certain ground rules have to be established at the beginning. Heppel (2004, p. 37) suggests that ‘ground rules for proper foundations of a properly functioning relationship based on mutual trust, openness, and an understanding of each other’s expectations. Society has certain ground rules, though these rules tend to have evolved over time and are mostly unspoken (Scanarti 2001, p.7). However, if a member of the society contravenes these established ground rules, they are habitually made to feel expressly aware of their contraventions’. In a group, where individuals join strangers and have to start working as a unit, I realized that establishing unambiguous ground rules is extremely important. When any member feels aggrieved, he/she can refer to the rules and remind everyone of their responsibilities within the group. I also appreciated the fact that when we studied in groups we honed our collaborative skills rather than our competitive skills. We all come from diverse backgrounds with our presumptions and some prejudices to some extent but we were able to get together despite our differences and work towards a common goal, which were usually our assignments, rehearsals for presentations or geeing to grips with complex concepts. Bruffee (1999, p19), for example argues that hearing what others have to say helps us to respect others opinions, also what we say ourselves helps us to increase our levels confidence by being active participants in a group. However, I also realized that there was always the danger of ending up with the same work when working in groups. There was always the threat of accusations of submitting the same work or plagiarizing each other’s work. A tutor can easily detect this though the intention may not have been to submit similar works. On the other hand, there were incidences where I felt disengaged during the course. These were mostly when the group discussion was not productive enough or when some of the group members were acting in ways that were counterproductive to our team’s progress such as; Talking too much without contributing significantly, and, reacting emotionally instead of objectively. I have to admit that at one point I did react emotionally when one of the group members implied that I often distracted the group through excess jokes. I also realized that I am not well versed at maintaining the groups focus. I seem to be able to perfectly initiate group discussions; however, maintaining it in the right course seemed to be quite a problem. This is an area of personal development that I need to work on given that group projects and teamwork will be an inevitable part of my undergraduate studies and even more importantly my professional work. Changes the University Can Make To the Course The university can make certain changes that can be made to the course that will make it make it more beneficial to future learners. For example, the university can allow for more presentation time so that team members can allocate more time for question and answer sessions. Interacting with your peers in a formal question and answer session might help increase learners confidence while at the same time helping them know how to think fast on their feet. This will help them learn how to handle any curve balls that might be thrown at them future during other presentations. No, I did not upload any information to the Moodle Employability site. I am currently employed and I work in the procurement department in an mid-sized organization. Conclusion I have greatly enjoyed my time studying BUSI 1206 – Personal Professional Development 1. I have learnt how group dynamics work, I have also learnt how to effectively work in groups and contribute effectively to the success of the group. During the group discussions, I have learnt the behaviors to adopt that help to serve a groups needs and I have also learn the behaviours to avoid that hinder group needs. At some stage in the course, I had the chance of learning presentation skills, from the initial research to the actual presentation skills. This not only helped me to be an effective team player but it also helped me build my self-confidence through public speaking. I also strongly believe that the research and presentation skills I have acquired will not only be beneficial during the rest of my study at the university but also they will come in handy later on life during my professional career. However, in as much as I learnt quite a number of skills during the academic year, there were isolated moments where I felt disengaged. However few they were, it might be prudent to look into them for the benefit of future students. References Bruffee, K. 1999. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge. 2nd ed. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press. Heppell, M. 2004. How to Be Brilliant! London: Pearson. Lim, B-C., and Klein, K. J. 2006. Team mental models and team performance: A field study of the effects of team mental model similarity and accuracy: Journal of Organizational Behavior, (27), P.p 403–418. Luca, J., & Tarricone, P. 2001. Does emotional intelligence affect successful teamwork? Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education at the ASCILITE. Melbourne: 22-25 May 2001, University of Melbourne: Melbourne Scanarti, J. T. 2001. On becoming a team player. Team Perfomance Management: An International Journal, vol.7, no.1/2, pp 5-10 Tymon Jr. W. G.. & Thomas, K. W.. 1994, Does Empowerment Always Work: Understanding the Role of Intrinsic Motivation and Personal Interpretation, Journal of Management Systems, (6) 39–54 Read More