Reflections on Group Presentation and Reports - Essay Example

Backgrounds The last year of the Bachelor degree in the discipline of Human Re s is nearly coming to an end. For the first time in my academic career I am supposed to complete an assignment about the previously completed assignments. This assignment gave me the chance to assess my work, highlight my strengths and shortcomings, overview improvements and bring about some amendments. To start with, I will restate the personal, professional and academic goals and later I will segment the overall assessment into two portions, the first portion deals with the combined group work of the report and presentation. The last is related to the PDP and the accomplishments, and modificiations that had been performed. Part 1 In this part, I will highlight the strong points of the group presentation and report first, and after that I will shed some light on the overall weaknesses that require re consideration. The strong points and shortcomings of the presentation: The strong points include the contents and general information being clearly mentioned on a PowerPoint format that enabled a clear view. Further, the confidence and the skills of the group members to present the information in an impressive way was another strong point. Despite this positive, the main weak side faced during work as a unit on the given presentation was time management. In my view, this resulted from the numerous and occasional contrasting timetables of the members in the group. Hence it made it uneasy to dedicate proper time that would match all. As a consequence, the group failed to fulfil the domain of appropriate time period allocation. In spite of that we resorted to interacting through the digital electronic means. It resulted in reduced practical and productive interaction as such. Additionally, I sensed that larger part of disagreement during the presentation and the report writing resulted from the various variations in the overall attitudes towards the group work experience. Each member of the group had different set of goals in their academic pursuits in this regard. Partly few of the group members aimed mere passing grades, others strived for excellence and thought they could get A grades. This resulted in overall difference in views and tendencies towards main goals. Subsequently, number of mistakes took place on account of not being able to dedicate proper time to the presentation and the main ideas in it. There was a total mismatch and imbalance in the flow. Recommendation towards development: In case we were given another chance to perform the given task, I would personally come up with number of suggestions and recommendations. This would include rehearsal of the presentation in a proper manner before the actual deadline. Also ensuring that each member knows what the task is. Selecting the right man for the right kind of job within the task and group would make up for my strategy as a fresh start. The strong points and weaknesses of the report Luckily, after receiving the response regarding the presentation’s shortcomings from our teacher, it enabled us to overcome the shortcomings. This included strong references and supportive argument to the overall case. Relevant to the previous weakness, we had more knowledge and knowhow of the overall scenario and it enabled us knowing what should be avoided generally. Minor absence of sense of ownership, and taking up the duty in form of not submitting the reports in a timely manner made up for another shortcoming as a whole. This created extra tension on the others and valuable time was lost as a whole. Recommendations for development: In order to improve work, we need to have a clear objectives plan of the team task from the initial point which will help everyone taking responsibility accordingly. We need to put personal goals before the original submission date, this would help us getting more reviews and more improved performance as a whole. An assessment of the team’s overall performance On occasions, the team had a collaborative outlook, it was so in the form that the members encouraged one another towards reconsidering and solving the troubling maters and arranging for sufficient participation. Each member targeted for making a sense of the knowledge possessed, which was generally based on the overall effort directed towards resolving these issues in form of helping one another as well. Apart from this, I observed that during team work activities, few of the members of the group undertook dominating behaviour which had an overall negative impact on others and discouraged the rest. Based on this observation, I sensed the value of adopting the cooperation theory that I had come across in the Leadership and Change Management module. It included the determination of targets and highlighting of a philosophy based on collective work, participation, and mutual engagement with higher energy and determination ability as a whole. (Silverman, 2001). An assessment of my own role and performance towards the team’s performance One key task assigned to me in the team activities was the undertaking of research appropriate and suitable references on my behalf. I am of the view that I lived up to my research role in a proper manner, since I was dependent on the Summon research service for the purpose of identifying useful and related articles, that I later on recommended to my group members. Further the fact that I was an active member of the group enabled me identifying the strengths and weaknesses that I possess in general. For instance, I came to know that I am more suited to research than being a writer and also that even though I was good giving new concepts, their execution to success wasn’t my task as such. Part 2 The level to which the objectives have been accomplished With regard to my personal development plan as shared in Assignment One, I am satisfied that I accomplished my short-term goal that was related to enhancing my communication techniques. For instance, I underwent a 36 hours training course which was organized by the International Training and Development Academy-London. The course aim was to train trainers in the field of effective media and communication processes. Completing this enabled me becoming a certified trainer. With regard to my medium term goals that I applied to the Master’s degree in HRM “training and development” at West of England University, gladly, I received a positive response in the form of invitation and offer letter with the opportunity of coming back to the UK and re joining my studies on 22 September 2015 Furthermore, I also tried my luck in various companies that are based in Saudi Arabia and are active members of Saudi Employment Day event in London on 21 March, 2015. Despite these achievements, I still could not manage to be part of it on that day this day for the purpose of making urgent applications, and I do plan on staying in U.K for one extra year. My liking of this particular event was related to search for the given job chances that would enable me to stay abreast of the future long term goals and objectives as a whole which I plan undertaking as a HR professional in Saudi Arabian Airlines in Mid of 2016 or at the beginning of 2017. Changes planned to be made I made changes to the plans after participating in the Saudi Employment Day event that was conducted at London, since I came to the conclusion that most Saudi companies are not too much keen on the Master’s degrees or extra surplus academic courses that may be achieved during work process. Initially, this did let me down and I almost surrendered the plan of going for the Masters, however, when I looked back at the scenario I came to the view that I must make use of my mind and live up to the threats in a greater way in the form of first finding a reasonable job and once that was achieved, I would go for a higher education degree as well. I also considered the option of whether incase if I got a chance to be part of the Training Academy as a part time member, that would facilitate me in multiple ways. First being the masters program that I intend to undertake at West of England University in September, 2015. The other factor is, I will make that part of my CV. This action to be underpinned as relevant to the work skill would become part of the short-term and Medium-term objectives in my overall personal development objectives and guidelines. Further steps to be undertaken The larger part of concrete action I plan on taking consists of continuing setting up a precise Personal Development Plan with standardized, calculated, possible, realistic and timely objectives, since I am aware of the fact that this would be of high value towards my overall goals and objectives accomplishment and task completion. References: Silverman, M. (2001). Teamwork and collaboration in libraries, 1st Ed. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information Press. Development Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Presentation: Evaluating the material and data in a clearly stated out manner Visible font size and PowerPoint supported colourful background . The self believe and the skill of the group members in performing according to the expectations Report: Broad scope based reading. To highlight all the major points as much as possible. Clearly laid out structure. Excellent referencing. Presentation: Time management. We did not undertake practices previously. This can be improved for next time in order to bring improvement. Report: The question with regard to the writing standard that was collected with little responsibility of achieving objectives or on behalf of the of the students within. Further Action Required One of the key steps needed to be taken in being part of the group work is the fact that each member in the team must be answerable for their actions and contributions to the project to help in achieving goals in true manner, and partnership must be effectively balanced and established along strong lines. Read More