Reference no: EM132312774 , Length: word count : 4000
Theme : Reflective Practice
Purpose
This theme examines the concept of reflective practice and how it is used in practice.You will focus on how reflective practice is used for career planning, development and getting ready for the job market.
Workshop: Reflecting
Group stand-up meeting
Break into groups for the stand-up meeting.
1. What did you accomplish for the unit in the last week?
2. What do you intend to accomplish for the unit this week?
3. Are there any impediments to accomplishing what you need to this week?
Class Discussion -Reflective practice
Use the quote below as a prompt to discuss the role of reflective practice in project management
"...reflection, both individually and collectively, plays an important role in drawing lessons from experiences..."(Savelsbergh, Havermans, & Storm, 2016, p. 567)
• What does ‘Reflective Practice' mean to project managers ‘collectively' and ‘individually'?
• How can reflective practice assist when applying for a job and during the interview process?
• How would you use ‘storytelling' in project management and work generally?
• Are the concepts of reflective practice and storytelling linked? If so how?
Read the blog
The Seven Deadly Sins of Storytelling, by Neil Stevenson (IDEO)
Complete the following table: In the Deadly Sin column, summarise what each of the deadly sins are as they are described in the blog. In the Reflection column, reflect on your experience and whether you have been guilty of the sin, either when presenting in class (e.g. assessment presentation) or in industry (e.g. at a job interview).
DEADLY SIN Reflection
#1: Excessive Throat Clearing
#2: Professional Boring Mode
#3: Reading the Slides
#4: Failure to Rehearse
#5: Living in the Abstract Space
#6: Not Knowing Your Audience
DEADLY SIN #7: The Non-ending Ending
Activity - Review the assessment Reflective 2: Reflective Practice Report
Go to the assessment Reflective 2: Reflective Practice Report.
Start by reviewing what is required within the assessment. This is not only a reflective activity where you will need to consider your experience in the unit and project. You will also need to complete a practical component as well.
This assessment requires both thinkingandaction.
Use the template provided torecordevidence of both.
Activity - Comparison to baseline
Recomplete the following activities, entering your responses into the assessment template.
• Values activity, and
• Skills Audit
Now compare your responses with those your submitted earlier in RPA1: Baseline.
When describing what has changed, make sure you state what was in the baseline and what is different now. Be as specific as possible to ensure you maximise marks.
Activity - STAR
"Faced with a more complex and demanding environment, employers are questioning the validity and usefulness of the most commonly available project management training and qualifications to develop and assess the competence of practitioners. Although there remains an ongoing need for ‘trained technicians' for well-defined roles on well-defined projects, employers are beginning to look for something more.
They are beginning to focus more on behaviours or what are often referred to as "soft skills" in addition to or in some cases rather than hard technical skills and mastery of a relatively limited set of project management knowledge and practices." (Crawford, Morris, Thomas, & Winter, 2006, pp. 726-727).
The above quote highlights the importance of being able to demonstrate both technical and non-technical (soft) skills.
Have a look at the material on Moodle or even Google STAR for selection criteria in job applications. Many organisations now require you to use this method when applying for positions. Before graduation visit the CQU careers advice website to see what services and resources you can use.
Go to the section in the assessment template, look back at which skill you stated in your Baseline you wanted to demonstrate during the project. Can you fill in the STAR template for these skills?
Activity - Time to ACT
Review the three options in your assessment template. Which option is more likely to give you the most value? Have a look at the different tasks under each. Which would you be able to complete before the end of the term? Jot down some ideas about how you would complete these.
Apply for a job
Update your CV and Respond to criteria - get advice from CQUNI CAREERS
LinkedIn profile:
What organisation you would like to work for?
Go to the website of the organisation and find their list of executives (depending on the nature of the organisation they may be listed under a different term e.g. Directors etc.
Search for the people on LinkedIn and once you have found one of their profiles complete the following table.
Organisation
a) Executives Name and position within the organisation
b) Take a screen shot of the persons profile photo and paste it into the table.
c) Go to your LinkedIn page and look at your profile picture.
Screen shot your profile picture and paste it into the table.
d) How does your profile picture differ to the person who works at the organisation you want to?
e) GROUP WORK
Take each other's photos (smart phone or tablet) in a similar pose as the person above and paste the new image into the table.
d) How could you improve the above photo?
It might pay to have a look at what the leadership team profiles look like. E.g. Raghu Krishnamoorthy SVP & Chief HR Officer, GE
Learn from Industry
Look up Mentoring and coaching.
What can these provide you as an early entrant into your chosen career?
Who would you approach?
What questions could you ask?
Week 12 Workshop: Knowledge management in reflective practice
Group stand-up meeting
Break into groups for the stand-up meeting.
1. What did you accomplish for the unit in the last week?
2. What do you intend to accomplish for the unit this week?
3. Are there any impediments to accomplishing what you need to this week?
Use the prompts below to discuss the role of reflective practice and storytelling in project management
"If you want someone to remember your point a well-told story will always win over a statistic."
Jenn Maer, IDEO Design and Storytelling for Influence Instructor
Remember the quote from last week...
"...reflection, both individually and collectively, plays an important role in drawing lessons from experiences..."(Savelsbergh et al., 2016, p. 567)
• How would you use ‘storytelling' in project management and work generally?
• Are the concepts of reflective practice and storytelling linked? If so how?
• How would storytelling assist in applying for jobs?
Action -
Open your final assessment - have you completed any of the tasks for the Action Options?
Time to do that now! Show your workshop leader how you have evidenced your actions, get feedback on where you need to improve the descriptions or supply more detail.
Good luck for our future endeavours - although if you plan, act and reflect and do it all again you won't need any luck.
References
Crawford, L., Morris, P., Thomas, J., & Winter, M. (2006). Practitioner development: From trained technicians to reflective practitioners. International Journal of Project Management, 24(8), 722-733. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.010
Savelsbergh, C. M. J. H., Havermans, L. A., & Storm, P. (2016). Development paths of project managers: What and how do project managers learn from their experiences? International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), 559-569. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.005
Attachment:- Assignment Details.rar