Residential Experience in Lake District Windermere

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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Institution affiliated:
student name:
Course:
Date:

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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Introduction
In this reflective writing, I am, going to reflect on my residential experience. This was
an assignment for MBA Leadership and Management module where students were taken to
Lake District Windermere. The trip involved a lot of activities which made me feel so excited
on the days ahead. Moreover, since the residential trip involved going with other colleagues
from another institution, I was very nervous because, since I am more of an introvert, I don’t
like socializing much and I prefer spending most of my time alone or with people I know.
However, against my expectations, the trip turned out to be full of fun and the other
colleagues were very friendly and kind to me making the trip experience very exciting and
full of learning.
I feel like the trip was a lifetime achievement to me as, it enabled me to mingle with
other individual from diverse origins whom we learnt a lot from each other including sharing
our experiences. Through that trip, I have acknowledged the importance of good
communication, proper coordination and planning, wise decision making, emotions control
and being keen on instructions. Therefore, I will utilise the Gibbs cycle (1988) to reflect on
my experience during the residential trip while connecting it with relevant theories as
discussed below (Gibbs 1988).
Description
The journey was the best experience to me because, throughout the journey, people
were very calm and quite. This really suited my personality as my test results indicates that, I
am a reserved person, very formal, serious and one who likes keeping quite. When we
reached our destination, we were taken through orientation and we were explained in details

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the activities of those three days. Afterwards, we were sub-divided into four groups by our
mentor.
After being sub-divided into the four groups, we were then given five different tasks.
The first task was about a sheep and a shepherd. In this task, one person became the
shepherds, and the other three were the sheep. The shepherd was given a whistle, and his role
was to guide the sheep. Whenever the whistle was blown, the sheep had to respond by
moving based on the instructions given by the shepherd. However, we failed this task because
the shepherd didn’t have a good tactical approach of guiding the sheep, and the sheep were
not aware of what was needed to be done. Besides that, there was improper guidance from the
shepherd and the sheep were not keen in listening to the whistles. However, there was good
communication and good planning among the group members.
In the second, the tutor gave us an equipment and 25 minutes to complete the task. I
struggled a lot with my group members but didn’t manage to pass the test. This is because,
firstly, I was confused and my team members also confessed to having been confused while
doing the task. My group also didn’t do proper planning on how we were to go about the task
including the role of every individual in the team.
The third task was about a number cruncher. In this task, the tutor randomly placed
numbers 1 to 25 in different places. My team members and I were to touch each of the
numbers in order in only five seconds. Therefore, to my relief, we were able to finish this task
successfully and within the stipulated time because there was maximum cooperation in my
group and every member was giving their opinions and cooperating to ensure that we have
selected the letter in order from 1 to 25 which we succeeded.
The second day was the most complicated one as we all gathered early in the morning
for the breakfast and followed by the session. The first one was about building a raft.

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However, we had ropes which could not be used in building the raft. We needed to have
barrels to successfully construct it. Therefore, we had to negotiate with the barrels’ company
on equal terms to exchange our ropes for the barrels. Fortunately, they agreed, and we then
bought other materials like sculls and wooden poles from that company. We then began the
construction, but to our disappointment, none of us knew how to construct the raft except for
one member. We, therefore, helped him to build it which we managed successfully and won
that task.
The second task was about a business task. We had to form a group of nine
individuals who will work together. From that group, the first person was to be a leader; the
second person becomes a financial manager, the third a sales manager and the remaining six
becomes the production department. With the team, the first task was to enter a tunnel and
competing for this task earned every member 100 points which we could use it as money for
production in our business. We managed to win this task successfully due to proper planning
and good communication.
Feelings
In the task of a sheep and shepherd, the shepherd was instructing us one person at a
time and we could not understand whom he was referring to. This made me feel frustrated
because, initially we had already laid out a clear plan on how we will handle the task and here
the sheep was giving us other instructions which created confusion among us. This went
against my self-assessment tests which portrays me as a conscientious person, disciplined,
efficient and well organized person. This was in agreement with Gould (1972, p. 165) who
said that great theories are expansive and people learn from the lose they have experience in
the past thus justifying why I am a very conscientious person.