Reflection on Preston Market Consultancy

The paper reflects on the experience of building a consultancy plan for Preston Market using Kolb's reflective cycle. It discusses the stages of the cycle and the learning outcomes from the experience.

Running head: PRESTON MARKET CONSULTANCY
Preston Market Consultancy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
The paper is focused in the elaboration of my experience in the group consultancy
project. The reflection is considered to be one of the significant ways of exchanging the
information regarding the experience of a particular event or activity and it is notably helpful
for learning from the past experiences so that the same mistake is not repeated in future. The
usage of the Kolb’s reflective cycle is seen to increase the effectiveness of the reflection of
the experiences and that is one of prime reasons for considering it as the framework for the
reflection of my experiences of building the consultancy plan on the Preston market
(Prestonmarket.com. 2018).
Kolb’s Reflective Cycle:
As mentioned earlier, the Kolb’s reflective cycle is considered to be one of the best suited
framework for the reflection of the experiences of the events and the activities (Konak, Clark
and Nasereddin 2014). The model was developed in the year 1984 with four important stages
such as the concrete experience, reflection observation, abstract conceptualisation and active
experimentation (Kolb 2014).
The concrete experience stage of the model is focused on the experiences that I
gathered from creating the consultancy and the implementation plan and for that, we needed
to focus on one of the host organization. We formulated a team of five members for the
creation of the consultancy and the implementation plan. I expected that the effective
management of the members of the group will be significantly difficult owing to the issue of
the cultural differences, differences in the societal belief of the members, differences in the
social values of the members of the team. The first task for us after the formation of the group
was the selection of the host organization for the creation of the consultancy and
implementation plan. All the members of the team were observed to suggest names of the
different organization on the basis of their preferences and knowledge. However, after a long

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and fruitful discussion, we decided to consider the Preston market as the host organization
and focused on the boxed market area.
The effective formation of the roles and responsibilities of the members of the team
was significantly important in making sure that the detrimental impact of the conflicts
regarding the business conduction over the performances of the team gets minimized (Bassot
2016). Adding to this, the establishment of the strong relationship with the customers of the
host organization was significantly important for us in receiving important feedbacks for our
consultancy plan. The name of our consultancy was Fortune Consultancy. However we faced
notable amount of issues in achieving the feedback as the customers of the organization were
not ready to comment or interact with us in the desired manner and the formation of the trust
amongst the customers of the organization was difficult for us. We had a bit of confusion in
identifying whether the customers are providing genuine feedback or not.
The reflection observation stage of the model is focused in presenting the information
that are gathered from the experience is an effective manner (Tomkins and Ulus 2016). It is
observed that reflection of the experiences is a cost efficient and time saving method of
learning for the individuals that have not conducted the activity on their own. In order to
create the consultancy plan, I was responsible for the analysis of the data gathered by one of
the members of our team. I provided important suggestions to the other members of the team
on the basis of the data analysis. After that, we faced the necessity of dividing the work
amongst ourselves as the deadline of the task was approaching and we were in need finish the
remaining part of our task. We faced considerable number of challenges in completing the
task with the desired quality, however, we were able to identify the techniques for the
increment of the sales of the boxed market.

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In the abstract conceptualization stage of the cycle, the learning from the experience is
in need to be presented (Kolb 2014). With the creation of the consultancy plan, I was able to
improve several skills and competency of mine such as the proper communication, strong
formation of the relationship, appropriate management of the time, improved skills of
analysis along with better team coordination.
I was able to improve my skills of effective communication during the creation of the
consultancy plan as it was much need for me to manage the team and the feedback of the
customers. Adding to this, I was able to improve my skills of assessing the emotions of the
customers which helped me asking relevant questions to get the proper feedback that was
needed for my consultancy plan. Apart from this, I was able to learn different techniques for
the effective management of the time as our deadline was approaching the end and we were
in need to deliver task. With the participation of the five members into the team belonging to
different culture, societal belief, and values, the management of the team was a major
concern for me. I made sure that there is no existence of the cultural differences amongst the
members of team and that was significant for the improvement of the team performances.
Adding to this, I was able to improve the skills of analysis of the data in order to create
effective assumptions and correct interpretations that have the potential to contribute in the
identification of the most effective solution.
The active experimentation stage of the cycle is concerned with the application of the
learning that I gathered from the experiences of creating the consultancy plan. The learning
that I gathered from this is the need of creating the priority list. In same sort of future
scenarios, I will definitely create a priority list for the activities that are to be conducted even
before staring the task. Apart from this, I will certainly use the improvement of the
communication skills in strengthening the relationship with the customers so that the
achievement of the feedback becomes easier for me. The four stages of the model is used in

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the paper in a significant manner to identify the needs of renovation for the boxed market
area which is evaluated to be the increment of the sales and in addition the evaluation of the
condition of the market helped us in the recommendation for the improved engagement of the
B2B and B2C business activities.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it is visible that the consultancy plan significantly helped me in
the improvement of my skills and competencies in terms of the management of the team.
Adding to this, the experience was of great significance for the entire team as it was our first
major group activity. Apart from that, during the creation of the consultancy plan, we were
able to understand the importance and the impact of the proper communication, strong
formation of the relationship, appropriate management of the time, improved skills of
analysis along with better team coordination which has the potential to help us in similar
situations that may take place in near future.

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References:
Bassot, B., 2016. The reflective journal. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Kolb, D.A., 2014. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and
development. FT press.
Konak, A., Clark, T.K. and Nasereddin, M., 2014. Using Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle
to improve student learning in virtual computer laboratories. Computers & Education, 72,
pp.11-22.
Prestonmarket.com. 2018. Discover the hidden gems of your neighbourhood. - Preston
Market. [online] Available at: http://www.prestonmarket.com.au/
Tomkins, L. and Ulus, E., 2016. ‘Oh, was that “experiential learning”?!’Spaces, synergies
and surprises with Kolb’s learning cycle. Management Learning, 47(2), pp.158-178.

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Bibliography:
Brook, R., 2018. Roger Booth, Lancashire County Architect, 1962-83. The Journal of the
Twentieth Century Society (C20), (13), pp.130-145.
Wrigley, R.E., Galloway, T.G., Duncan, J.R. and Cook, F.R., 2017. A Tribute to William
Burton Preston, 1937–2013. The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 130(4), pp.355-358.

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Appendix:
Kolb’s Reflective Model