Continuing Professional Development and Strategic Management - Individual Reflective Account

This article is a reflective account of an individual on group activities. It discusses the importance of team working, theories of team working, and group communication. It also talks about the application of various models and theories in real-life situations and how they help in dealing with different situations. The article concludes by stating that team working helps in making projects successful and shares insights on how to make group activities successful.

Continuing
Professional
Development and
Strategic Management

Assignment 2b: Individual Reflective account on the group activities
Team working plays an important role in the simulation and when a good and effective
team is formed, it makes your working more efficient and productive. After the simulation, the
team was developed in a very efficient and effective manner and it did helped us a lot in
managing team work at a distance. From the past tasks and the initial group activities we got to
learn so much which really helped us in operating the new project. After playing the simulation
game, I realised the importance of team working and how the people in teams can work and
contribute to make any project successful.
At first instance, the major task is mainly is to build the team and the best way to form the
team is via team building model provided by Tuckman.
Theories of Team working: In reference to Tuckman’s theory, it was first proposed by the
psychologist Bruce Tuckman in the year 1965. The theory suggested that a group or team goes
through a number of total 5 stages of development which comprises of adjourning, forming,
performing, norming and storming. All these stages begins when an individual group meets and
such type of group last until the project comes to an end.

 Forming: At this stage, it basically involves forming which means formation of the team
wherein the members meet altogether in order to form a particular group. At this stage, it
helps in establishing interaction with the team members and getting to know in a effective
and efficient manner. At this stage, I tried to built a relationship with other individuals via
video conferencing who were a part of the group and who will be taking out decisions in
relation to the simulation business which will result in achieving the objectives and aims
of the organization. For the purpose to build an effective relationship, I tried to
communicate as much as possible. In my opinion, the initial meeting was as per planned
things wherein we discussed background and interest.
 Storming: At this stage, it really helped me a lot in having deeper understanding about
the team various issues and problems among the team members and employees. Each and
every member in the group have different opinion for each other and have different
perspective of seeing things. We discussed our strength and weakness and how we can
take help of our strength in order to make our simulation game a success and how our
weaknesses can be overcome so that it does not become a hurdle in our project. These
were noted down on common platform of Google sheets so that everyone can have
discussion on it openly and work on it.
 Norming: At this stage, it basically involves analysing the conflict areas and also trying
to establish effective relationships with the respective authorities. Herein, all the
members of the team try to work together but conflicts are initiated as the team members
lack understanding. After the simulation game, all the members were in conflict with
each other as the flaws were openly discussed of everyone and everyone tried to keep it
aside so that we can concentrate on the success of it.
 Performing: In context to this stage, the organization performs various task in order to
focus on end objectives and goals of the company which will help in improving the
higher performance of the members in the team which also helps in generating the
company’s income. At this stage, all the members focused on performing their roles by
keeping aside all the weaknesses and flaws and concentrated on achieving the end results.
The members performed their best and took decisions with mutual understanding. The
decision to choose the best strategy to make the simulated business success was a big task

but the members cooperated with each other and took decision with active participation
of all.
 Adjourning: This is the last stage, where the organization analyses the employee’s
performance and identify the different areas where the organization is lacking or not
working in the right manner. Now, as the simulation business game was over and the
results of all rounds were out, it was time to adjourn the team and end it. This stage helps
in ending the team with full respect and all of the memvbers of my team tried to adjourn
the team at good note.
In reference to team dynamics, they are basically the emotional and behavioural forces
which results in impacting the direction and performance of the team. In reference to team
dynamics, these are the emotional and behavioural forces which could impact the direction and
performance of the teams. With the help of effective team dynamics, it could really help in
improving the productivity and offering satisfaction for the purpose to reach the targets.
Also the theories of strategies, team working and group dynamics really helped me a lot
in understanding about the various group activities and using them in an effective manner for the
purpose to have better knowledge and understanding. Also with the help of effective use of
theories and models in the dynamic environment, it really helped me a lot in showing
considerable differentiation. I realised that these theories are best applied in dynamic
environment rather than on static environment as the application is suited on different
environment as their application changes with changing needs and wants of the environment. I
was given the task to apply the theories and models to the business so that we can have good
application of it and competitive edge can be taken but initially, I failed to apply it as I lacked
understanding of it but gradually, after focusing on it and reading it twice and thrice, I got to
make its effective application which also played an important role in the success of the
simulation game. In reference to the group’s success, it totally depends upon the communication
process and how effective the communication between the team members takes place. Without
having effective communication among the members of the group, it becomes very difficult to
achieve the end objectives and there are high chances of conflicts. During the group project one
of the most important lesson learned by me was group communication as by continuous

interaction, I was able to gain proper understanding of the theories and model which was then
applied in the business.
During the entire project, one thing which I learned about the group was to see issues and
problems from different perspectives apart from my own. When it comes to different group
activities, individual see things from different perspectives and also shares different ideas with
group members. Another major thing which I learned regarding the group communication is
basically the need to have some respect for the other people’s views. While working in a group
or carrying out group activities, it is very important to know the importance of listening to one
another. Things becomes noisy, when one person is speaking at the same time others also speak
which makes chaos that ultimately results in fading away the communication. When it comes to
team work, mutual understanding also plays a important role in ensuring that all the issues are
related to the simulation activities are discussed in a critical manner. During the entire
discussion, one acted as a contributor and active listener. In reference to group activities, active
listening is considered to be one of the most important and effective characteristics as after
norming stage, when we headed towards performance, every member understood the importance
of listening which helped in coordinating with each other and ultimately it resulted in less
confusion and chaos. It is very important to understand and hear the individual views before
reciprocating or accepting them (Aslam, Huang and Cui, 2020). Also when we were making
final conclusions about the other’s members perspective, a thorough discussion was done unless
one individual is convinced. In case of my personal learning and development during the entire
project. I realised that it is very important to make the activities of group highly successful for
the purpose to allow that members must interact with each other in a positive manner. During the
communication among the group members, most of the communication was verbal and it was the
responsibility of each member to ensure that the language used in the communication process is
highly respectful and formal. Without listening to each other or presenting the personal views,
the discussion could be really hard. It is very important to implement the inter-relational style
which allows each and every individual to learn from each other. In my opinion, i realised that
listening is considered to be a very important part in working together in groups and carrying out
effective activities. With the help of inter-relational styles and its application, it really helps in
promoting the team dynamics through encouraging sharing of data and exchange of information
in a healthy and respectful manner.

I also got to learn that it is not always possible for the individuals to agree on everything.
Sometimes, there are high chances of disagreements among the group members over a particular
problem, for the purpose to solve the problem each and every member was raising their
suggestions and everyone was becoming engaged. One of the important benefits of group
discussion was that it allows the individuals to explore the problem in a deeper manner. In
addition to that with the help of various group activities, it really helped me a lot in
identification of my own skills and abilities. In reference to group communication, these are
found to be very critical in the group work, it is very important for the members of the group to
have respect and understanding about the views and ideas of other person. When it comes to
personal role, it is very important to have the role of a leader, contributor and an active listener.
With the help of group activity, we pre[ared the report and make analysis of it so that the end
results can be concluded. So the various inter-relational styles that one has employed comprises
of collaboration and compromising. With the help of effective practice of compromising and
collaboration, it really helps in solving the problems and issues of conflicts which would arise
among two or more members while preparing the reports and analysis. Also it leads to members
working with each other even when the ideas are different from those of others. Also with the
help of various theories such as strategy, team working and group dynamics, it really helped in
showing a considerable amount of differentiation among the static environment. Also I realised
that it is very important to adjust the models according to the prevailing situation for the purpose
to make it more useful and appropriate (Liao, Shih, Wu, Zhang and Wang, 2018).
At initial stage, it was difficult to communicate from distance as simulation business was
over and we were required to make reports, Therefore, it is very important to carry out effective
decisions for the purpose to get benefit from various decisions such as investment decision,
production decision and decisions in relation to the sales. It is very important for the organization
to develop products at economical costs and earning huge profits in order to increase the sales.
These benefits were analysed by the members from staying at distance and good communication
skill among all helped me in preparing he reports smoothly.
From my academics, I got to learn various theories and models which is very useful in
the understanding the dynamics of groups and having better knowledge about the individual’s
behaviour and attitude. I realised that in order to achieve objectives, it is very important to have

deep analysis of the system and applying all the theories and concepts in to real life situation.
The models and the theories are applied in a manner that it helps in dealing with the situation. I
also found that the swot analysis played a really important role in having deeper understanding
about the strengths and weakness of the organization. From the application of these frameworks,
it really helped me a lot in launching new products. Hence, it can be said that, team working
helps in making the projects successful and also helped in making the simulation business a
success. The working in team after simulation game was more effective as compared to the
initial project as there is more maturity among members of handling issues and problems.