Reflective Essay: Enterprise Venture Development at Preston Market

This report is a reflective essay detailing a student's experience in a group project focused on developing a consultancy plan for the Preston Market in Lancaster. The project involved a team of six members who aimed to understand the market's environmental conditions to improve it for both B2B and B2C businesses. The student reflects on the team-building process, using Kolb's reflective cycle to analyze the forming, norming, and storming stages, highlighting conflicts, communication strategies, and the importance of task division based on expertise. The essay discusses the role of the team leader, the resolution of conflicts, and the challenges posed by a team member's absenteeism. The student emphasizes the significance of effective communication, positive team relationships, and the lessons learned regarding group dynamics, conflict resolution, and project management, including areas where the project could have been handled differently. The report also references the assignment brief and the required reflective writing approach.

Running head: ENTERPRISE VENTURE DEVELOPMENT
Enterprise Venture Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note

1ENTERPRISE VENTURE DEVELOPMENT
In this essay I would my present my experiences during working in a group project. We
did the project to present a consultancy plan for the development of Preston market in Lancaster.
We were six members in the team which comprises Anil, Karthik, Vijay, Subbu, Naveen and me.
During the group work, we met the needs of the client, Designed the process of implementing the
project and we delivered the project to the client. Our aim the consultancy plan on the
development of the venture was to gain knowledge about the environmental condition of the
Preston market. We used this for developing a further plan to improve the market for both B2B
and B2C business. We developed a strategic plan which was based on the findings from the
research from both primary as well as secondary data on the competitive and environmental
situation of the Preston Market. The process of building teams gave me a lot of experiences
during the project. I in this essay, I describe my experience of the whole process using the
Kolbe’s reflective cycle.
According to me, team building was the most importance thing in the group project as
our group is responsible for all the positive and negative incidents and also for the whole project.
Usually group development follows four stages, which are forming, norming, performing and
adjourning. Our group was also developed in the same manner. On the first day of our group
project, we initiated the process of forming. In this stage, we got to know each other and together
an oath was taken to achieve success in the work. We faced a problem in the storming stage
when Karthik and I got into a conflict. However, the conflict between us was soon resolved and
the problem was sorted out. According to Lunenburg and Lunenburg (2015), in the second stage
of group building which is the norming stage, the members must know the strengths of each
member of the group. In this stage, we tried to know each other better and that helped us to
perform effectively and efficiently. Thus, a good level of cooperation was developed between us.

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However, among us, Subbu did not work properly as he did not turn up most of the time.
Adjourning is the last stage of group formation. Since we worked for a short period of time, we
did not enter into this stage. Anil was selected as the team leader due to hid potentiality to handle
the whole group. Apart from this, we also saw that he managed the whole situation very well
when the conflict occurred between Karthik and me which made us to prefer him as our leader
over others. Once we completed the team formation, we divided all the tasks among us so as to
get the work done within time. To bring effectiveness in work, tasks must be divided according
to expertise (Maduenyi 2015). Therefore, Anil divided the tasks according to our skills and
knowledge. Our team faced a conflict for the second time when Subbu was given the
responsibility of maintaining and coordinating the communications in the team and give all the
updates to Anil but due to his frequent absence, Naveen wanted to take up this responsibility.
Anil proved his leadership quality once again by sorting out the issue and the tasks of Subbu and
Naveen were swapped. Subbu aws given the responsibility to work as the field surveyor. In the
team, my role was to maintain the effectiveness in communication. As said by Brandler and
Roman (2015) improper communication among the team members would lead to hampered
production. We did not face any issue related to multi-cultural communication as all the team
members of our group were from same ethnic and cultural background. We communicated very
well during the project and there enough cooperation between us. We all believe that effective
communication is a key to success in a group activity. Some problems were faced by Subbu,
since he was absent most of the time. We used Whatsapp messenger and email to keep our
communication and interaction with each other strong ensuring that all the tasks are well
coordinated among us. This led to well management of the work. All the works were smoothly
carried out by us. Our team leader, Anil sometimes gave us the tasks through messenger. Regular

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meeting were conducted with the team leader to ensure smooth flow of work. In the meetings we
mainly discussed about the tasks that need to be done and updates were given about the tasks
done by us.
During my project period, I learnt that team building is the most crucial thing in group
activities. The success of a project depends on the manner in which the team is built. It was
learnt that in order to achieve the goal of a project, all the team members must have a strong base
of communication among themselves. Effective communication brings coordination in the work
in all the works enables the team members to perform all the tasks smoothly and without any
barrier or obstacle. Dividing the tasks among the members according to their expertise, skill and
knowledge is an important thing. It brings effectiveness in work. Maintain a positive relationship
within the team eliminates any kind of conflict which may hamper productivity. In case of any
conflict, the team leader must take an initiative to resolve it, as done by Anil.
However, during the project, few negative incidents could have been avoided by doing
things in a different manner. Karthik and I could have avoided the collision as it was without any
concrete reason. Anil could have warned Subbu in the very beginning of the project to reduce his
absenteeism. Things could have been a bit easier and smooth, if Subbu did not remain absent for
most of the time. Anil should not have given such a huge responsibility to Subbu, which was the
main reason for conflict between Subbu and Naveen. Therefore, from the project I had a great
experience and learning about group activity, which would help a lot in future.

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Reference
Brandler, S. and Roman, C.P., 2015. Group work: Skills and strategies for effective
interventions. Routledge.
Lunenburg, F.C. and Lunenburg, M.R., 2015. Developing high performance teams: Long-
standing principles that work. International Journal of Organizational Behavior in
Education, 3(1), pp.1-17.
Maduenyi, S., Oke, A.O., Fadeyi, O. and Ajagbe, A.M., 2015. Impact of organisational structure
on organisational performance.