Personal Growth Through Group Work: A Reflective Journal

This self-reflective journal documents a student's experience participating in a group project. The student reflects on the challenges and opportunities presented by teamwork, including time management issues, coordination costs, and communication barriers. The journal highlights the importance of sharing ideas, listening to others, and managing stress, particularly in public speaking situations. The student identifies personal strengths and weaknesses, such as nervousness during presentations, and outlines strategies for future improvement, including setting deadlines and actively participating in class activities. The experience underscores the value of time management, effective communication, and stress management in achieving project goals and fostering personal and professional growth. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments.

Self-reflective journal
1 | P a g e

Contents
Reflective journal...........................................................................................................................3
References.....................................................................................................................................6
2 | P a g e

Reflective journal
According to Sharifi (2012), Learning is not only stuff but the process of enhancing the
knowledge and skills and way of learning new things. This will help in learning in a
better way. An effective learner is the one who grabs opportunities to enhance its
knowledge. Therefore I get the chance to enhance my skills and knowledge to work in a
group. By participating in group activity I learnt a lot of new things, my strengths and
weaknesses. Although I am aware of my capabilities by involving in group activity I get
another experience that develops both my professional and personal skills. It also
improves my communication skills and enhances my weaknesses. In the journal, I am
sharing my own experience by being the prospective part of the group.
Working in the team is a very good experienced that I analysed as it provides a better
outcome. Before working in the group I was really scared as I never experience this
before but when I saw the friendly behaviour I feel motivated and provide strength to
perform better. We divide the whole project into different activities that helped in
performing better in a specific area. By working in a group I learnt to share my views
and knowledge and listen to others too. We all share ideas and choose the one that is
best suited (Hassan & Alaaraj, 2014).
While choosing the topic we all had a different option but by discussing and effectively
analysing we choose Lloyds Banking Group. After deciding the topic we were all start
working on gathering data for the individual activities. We faced time management
issues as there were many members of a team that did not many any efforts that’s why
we had no time do work on their task. Everyone feels much stressed but by
communicating with them we learnt to manage time effectively.
We also face coordination cost that includes time and energy as working in team
consumers more time than the individual work. Arranging team meetings, corresponds,
coordinating schedules, making collective decisions, communicating with team
members before taking any initial steps, integrating the efforts of team members and so
3 | P a g e

on takes more time (Oreski, 2012). The time we spent may not be great but together it
is valuable. I learnt that it can’t be eliminated but coordinating equal efforts is more
important. This helps me in understanding the importance of time management.
Another problem I addressed while working in a group is to ensure that any member
does not get off from the task this helps us in accomplishing the individual task. Our
team is having good communication channels that benefited us in helping the specific
issues and to find out solutions for the issues. This help in completing the project
effectively and efficiently.
After completing the project the day come for presentation, in class, my team is the first
in the sequence. We had to perform very well because we are the one who was the one
who was going to perform first and the instructor was having high expectation from we
people. However, I felt very stressed and demotivated as this was the first time when I
was going to perform in front of everyone. Speaking in public is my weak point. I felt
nervous that’s why I forget some point in my presentation. I did play roles many times
but presenting the presentation was the first time. That time I felt that lack of
concentration and stress can make the wrong perception on everyone because due to
my nervousness everyone felt stressed. Therefore I stumbling over my words and
taking too much long pauses while speaking that my team and whole class
uncomfortable. But my teacher motivates me to speak and I felt good. I learnt that
stress on the mind cannot receive right message.
In the end, I get a good experienced by working in a group. I learnt a lot of new things
and the way of speaking in front of everyone. I learnt that time management is the
important activities and process of accomplishing any work. Without managing time the
individual has to experience lots of issues and this is having a negative impact on the
project. In the future, I will set my own deadlines and effectively manages time by
allocating time. This will help in accomplishing the best outcomes. I learn that stress on
the mind can push anything in wrong way and it is having a great impact on the overall
job. Anxiety fear in public is my weakest point which can be corrected through involving
4 | P a g e

in-class activities and other campus activities. I will start improving in it so that is can
accomplish my desired goals.
References
 Hassan, S., &Alaaraj, H., 2014. Developing SWOT/ TOWS Strategic Matrix for E-
government in Lebanon. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and
Development.
 Oreski, D., 2012. Strategy development by using SWOT – AHP. TEM Journal. Sharifi, A. S., 2012. Islamic Azad University function Analysis with Using the SWOT
Model in order to provide Strategic Guidelines (Case Study: Faculty of Humanities).
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences.
5 | P a g e