Further Research:
After the activity in the workshop, I became enthusiastic in finding out the problems and the suitable solution of my issue. For this I individually met the different individuals and groups such as Placement Units, LBS Dean, Students, and take their views regarding to this issue. Then I consider that what extent the thoughts are similar from that I have taken from their positions.
Learning Outcome:
I believe that this activity will help in reduction of conflicts and problems in an organisation. This activity will help the workers by fitting themselves in the managerial positions and think upon their limitations or problems or difficulties for taking decisions and also it help the managers to fit themselves in the positions of workers.
Story telling
According to Jefferey Bridges “Stories just represent another tool in the repertoire of management (of knowledge and otherwise), and they can be misused or effectively used just like other tools of management (of knowledge and otherwise) as many 'in the know' have known all the time before 'story-telling' became the latest fad to ride the bandwagon of knowledge management.”
Source: www.brint.com
Activity:
This is the second activity we have done during the workshop. It involves the experience related to the first activity. The story involved the experiences, which I have taken as the key issue in first activity in the manner of story in which the other peoples and also their experiences with all the feeling during that course of period. That was the most interesting activity according to me because I always remember the experiences though good or bad of my life and that was interesting to put on that on paper.
Personal construct:
I was told to write a story in five minutes about the experience for which I have mentioned the key issue. In that five minutes I have wrote all the things during that course of period which I have experienced and felt and also from others point of view. Towards the end of the story I believe that it was just the problem from university and their lacking for students good. In fact who ever believes that work placement is important will also agree with my belief. But different people have different thinking and their own personal beliefs
.
Questions on activity:
After this activity we have discussed about its importance and while discussing few question aroused like is there any importance or impact of story telling in business management? Is there any specific method of story telling that makes it valuable? And what can be the outcomes of story telling and how other people can use that specific story for further research?
Further research on storytelling:
“Stories are a powerful tool in the learning process.” MOHAN BANGARUSWAMY explains how stories make the learning experience meaningful and interesting, and help improve retention
I have searched many websites and read books on story telling and its importance. From I have understood many facts about this tool. The aim of storytelling is imparting information, to develop skills, it offers perspectives, etc. Stories are holistic in nature; they relate to the entire being and not just the logical, rational part of a person.
Stories bring in an element of fun. Learning tends to happen better when people relax and enjoy themselves. This is not to say there are no learning objectives. What I am stating is that there can be fun and learning simultaneously. It enables the facilitator to communicate the point while getting the attention of the participants.
Storytelling enables a soft approach to convey a point and gives the freedom to the participant to assimilate the information. Stories allow participants to make their own meaning—by relating the learning from the story to their context. It thereby enriches the learning process, as the facilitator does not impose his or her context and meaning on to the participants.
Source: www.expressitpeople.com
Learning:
Storytelling is an interesting and meaningful methodology in learning programmes. They can be utilised for various purposes and enrich the learning experience. I have found that participants find different meaning in the same story due to their personal frames of references. This adds to the richness of the learning. Of course, there is a lot of hard work involved in becoming a storyteller. There is a wealth of resources available on the Internet—but the key is like this mechanism of facilitating; and then to dedicate the necessary time to prepare and practice.
Potential at work place:
Storytelling can be utilised at various points and for various reasons. They can be used in the following contexts:
Enabling retention. Stories can be utilised to explain almost any point. I have also utilised stories to explain technical and business related concepts.
In a team-building context to enable the participants to understand each other’s frames of reference
COGNITIVE MAPPING
Cognitive mapping can be represents as “a structured process, focused on a topic or construct of interest, involving input from one or more participants, that produces an interpretable pictorial view (concept map) of their ideas and concept and how these are interrelated. Cognitive mapping helps in making short-term predictions about where we are going to be next, and which places are accessible from the current position.
Source: omni.bus.ed.ac.uk
This is an activity, which was performed in-group during the 2 days workshop. Our group consists of 6 students. First of all we all members decided a topic for cognitive mapping. And the activity starts with the selection of the topic. Our group decided the topic “Management at LBS” for the cognitive mapping.
The second task was to find out the causes and consequences of the events.
We start finding out the causes and consequences of each event/point and start putting in the chart. Initially we found out the map becomes more of linear and become more complicated. But with little guidelines from the tutor we came in the right direction and also been more focussed to our objective.
Towards the end we have found number of causes and consequences and for each of their negative and positive ways without using negative words like not, no.
Further research:
Cognitive mapping is the technique aiding the interview process. Through capturing the chains of argument and linking the together insights into the nature of the issues are acquired. Maps may act as prompts when attempting to capture individual or organisational aims or objectives. Members are able to see their ideas, in the context of others, thus increasing their understanding of others' points of view, alternative options and belief systems. Producing these "group" maps so that the ideas are presented anonymously can help the group judge ideas on merit alone rather than their proponent's status. Furthermore the increased understanding from a group map provides the group with an emerging common language through which they can begin to agree a view of the problem.
Source: www.banxia.com
Learning Outcome:
The cognitive mapping will widely use in the various organisations. It gives a dept research about an issue and also gives an idea of steps to be followed for achieving the stated objective of the organisations.
Potential at work place:
Cognitive maps are a recent addition to human thinking, but their origin is as ancient as the mind itself. “Thought is imaginative, and it is through metaphor, metonymy, and mental imagery that we transcend the limitations of direct experience to enable abstract thought and creativity. Language and images are active agents in constructing our experience of ourselves and others.” (Gould, 1996). Which is extensively used now days in the business world.
Source: www.und.edu
Scenarios
Scenarios and other systematic ways of thinking about the future can play a vital role in strategic thinking
Personal Construct:
This is also a group activity and performs by the same group, which involve in cognitive mapping. This activity requires study of the case study “The Lesson of ValueJet 592” and find out the emerging issues relevant to the case. After found out the key issues our group start with making of flip and flop statement. At the complete ion of this every group was allowed to study the Flip and Flop statement of other group and allowed to choose two from other group to find out a suitable topic.
Our group come with the topic ‘Crash Or Control’ and we started making Cognitive map with the help of the Flip and the Flop statement.
Further Research:
Scenarios are specially constructed stories about the future. Each scenario represents a distinct, plausible world. The purpose of scenario planning is not to predict the future; but rather, to show how different forces can manipulate the future in different directions. It is very important to realize this, for this procedure helps to identify these forces if and when they happen. The utility of scenario planning lies in its ability to anticipate the future. When this is accomplished, the ability to better respond to future events is increased.
Source: edie.cprost.sfu.ca
Learning outcome and importance: this activity helped me looking a particular issue in different ways. I have learned how to think more about a particular issue in the group and team. It helped us to see the near future and can help us in planning the future by looking various alternatives. It now a days most important tool use in most of the organisation as forecasting. In fact it is having a different group of people to work on this thing only.
Conclusion:
As we know that future is uncertain. And today in business world the because of competition we have to take decisions looking future benefits and prospectus. The two days learning workshop taught me to plan for the future with help of certain important tools. It helped to look any issue in different ways both its positive side as well as negative side. I also learned that it is good to discuss issues in the group and should also involve in different groups to look their perspectives for any issue.
Now I can say that the main aim of the this module towards the end of all other module was to taught me how to see any issues and have also increased or I can say that it developed my skills to look into future in better way which will definitely help me during my own practical life.
Bibliography
- Grundy, T (1994), Strategic Learning in Action, McGraw-Hill.
- Schwartz, P. (1991), The Art Of The Long View, John Wiley & Sons.
- Sanchez, R and Heene, A (1997), Strategic Learning and Knowledge Management, John Wiley & Sons.
- De Geus, A (1988), Planning as learning, Harvard Business Review, Vol 66, No2, pp 70-74.
- Mintzberg, H (1990) ‘The Design School, reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management, Strategic Management Journal, Vol 11, pp 171-95.