Self-managed Learning And Personal Development

Task 1: Understanding Self-managed Learning

The following paper revolves around the log of personal and professional development. It remains a significant element in the personal and professional life of an individual. The paper covers some significant aspects including five different tasks. The tasks contain the personal as well as professional skills that can be applicable to several contexts.  Moreover, it could affect the individual growth and development on the professional field.

This section of the report is done according to the information on self-managed study and relation to long-term development. Most importantly, the actual testimonials engaging self-managed strategies discussed in the section includes some particular tips around the specialized contexts.

It has been observed that self-managed learning is a technique where learning is encouraged as well as knowledge gained through individual’s own effort. As put forward by Blaschke (2012), learning by the technique of research and survey remains as the most significant ways.  However, when it comes to self-managed learning, self-initiation of learning process works effectively. In self initiation process, the individual could analyze and research the source like articles, online internet portal, journals and practical survey to collect information on the context. In addition to this, this can also be done working in an organization where she/he might change the job role and learn things. Moreover, in the external environment, the individual could attend the seminars, conference and event to observe and learn things. The individuals could also learn by setting clear goals and objectives. Based on the objectives, the individual could develop a particular aims and then requirements to meet goals can be sorted. For example, if an individual wants to be an aircraft pilot by profession, after collecting a degree from high school, that person needs to study aircraft engineering. Hence, the aim is to become a pilot and the requirements are studies in aircraft engineering.  These self-managed learning process are sustainable because they can be achieved with the knowledge of real-world context. The individuals could apply these learning processes in their own life and gain benefits.  Each method is linked to the real-world context.

Identifying learning style and examining how these can be used to help individual the benefits of each

Learning styles usually relate to the way in which different individuals learn. As the scholar have focused on different elements of this, a large range of interpretation and definitions Some particular learning styles are personal preference, pragmatist, theorist and reflector. In personal preference, the individuals tend to rely on their own way of learning. For example, an individual could prefer visual learning while others might prefer verbal learning. However, according to Kolb’s learning theory, the learning becomes effective, when the style of learning is linked to learner’s internal cognitive process. Kolb’s experimental learning style theory, which is presented by the four stages learning cycle, can be applied to one’s own learning process.

Identifying Approaches to Self-managed Learning and Evaluating Sustainability

Figure 1: Kolb’s learning theory

(Source: Hsieh et al. 2011)

Concrete Experience-Hence, the individual could gain experience of learning when a new experience of situation is encountered. The individual might get the reinterpretation of existing knowledge (Zimmerman and Schunk 2012).

Reflective observation- Hence, the individual could gain new experience. The individual could gain experiences from the inconsistencies between experience as well as understanding of the facts (Shaw 2012).

Abstract Conceptualization-This aspect gives an increase to new ideas; this mean the individuals could experience from the existing abstract concept.

Active Experimentation- Here, the learner could apply this experimentation to the real world context to observe the outcome that comes out of it.  

These section discuses the ways that are commonly learnt in which the individuals learn through appropriate research with the addition of different researches of a society that people require.

As put forward by Wong and Nunan (2011), people often think that they are not achieving enough in their personal as well as professional life; however, they do not consider the reasons for this underachieving. The life-long learning in the professional and personal context can be achieved if the individuals follow the methods like self-direct learning, continuing professional development, recognition for Prior learning, further education and others (Chiang et al. 2013). The individuals could also learn and measure the progress of their learning activities. For example, if an individual attend seminars on weekly or monthly basis, he/she could compare his learning experience between the time since the individual started doing it and the previous phase of learning. However, personal development in terms of learning can be achieved through hard work and commitment.  Self-direct learning method can be applied if the individuals become concerned about the commitment and hard work required to put. Commitment remains as the significant factor, which determines the desire to do something. In addition to this, being in a professional field for long period, the individuals could enhance their professional career, where opportunities for learning are optimal. Throughout the professional career, the individuals learn things belonging to different fields.

The self-managed learning provides the individuals large freedom in deciding their choice and they perform on the basis of their goals. In addition, the self-managed learning helps in the self-assessment as well as the analysis of the individuals. It helps people in learning the areas in which they need to develop as well as expand their horizons.  The individuals could focus on improving the ability range with the personal learning (Gureckis and Markant 2012). On the basis of individual strength and weakness analysis, the individual could enhance the margin of their ability in their personal learning. For example, based on the goals or time period, the ability of observing things should improve. When it comes to organizational benefits, the organization gains the advantages when the individuals work in a team. The productivity of the team increases and the individuals work in a team, the process helps the individuals in encouraging and motivating to work in teams and help each other in deriving knowledge and skills. Therefore, hence, the benefits are mutual.

Identifying Learning Styles and Benefits for Individuals

There are many worked based issues that could be visible in a workplace but I would insist on the communication issue in the workplace. If I wish to work in the organization IBM, which is a knowledge outsourcing organization, I should have appropriate communication skill to manage the team. It is certain that not all members in the team may be efficient in communication but communication should be prioritized. Moreover, in an autocratic management style, the communication often becomes a significant issue. For example, the employees at the lower or middle level usually do not get the opportunity to interact with the senior management and due to this communication gap, the work progress gets delayed and the decision making is slowed down.

One significant solution that can be applied is proper training and development program. In order to resolve the work-based issue related to communication can be resolved by providing the employees with appropriate training. In every week, the organizational members could attend the communication program and during the work process, they could apply the gained knowledge to the workplace. This could help the members to interact with the seniors in the workplace. Once the communication is developed between the senior management and the general employees, the possible workplace issues can be resolved.

In order to resolve the above-mentioned issue related to communication in the workplace, certain learning styles and strategies can be applied to resolve those issues. To overcome the issue, the individuals should rely on the direct learning style and this means after gaining the knowledge from the training related to communication, the individuals would work on a team. Being in a team, all members should follow the culture of knowledge sharing, information exchanging and other possible interactive methods. This will certainly increase the level of communication. For example, if one member in the team faces certain issue related to the work, other member should come up and help in resolving the issue and once the individual learn the process, she/he could help others. Under a strategic level, it can be mentioned that the individuals should relate their own personal learning style such as the verbal learning style, to the style they are asked to follow in the training session. Nonetheless, Fink (2013) mentioned that learning becomes effective, when the interaction with others is there among the individuals. Thus, it is necessary that individuals maintain the required level of communication among themselves. This means during the sharing of knowledge and information, the individuals should respect other opinions and listen to others.

Encouraging Lifelong Learning in Personal and Professional Contexts

Time management is one of the significant aspects that each individual should consider. Time management can be done by prioritizing workloads, setting work objectives, making and keeping appointments and reliable estimates of task time. The individuals could prioritize their work, which means based on the priority and importance of work the type of work should be arranged. For example, if an individual is supposed to prepare and submit the audit report of the month and the he/she also has to attend the daily meeting. Hence, the individual first needs to finish the auditing and he/she could attend the daily meeting. However, this can be done more effectively, if the individuals set their own work objectives (Chang 2016). Before implementing or carrying out the task, the individuals could set few objectives related to that work. Based on the objectives, they could sort out the requirements. For example, if I am required to submit the weekly production report on the last day of the week to the senior manager, my objective is to finish the work a day before the submission. Thus, I do not have to take the burden of work on the last day. In addition to this, an appropriate work schedule helps to divide the work into several small parts and those can easily be adjusted into the time schedule.

While focusing my own current skills and competencies, I observe that my communication skills are not efficient enough to manage a large set of work.  However, I have observed that organizations often prioritize the individuals who have tremendous problem solving, decision-making skills and communication skills. I must say that compared to organizational standard, my communication skills are not up to the mark. In the recent time, I have joined a fast food restaurant called Red Rooster, where I found that there are some situations where the managers involvement is necessary but due to my poor communication skill, I could not approach my senior manager for the help. For example, during the festival season, the restaurant often becomes crowded and managing each customer with equal attention becomes difficult. In such context, I needed help from the seniors in terms of dealing with the customers but my poor communication skills discourage me from taking such initiative. I have also observed that I need to develop my problem solving skills to manage the stressful situation in the workplace. On the other side, I also need to focus on personal and interpersonal skills to reach the standard of organizational demands.

Evaluating Benefits of Self-managed Learning to Individuals and Organizations

 As put forward by DeKay (2012), interpersonal skills are the skills people use daily when communicate as well as interact with each other individually or in a group. More specifically, I can mention that my interpersonal skills are sufficient to deal with the new flow of communication but I need to work questioning and body language. I realize that to be able to work well in a good team or group, I need to develop my interpersonal skills, so that, I will be able to communicate effectively with others, family, friends and colleagues and others. Apart from all these personal and inter personal skills, I also need to focus on the leadership skills. Leadership skills are necessary to run a team or operation. I realize that without proper leadership skills, I might not be able to manage other people in the team.

Identifying the personal and professional developments needs and identifying the activities required to undertake to meet them

I must mention that my current performances are not effective or up to the mark to deal with a senior team in my organization Red Rooster. Recently, I have observed I need to develop communication skills, problem solving skills, leadership skills and decision-making skills. I understand that such poor skills in communication and decision-making could be the significant threats for my career. Among the interpersonal skills, I need to develop the approaches of questioning and maintaining a formal body language. In coming future, I may have to work on a new project with the senior members of the firm but before I fulfill the above-mentioned future needs.

Firstly, I need to enhance my communication skills, which can be done by increasing the level of interaction with people. I can implement this activity by attending the training sessions and communicating with the senior members of the company on a regular basis. This might help me to overcome the fear of communication. In addition, I should work with my senior managers to observe how they are managing the work despite the high level of workloads. I also need to prepare a time schedule chart to allocate time and effort required to implement the activities. Based on the status of the work, I can manage the time required for completion. This will also help me in developing the time management skills.

Working with organization Red Rooster, I may have the opportunity to arrange an advertising campaign for the promotion of products of Red Rooster. Hence, I may have to lead the entire team to make event successful. This opportunity might help me to apply my leadership skills of managing people, communicating with people and creating awareness among the team members regarding the organizational goals. This activity certainly embed the aspects of leadership skills altogether. In addition to this, if I work with my organization for six months, I may have the opportunity to lead the internal production team. This opportunity might help me to enhance my communication skills since I could interact with the senior members on a regular basis. In addition to these, during my course studies, I may have to give presentation of the assignments and this remains as the opportunity for me to enhance my communication skills.

Task 2: Taking Responsibility for Personal and Professional Development

Activities	Current Performance	Things I need to improve	Time Required
Communication skills	I have difficulties in communicating with the team members of my organization.  There are many incidents where due to the lack of communication skills, I could not convey the message I wanted to. Moreover, in my course learning, during the lecture session I find it difficult to communicate with the lecture head.	I need to develop my communication skills to work effectively with my team.	8 Months
Problem Solving skills	As I am lagging behind the criteria of communication standard, I also find it difficult to resolve the possible issues such as managing people and unexpected delay in the work. So, due to poor communication skills, my problem solving skills are also affected.	I need to enhance my problem solving skills. This would help me to tackle any difficult situation in the workplace.	6 Months
Decision making skills	I am not highly efficient at making decisions; specially when it comes to strategic decision. However, when I worked on a group project, I managed the entire work by taking the required decision	In order to work effectively with the organization, or play the role of a leader, it is essential for me to improve my decision-making skills.	5 Months

Table 1: Presentation of the PDP

Short-term objectives

• To enhance the time management skills
• To enhance decision making skills to play a significant leadership role

• To develop a communication skills to work effectively with the senior management team

Discussing and reflecting the processes and activities needed to execute the development plan

In order to implement the activities related to the development plan, I need to focus on the large initiatives. I understand that I might not be able to enhance my communication, problem solving or other related activities unless I work on a live project. I should work on large organizational project such as advertising campaign of the company. I might have to develop a presentation, which I could present to the senior management of the company. Apart from the external project, I could implement the development plan by following short-term and long-term objectives. In short-term objectives, I need to interact with people, especially with the senior members who are more experienced in each context. For improving the problem solving skills, I need to get into the regular operational issues of the organization I work for. This might positively influence my habit and I would start taking the responsibilities.

There are certain areas that I need to consider to implement the proposed personal and professional development plan. Firstly, I need to analyze my existing and current performance to identify the strengths and weaknesses and the areas I need to improve. After the analysis of existing performance, I would separate the areas that need improvement.  Based on the short-term and long-term objectives, I would implement the initiative of interacting with people on a frequent basis. Hence, I will also measure the progress with the existing performance.  Likewise, with the progress of communication skills, I would take responsibility of playing a leadership role in the organization. To enhance the leadership skills, I need to work on the real context instead of studying the theories and models of leadership. Likewise, for developing the problem solving skills, I need to work with the senior managers of my organization to observe how they are resolving the operational issue with the real-world knowledge. In addition to this, to implement all these activities, I need to focus on the time management as an essential activity of my development plan.

I have observed that I am heading towards the goals and objectives that I have set for my career. My aim is to become a good leader who could generate positive outcome for the organization. Being a leader, I want to develop ways that are more suitable for managing people. However, if I look at my current performance, I can see that I still have a lot do and learn. I should pay attention to decision-making and problem solving ability and before that, I need to enhance the level of communication. My learning techniques are linked to the aims and objectives mentioned in the PDP. In order to reach the aim and meet the objectives I am implementing all possible ways such as gaining ideas about communication and observing the real-world facts.

Activities	Current Progress	Further Improvement
Communication skills	I have enhanced my communication skills to some extent; now I have started interacting with the senior members and other group members of my team.	However, I still need to work on the communication skills as I still have some issues with communication when I am required to deal with the senior executives or any other senior person I know.
Problem Solving skills	I have worked on my problem solving skills. For example, three members of my team did not come to work, a minor issue of delay in operation was observed. I resolved the issues by modifying the work schedule on that day only.	Even though, my problem solving skills are improved to some extent, I still need to work on it to deal with the major issues.
Decision making skills	According to the feedback, my decision-making skills are not effective enough to deal with the strategic decisions. According to the feedback provided by the senior managers, the strategic decisions are risky; thereby, the actions require more experience and knowledge.	I need to enhance my decision making skills to deal with the large managerial activities.

Table 2: Updating the PDP

References

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