FBE204 Becoming a Professional

• Provides the basis for the learning process. Lessons are learnt by individuals through adaptability and open mindedness rather than a systematic approach to the situation or problem. This is where the student is actively experiencing an activity.
• Reflective observation (RO):students during this stage learn from their experiences and by articulating why and how they occurred. They reflect, observe and critically examine their experiences from all perspectives. This is where the student is consciously reflecting back on that experience.
• Abstract conceptualization (AC):relates the observations and reflections made during RO stage to the theory or subjective concept. Students use logic and ideas as opposed to feelings to understand situations and problems. This is where the student is presented with/or trying to conceptualize a theory or model of what is to be observed.
• Active experimentation (AE):during this stage students test the theories to make predictions about reality and then act on those predictions. This is where the student is trying to plan how to test a model or theory or plan for a forthcoming experience.

Kolb-Learning style has introduced a new type of learning in which a person can develop its capabilities by their own experiences. This model is thus s known as an experiential learning theory in which a person follows four steps to judge its weakness in capabilities and develop them by using their own experiences. Thus, the two weak capabilities that I found in myself is problem solving capability and creative and innovative capability. The paper will reflect my experience in developing and improving my weak capabilities.

Discussion

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Problem solving is the first weakness I found that I face while taking any decision or dealing with any issues. This makes me professionally weak as in am unable to deal with situation, which requires urgent decision and solution. Due to this, I had to pass from the four stages of Kolb-learning model, which focuses on concrete experience, observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. Each of these stages helped me to realize my problem and act slowly to improve my capability.

I worked in a sales company for one year and during my employment, I realized that I lack in problem solving and risk taking capabilities. Thus, I decided to follow the Kolb-Learning model. As the first stage denotes in the Kolb-learning model that a concrete experience has to be witnessed (Manolis et al. 2013). This requires viewing a person having the same capability and the way he/she deals. At first I decided to assist a manager in my store to analyze the ways he is using to deal with a situation. The way he reacts to a situation, whether it is risky or not. This helped me gain a lot of information and technicalities people use to deal with a risky and problematic situation. Soon after there was a supply crisis in my store compared to the demand from the customers.

Thus, I decided to conceptualize a strategy to solve the problem and that is use of supply chain analysis to analyze the operation department of the company. Thus, after learning this model I used it in the problem solving procedure in which I analyzed the supply and operations of the company in order to increase supply in accordance to the demand. For the purpose, I analyzed the supply channel of the company, storage capabilities, distribution and inventory management. This will help the business to analyze the supply channels and improve the loopholes. I also analyzed the target audience of the company and arranged the supplied items accordingly. This helped the company to cope up with the supply issue largely.

Creative and Innovative

Another weakness in capability I realized is in my creativity and innovativeness. I lacked creative ability and forming new ideas for the betterment of a business. I realized that I lack in offering new innovative ideas when I got involved in the marketing department of the company in which I worked. This put me to go through the learning model proposed by Kolb (Schenck and Cruickshank 2015). Using this model, I was able to learn through my own experience.

I worked for an ice cream brand of Australia. During the promotional meetings, I was asked to give my views by which the brand can gain higher value compared to the competitors. However, I failed to do that as I was giving same idea, which was given or already used by other organization. Thus, I decided to take up learning classes from an experienced and senior marketing manager about the tricks he/she uses in proposing a unique idea for the marketing of the product. After analyzing and learning from the manager, I decided to use the marketing mix model to propose a promotional activity for the company. The marketing mix strategy helped me to analyze the pricing, place and product of the company and accordingly I designed the promotional mix. As from the marketing mix analysis, I figured out that the company sells wide variety of ice cream and mainly target the young customer base. Thus, I proposed to use various online based advertisement such as animation pages to attract the young generation. I was able to improve my innovative and creativity skills by proposing a different promotional perspective to the business.

Conclusion 

From the above reflection, it is clear that a person can easily cope up with their inabilities by focusing on their daily life and find ways to improve their capabilities by their own experience. Thus, the two evidences show that I was able to improve my decision-making skills and creativity skills by my own experience.

References

Manolis, C., Burns, D.J., Assudani, R. and Chinta, R., 2013. Assessing experiential learning styles: A methodological reconstruction and validation of the Kolb Learning Style Inventory. Learning and individual differences, 23, pp.44-52.

Schenck, J. and Cruickshank, J., 2015. Evolving Kolb: Experiential education in the age of neuroscience. Journal of Experiential Education, 38(1), pp.73-95.