Module 2: Task 4c - Developing my Questions with my Professional Community

I thought it would be both interesting and beneficial towards developing my questions for inquiry by presenting them to an industry professional outside of the industry of my own. I had the opportunity to present my questions to a professional working in the Financial Technology industry, who holds a similar managerial/team leading role to me. With the view that I could learn, identify any key pieces of information that could help develop my questions for inquiry from each of his responses.

• What are the distinct outcomes of using positive criticism and negative criticism in the workplace?

“It depends on the person and how they take criticism. Some people need negative feedback to be pushed. Sometimes they need a clear message so that they 'get it'. - And that they get the right pressure to get the stuff done. But then there are other types, especially when they are not confident (like 'juniors'), who definitely need positive criticism, otherwise they will give up. I, personally, am someone who will always try to spin it in a positive way.”

• How does my own personality affect the quality of work output in my fellow cast members?

“I always have a can-do attitude, I think it animates people in my team to think outside of the box. Where as other people may say they can’t do certain things, I will always try and be creative to find a way to solve a problem. I always try to put myself in the person’s shoes who will receive the work. And I will always challenge myself and I am never satisfied with my work and I will always keep improving my work. I believe that there are always improvements to do. I don’t believe that there is something is perfect. And I produce a better quality of work for it. And I believe it rubs off on my team in a positive way.”

• How does the atmosphere in my working environment affect work output?

“A lot. It puts you in a completely different mindset. For example, If you’re positive about something, you are always driven to find a solution about a problem. I hate negativity and that definitely affects the work. Negativity in the workplace doesn’t push you not does it produce the best results because you’re not motivated or driven and because you already have the mindset that it won’t work already.’

• Is there any correlation between the standard of work ethics and age/place of training etc?

“It’s definitely the geography. Certain ways of how you’ve been brought up have an effect on the quality of work. It definitely has an influence on ambition and confidence. I think young people these days are worse because they don’t have as much respect because of how they get raised these days. So they might be quite hard to manage. The gap between very intelligent kids and non intelligent kids is getting wider.”

• What causes complacency in the workspace? (What is the main cause)

“In the area in what I’m in. It’s definitely in the success of selling the software, so as soon as you think that your software is wining the competition, you think that you don’t need to carry preparing and pushing and perfecting the software anymore. But you must treat every client with the same thoroughness. There may come a point where you may lose a contract, and then you’ll be in trouble.”

• Does being amicable with your co-workers produce better work compared to the work of non-amicable co-worker?

“Yes, it does produce better work because in some tasks where you may need help, they are often more willing to squeeze in the extra time to help you or try and find a compromise. If you are friendly with them, they are often more willing to help you. In the area we are, communication is the key. If you don’t have a friendly environment you can potentially lose out on other knowledge because you won’t feel like sharing information.”

• What is the optimum method to teach a group of with different learning styles?

“What I like when teaching, is learning by doing it. -I will always try to give people little tasks by asking them to complete an objective and tell them what the end goal is that I expect to achieve. And I will let the individuals solve the tasks how he thinks will suit him. That way they should be able to learn the way they feel comfortable to. But when necessary, I show them, step by step, how its done. I record it. So that they can always look back at it again.”

• How peoples attitudes in the workplace affect the quality levels of work?’

“A bad attitude can bring it down (quality of work) and destroy your whole team if you have someone who can’t be bothered or who isn’t pulling his weight. And it can be even more frustrating if the managers don’t see it. You also end up with a rubbish team spirit in the workplace if they think they are 'carrying one' in the team. The people who don’t contribute well do not help the workplace environment. But you need someone in the workplace who will be critical in the team to challenge a few things, and who brings a different view. If you have someone in the team who always questions aspects, you get better results and you can see things you didn’t notice before.

• Why do performers often continue to work through injuries instead of taking rest or recovery?

“Maybe they fear the team can’t do it without them. Maybe they fear potentially to let the team down if he doesn’t finish his work. Perhaps he doesn’t want to miss out or fall behind on work etc. Perhaps, even the fear of potentially being replaced.”

Reflection

There are several things that I can take from receiving the answers above. 

Primarily, one of the most surprising observations is realising the amount that I have learned just by reading the answers to my questions above. By reading and reflecting upon these answers given to me, I believe that I can now try to take on board all of the beneficial observations, methods, attitudes that I may not have been aware of or accustomed to and incorporate these in my professional practice. This will greatly benefit me in bettering myself as a professional.

This exercise has also made me aware of the key benefits of using tools/methods such as an interview or questionnaire to obtain useful information to aid the development of an inquiry when there is a need for accounts of personal opinions, views and experiences. 

Thirdly (and probably most importantly), is that upon discussion about the questions presented above, it was noticeable that several of the questions above were based on a similar area: The quality of work produced in my working environment. Nearly all of the questions above make an assumption that I am looking to find out ways that I can ensure high quality of work in the workplace. It is clearly a key area of interest for me. 

However there's more to think about here. I'm questioning myself whether this link/connection between my initial questions for inquiry is an assumption insinuating that I am dissatisfied with the quality of work being produced by my cast members and it is a result of respect and leadership issues and therefore base my inquiry on leadership. Or that I would benefit from basing my inquiry on what causes high quality work in the workplace. Inquiring the latter of the two could tackle many more issues in the workplace than that just of leadership.

What I feel I must do now is to retrace my steps. I shall take my findings upon this reflection as use it to construct a more carefully thought out question for inquiry that has a clear purpose and motive behind it. As always, for those reading my posts, please feel free to share your views, observations and opinions. 

Module 2: Task 4b - 'Developing my own Special Interest Group'

I am in the process of creating an online Special Interest Group (SIG). Having never hosted an SIG before, I am eager to discover how doing so will aid the development of my question for enquiry and to see what other benefits it brings. Once I have completed the process of setting up my SIG, I shall publish a post on my blog containing all the relevant information for my fellow BAPP students and other blog followers to join.

How does your SIG compare to other groups or communities that you are a part of in the workplace? 

I feel that in my online SIG I can discuss information that I wouldn't necessarily be able to discuss with the communities that I am part of in my workplace. (As some topics that would would be interesting for discussion could affect the work of my fellow cast members in some form or another.) The information that I would be presented with from groups or communities within my workplace would be specific to my area of work. Whereas information from my online SIG (which would be made up of Fellow BAPP students) would present information on a wider spectrum given the variety of work and experiences that they would contribute.  

How will you use your SIG? 

Having studied through Module 1, I understand and appreciate the significance and usefulness networking can have on developing my learning. Evidence of this can be seen in the text I wrote in my post 'Module 1: 'Task 3d - Critical questions and issues that emerge'. 

"I think sharing ideas and communicating with others constantly shifts my way of thinking, planning, and practice. A vast majority of what we learn is through communication, so it would be wrong to suggest that the sharing of ideas and communicating didn't affect my way of thinking. I believe that, generally speaking, we are all nurtured and encouraged to share ideas and to communicate. I have mentioned the term 'mutual inspiration' in previous posts. I believe that working with others can often help the improvement in quality of my work, frequently listening to and learning from other people's opinions and experiences can improve my creative insight and inspire me to persevere with my work. "

(http://gjswittering.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/module-1-task-3d-critical-questions-and.html)

I shall use my SIG to aid the development of my question for inquiry by frequently posting questions or comments, photos, videos to stimulate ideas for discussion. I shall collect information from the opinions and responses made by the SIG members and use it for analysis for the development of my question for inquiry. I shall maintain communication with my SIG members as it will function not too dissimilar from a Social Networking group which thrives on communication.  

How will you evidence the shared practice within your own professional inquiry process?

In order to evidence the shared practice within my own professional inquiry process, I shall first of all archive the discussions and comments that are made. This way should there be any technical issues I should still have most of the information available to me. I shall then write about the topics and discussions raised within my SIG on my blog, using the opportunity to further reflect on how the SIG is aiding the development for my inquiry. 

Module 2: Task 4a - 'Developing Lines of Inquiry'

After a very busy summer and eventually returning briefly back to the UK, I am eagerly looking forward to progressing further into Module 2 and just as keen to uncover how studying through this module will further develop me as professional. I've recently decided to take on a contract where my role is that of Company Manager/Dance Captain which I hope will help me to carry out a lot of my research for my inquiry.

Initially, after reading through the Module Handbook, I thought that it would be rather difficult to think up and decide on a set of specific questions for inquiry immediately. Having to choose to research something that not only will benefit me as a professional in the workplace that I will be able to successfully carry out the tasks needed in order to do so, is something that I must give some thought to.

For some more inspiration, I referred back to what I had written on 'Task 2d'  of Module 1 to see what my lines of inquiry were then. Even though I was working on a different job back in May, I found that my lines of inquiry are similar or have similar links to the questions i'm putting forward for development now.

Initial Questions for Inquiry.

Written below are the questions I had initially thought up, with the aim of developing them for professional inquiry to benefit my work, the work of my fellow colleagues and other industry professionals.

• What are the distinct outcomes of using positive criticism and negative criticism in my workplace?

Whether or not it be a matter of respect, I find that occasionally using 'negative criticism' to get a message across and obtain better standard of work from my cast members will achieve greater success than using 'encouragement'. It may be useful to find out why this is often the case? Perhaps by doing so, I may discover other vital pieces of information that I could benefit from which would better me as a professional. 

• How does my own personality affect the quality of work output in my fellow cast members?

As I am now in the job role of Company Manager/Dance Captain in my cast, I am in the position where I am in effect in charge of managing the cast. It could be beneficial to research this with the view to discovering ways that I could better myself as a 'team leader' and better the quality of work produced by my cast. 

• How does the atmosphere in my working environment affect work output?

I'm of the opinion that atmosphere in the workplace has an effect on the work produced. Perhaps researching into this would eventually provide information that would be of use to produce a continual higher quality level of work?

• Is there any correlation between the standard of work ethics and the age/place of training of the members of my cast?

Recently I have seen distinct differences in the standard of work ethics and the standard of work of my cast members. It could be useful to find out if the age and location of where my cast members trained has any correlation with the standard of work ethics.  

• What is the main cause of complacency in my workspace?

When you have been doing more or less the same job for two years in a row, it is understandable that complacency may kick in. However uncovering what the main causes of complacency are in the workplace may lead to finding out methods in which to combat this.

• Does being amicable with your co-workers produce better work compared to the working with a non-amicable co-worker?

This question may seem like it calls for a straight forward answer, but does it? Not being amicable doesn't necessarily mean not being co-operative. 

• What is the optimum method to teach a group of with different learning styles?

We can take from the knowledge developed from working through Module 1, that in one room with a group of people in, there will always be a variety of people accustomed to different learning styles. As everyone has a different learning style, it can prove difficult to be able to teach a group of people efficiently and effectively. I could take the views of my fellow cast members and use them to create a modal answer which would improve the way I teach my cast as a whole.

• How peoples attitudes in my workplace affect the quality levels of work?

There are many different characters/personalities in the workplace, and it seems apparent that attitudes have a a knock on effect to another. For example I often notice that if one member of the team isn't working hard, another member of the team will follow suit and so on. Perhaps researching into this will be beneficial for me and even other managers or team leaders who want to ensure continual high level quality work from their team members/employees. 

• What are some of the experiences of how performers often continue to work through injuries instead of taking rest or recovery?

This is not an uncommon practice in this industry. However, in my work place I come across this all too often. (I, myself, am guilty of this.)  Colleague's will injure themselves, however have the urgency to try and disregard it and continue on working. It would be very interesting to uncover the reasons behind this. 

Reflections - After group Skype conversation with Adesola.

After presenting a couple of my questions in the group Skype conversation hosted by Adesola, I found that several of my questions that I had initially considered useful for research, written as they were above, were not actually feasible for its practically when taking into account what will be needed for undertaking the research. Looking in forethought, if I had chosen to use some of the questions written as they are above, I would have found myself struggling to cope with the monstrous amount of research necessary to achieve something that may not end up resulting in what I had first envisioned.

Some other points raised from the conversation that I found very beneficial and eye opening to me were, when reading my question to myself, ask what assumptions I am making to myself? As in to say 'how much is this question is me making an observation rather than me wanting to find out more of...'. I.e. a couple of my questions talk about the effects different factors have on the quality of work produced by my cast members. - Does this question assume that I am dissatisfied with the quality of work currently being produce by my cast members or that I am generally keen to find out what the factors do to quality of work produced. The objective is not to just collect evidence to back my opinions but to ask a question of something I want to find more of. This, I found very interesting and I shall definitely be incorporating this point when developing my questions further.

Following on, another point was to take a step back from the assumption and to see if I can see any links between what I am questioning. Doing so could help identify any gaps or key information that you have missed out.

And lastly, not forgetting that what results from the inquiry is to be useful in my practice in the end.

 My next step will be to take on board the points raised from the Skype session with Adesola and alter my questions accordingly to achieve a question that will achieve the best results from inquiry.
I shall be continue to use Reader 4, to help me further develop my questions and present them to my peers to aid the development. Perhaps I would also benefit from expanding my research by not only presenting to questions to members of my workplace but to other people in the industry, people who used to, but are no longer involved in the industry and people who are currently in training - awaiting to commence life as an industry professional. 

I would love to know what any of your views or opinions are of my possible questions listed above?
Do they relate to any of your questions for inquiry?
Have you come across any other research on these topics for enquiry?
Or if there is anything else you would like to comment or share, please feel free to write me a comment in the comment box.