Plan-Do-Study-Act Model for My Growth
Personal growth and development are very critical in the workplace environment. I understand that the external environment keeps changing, and the only way of achieving success is to master this change and respond to it effectively by redefining the internal environment. Within an organizational context, I understand that it is my responsibility to adapt to the changes in the external environment. Using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model, I am capable of defining and assessing my own growth and identifying the determinant of organizational structure and drivers of change. To develop my own PDSA model, a number of steps will have to be followed, as shown in the figure below.
As shown in the figure above, the first step is to come up with a plan. The plan must focus on my current organizational structure. I have to identify my position within the firm and how that position relates to other positions held by my colleagues. I must then determine drivers of change in the external environment with regard to my position. This will help me determine areas where change is needed in my current or future position. The second step is to do something about the plan. It involves implementing the set plan. In this case, the second stage will involve addressing the issues identified in the plan to determine if I can change my skills, capabilities, and attitude to reflect the changes in the external environment. The aim is to ensure that current skills match with the existing and emerging expectations in the workplace. It is at this evaluation stage that I will be keen to identify the weaknesses that need to be addressed to help improve my efficiency. The final step is to act upon the issues identified in the assessment in order to align my skills and attitude with workplace expectations.
Benefits of Diversity and Development of Personal and Leadership Strategies
Diversity in the workplace is very important because it helps employees to address one another’s weaknesses in an organizational setting. It is common to find that the weaknesses of one individual are perfectly addressed by the strengths of another employee. In such an environment, achieving success may not be a big challenge because of the diversity in skills, experience, and social background. However, it is sometimes worrying that the differences caused by such a diversified workplace environment are the genesis of misunderstandings. From a personal perspective, the strategy I intend to use to address the issue of diversity in the workplace is to be open-minded and willing to listen to others before making judgments. I intend to avoid stereotyping and promise to treat every colleague as a unique person with unique strengths, weaknesses, skills, and experience. I also intend to engage other colleagues, especially those from different social backgrounds, to help me understand them better and to learn from them. Although I value my culture, I believe that when one is in a diversified environment, learning about another culture is the best way of embracing a diversified workplace.
Leaders must come up with strategies of dealing with the issue of diversity that may arise in the workplace. One of the best ways of addressing such problems from a leadership perspective is to organize regular get-together parties where employees get to interact and understand one another. When assigning tasks to employees or forming a team to address a given project, a deliberate attempt should be made to ensure that diversity is reflected in such a group. The more people get to interact and understand each other, the more the social gap between them is narrowed. They get to appreciate that although there might be some personal or socio-cultural differences, they share a common vision of making their organization a success. That should be a strong motivation to make them forget about their differences. Sometimes the differences in cultural practices are often abused in the workplace, making it difficult to achieve success in creating harmony needed to make an organization move forward. The leaders may be forced to come up with policies that prohibit discriminatory activities in the workplace. Gender, race, religion, skin color, or any other demographic factor should never be used to set differences within an organization. Instead, it should be considered a positive force that makes people encourage one another to achieve a common goal.
Individual and Group Decision-Making Performance
In a highly diversified environment, one of the biggest problems is often the decision-making process. As an individual, it is easy to make decisions. I often weigh the pros and cons before making a decision. It may not take long as my conscience often guides me in such processes. As long as the intent is positive, making a decision as an individual is easy. However, when one is part of a team, decision-making is often complex because views of people often differ. Not everyone within an organization will have noble intent. It is also possible that in a diversified environment, people will have a varying angle of viewing nobility, making it difficult to choose the best approach. When it becomes challenging to make a quick and effective decision as a group, achieving good performance is almost impossible.
Communication becomes a critical tool when trying to make decisions within a group. Every member of the group must be ready to listen to the opinion of others. They must also be ready to share their own opinions with others so that common ground can be found. Leaders must offer guidance during such decision-making processes. In most of the cases where people have contradicting opinion, then a compromise must be found. This is common in cases where employees are demanding for pay increase against the wish of the top management or owners of a company. The parties must agree to communicate amongst themselves and to come up with a solution that is acceptable to everyone. Making decisions as a group also requires a sense of trust amongst group members. One of the leading causes of breakdown in communication is suspicion. If a section of the group lacks trust towards another group or an individual, then it may not be possible to reach a common position. The mistrust may force parties involved to opt to engage third parties to help them find a solution. In an organizational setting, such decisions may be time-consuming. It may limit the capacity of such a group to achieve the desired success.
PDSA Model Displaying My Goals and How I Measure My Progress
It is clear to me that in modern society, change is a force that cannot be ignored. As such, I intend to embrace it and align my skills with the changing demands. I have to develop goals and come up with a method I can use to measure my progress towards these goals. The PDSA model below will be critical in enabling me to set periodical goals and measure my performance towards achieving these goals.
As shown in the figure above, the first step is the planning stage. At this stage, it is stated that I want to learn how to embrace change and be able to adapt to emerging technologies. To achieve the above set goals, I intend to further my education and focus more on managing change in the workplace. I will need to learn about new approaches to change management and how to determine when an organization should adapt to a new strategy in its operations. To measure my performance, I will determine my personal willingness to embrace change.
Currently, I am relatively slow when it comes to embracing new methods. I prefer using approaches that are known to me. The approach I will use is to test my skills in new technologies. For instance, I want to know more about how I can use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with colleagues and clients. Finally, I will identify personal weaknesses based on the expectations in the workplace. The last stage is to act upon the identified weaknesses. I intend to ensure that in every cycle of this continuous personal growth and development, I come up with something new that will transform my performance in the workplace.