A short reflection
Hello, I am a student from Business Developer — Distance Learning program at Hyper Island and I would like to share a small part of my learning journey.
Interested? Then keep on reading.
A short reflection of my learnings
I will talk about and reflect on some tools that support increased self-awareness, group development, well-being, and effective communication.
Let’s talk about self-awareness! What does it mean to be self-aware?
Self-awareness is the ability to put the focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don’t align with your internal standards. If you’re highly self-aware, you can objectively evaluate yourself, manage your emotions, align your behavior with your values, and understand correctly how others might perceive you.
What is group development?
Group development refers to the process by which members of newly formed teams learn about their teammates, establish roles and responsibilities within the team, and acquire the task and teamwork capabilities required to coordinate their effort to perform effectively as a team.
What do we mean by well-being?
Well being or the feeling of having a safe space means a person can communicate without fear what they think to a person, team, or group, which means there will less mental stress hence it improves well-being.
Let us talk about effective communication!
Effective communication in a group setting for me means having an open mind, giving everyone space to express themselves, and most importantly being an active listener.
Reflection
Hyper has been an eye-opening experience. After over 15 years of a cutthroat work environment where delivery was always the main focus, I had not paid too much attention to my own self-development and awareness.
During the way week Hyper Island business development program, I was introduced to various tools and models which were completely new for me. I have practiced many of these methods since then. I can really see the impact these methods/tools have had and how I can use them to influence and improve my own actions and my collaboration with others.
I have started reflecting again which has been a great method/tool for me to increase my self-awareness and that combined with a better understanding of the Johari window and how I can work on increasing my arena to have better self-awareness and become a better human being, leader and a group member.
I have been working with different groups during the course at Hyper Island, which has given me the opportunity to reflect back on different situations and happening within different teams. I have realized that a better understanding of the IMGD model by Susan Wheelan in combination with Situation based leadership has given me the nous to know which roles to take when for eg there are stages where a leader needs to be a facilitator or a coach instead of giving direction.
Having reflected a lot on how to improve well-being and the feeling of having safe space in a group, I came to the conclusion that having empathy and giving space for everyone to express themselves is very vital. After trying different tools and reflecting on them, I have come to the conclusion that tools/methods like the I message and FIRO model are very powerful as both of them can be used in all situations in life, not just in teamwork.
I have used many different tools over the course of my Hyper journey, after reviewing and reflecting on them I have come to the conclusion that some of the effective tools for communication are grounded in empathy and active listening, where you express yourself in terms of needs and feelings and the consequences when these are not met, to strive for collaboration and harmony. Non Violent Communication and Feedback are super helpful in achieving that and these two combined with some other tools can have a very powerful impact on our daily life situations also.
Some tools and methods I have used during projects at Hyper Island to improve communication, group dynamics, and well being are
- Point of departure
- Check-in Check-out during team sessions
- Feedback sessions
- Team development sessions and retrospective workshops.
- Team bonding workshops
Point of departure
It is a great tool to use when starting a project with a new team. It is used to set a structure, get the team aligned on common goals, and also for team members to share their ambitions and limitations.
Team bonding workshops
It is a great method to know the team members more intimately and also gain trust
Personal feedback sessions
It is a great method to encourage team members to communicate with each other while giving safe space to give and receive critical or positive feedback. If used correctly this is a great tool that reduces conflicts and helps the team grow.
With all of the above, One of the main learning from HI is…..
