critical incident

Summary of critical incident

In the residential weekend, I had a very similar result with the different teams from diverse cultural background. I was involved in three tasks (The Archway, Gridlock, Data Transfer). In all these tasks, my team was unable to finish the given set of objectives of a task. I had exercised consciously being considerate, tolerant and facilitated in progression of all tasks, In the initial minutes I would enlist out my idea and approach to do it and equivocally encouraged others for theirs. Since I always have a trend of thinking out of box, In the Archway task People had all ears to my idea of constructing the base for bridge which was vital for strength of the bridge, but later it was countered by many other good/bad ideas, and my original idea was sidelined until I tried to be persuasive about it again, but the deadlock was not over, I took matters into my hands and started practically modelling the task with some people, who were not part of discussion but to be amended later by a teammate who was done with discussion. To not make them feel enraged I stepped back and carefully looked at merits of their action plan and see the original plan being amended multiple times. But once the differences would not be sorted out between members after a lot jostle, then I would turn into an observer/spectator of mere sub-groups in team. Finally, to be bundled out by time constraints. The same repeated almost similarly in every task.

While I was expecting a customary feedback from all but to my surprise, one of team member thought I turn very stern if my ideas were not adopted and another said that I try to hide my mistakes when they tumble out whereas mostly had acknowledged that my ideas were outstanding but lacked persuasive instinct of getting all the team on board.

When I inspected with other teams of their ideas, I felt a lot of similarity with my thoughts; I felt If I would be had been able to be more successful in swaying people with my idea and implementing it, to see whether its failure/success. Then to progress with other’s ideas.

How does your thinking and behaviour in this critical incident reflect the findings of your chosen self-analysis toolkit?

The Belbin Team Role toolkit demonstrated that I am Plant with “radical ideas” and a monitor evaluator with “high critical thinking". In the Emotional Intelligence questionnaire, I scored good on empathy i.e. “Understanding others well” and “high on innovation”. Through the feedback, I realised that I am great at making new ideas and thinking creatively about any task with a minimal convincing capability and Attitude issues. Thus, people feel enlightened by my ideas when they are around me but not necessarily get convinced. However, on a weaker note, the Belbin toolkit revealed one of my weakness to be "weak in completion of tasks and courage to overcome obstacles is lagging". From EI questionnaire it proves to be Low on self-control, and even with low achievement drive and taking responsibility, Through the feedback, I came to know that I might be a capable leader but in tense situations, I may struggle to manage a team very well and get successful results out of the team. Both these strengths and weaknesses are indicated in my critical incident, clearly when I made sure that everyone's thoughts and ideas are brought into the picture so that everyone is treated equally as part of the team. I also became familiar with my weakness of giving up under pressure which was revealed when the group had very less time in hand to complete the task before deadline, and I altered my attitude, resulting in failure. The Belbin and EI questionnaire toolkit proved a pattern to my behaviour and thus granted me to make sense of this critical incident via broader reasoning and reflection.

Identify how you will use this learning in the future.

By engaging in analytical learning, I have achieved a better understanding of myself, and through feedback and reflection, now I have a clear picture as to what kind of system I can fit in, in which there will be a lot of scope for further development. The toolkit has also helped in bringing to light the areas of myself which were formerly out of sight. It has also advanced my self-awareness and has helped me realise what I must do to overcome my weakness. There will be times in the future in an organization where I will be encountering people from various cultures, and communication effectiveness (which I lag in) will be the key, between the different teammates. In the future, I will be facing situations where should not buckle under pressure. Thus, working on my weaknesses will benefit me from working under pressure and completing the work on time, I need to use my plant nature to encounter my weaknesses by creating different plans that are suitable for me to finish tasks and overcoming blockades and using empathy characteristics I can try understanding others perception/thinking and communicating accordingly. It will be essential for me to work under such circumstances to conquer my weakness of not working flexibly under pressurising situations and the results of the toolkit will help me bury my weakness. To get the most out of it, I will have to maintain an environment which everyone is comfortable working in. As a result, excellent results will be achieved by the team. To overcome my weakness and enhance my strengths, it is crucial that I start working on them from the present which will be useful in the future.

Summary of critical incident

In school, I was involved in chess tournaments. In one of the outings in another city, I was competing with students from different regions of the state. Before the start of matches, my coach had repeatedly been warning me of my trivial moves in the game which I used to make abruptly in training.

I was ready all set to play my first match with a zeal inside. 5/6 wins in 6 matches is the minimum prerequisite to qualify for nationals. During the match, I was against a good seeded opponent. Into the match post 10 minutes, things were looking even with equal advances into each other territory. I started the kill/loose game of mine, to shift the game to next pivotal stage of 2 kills/1 loose to gain a unassailable lead. While I was carefully rounding his king by placing my queen and bishops, I was an impression that the opponent isn’t aware of next 3-4 moves of mine. I was too overconfident by his unwarranted moves and played down my rook against his queen, and getting animated willingly to demonstrate the terrific play of mine, and suddenly, turning into sudden shock of a mistake I committed by going for a kill just to expose my defense to his knight and bishop to end the game on checkmate, tuning my wittiness into grievous shock. The opponent on post-match greeting did admit that “your moves were paramount but were quick to move without giving a second thought of consequence, unknowingly you had a lot of chances to take me down, but you stuck to 1 game plan instead attacking dynamically”. This incident of opponent outsmarting me made me nervy and turned my series into jeopardy, just to exit it at just 2/6 wins. While returning my coach even pointed my cranky attitude while going for the matches and during training intervals and even the state of chaotic room I maintained at hotel which he said were responsible for my failures.

How does your thinking and behaviour in this critical incident reflect the findings of your chosen self-analysis toolkit?

I actively agree that from MBTI that I am a “mediator personality” being an introvert as I prefer to focus on the inner worlds of things, I like to experience the world before understanding it and Being “intuitive” and acting based on “Feeling” instead of being objective in thinking in unprompted situations. By Feedback I can figure out that instead of rationalizing each move I made, I was generalizing the whole game and not cross checking my moves. The big 5 locator states that me being excitable, worrying, reactive and even with low conscientiousness being spontaneous and unorganized. Thus, from feedback received from the opponent and trainer I can amply demonstrate that my shortcomings in my mentality were proportional to my failures, and my personality profile is similar the way I reacted based on my individual traits. The perceiving type defines those who live in a flexible and spontaneous manner which has perfectly described my personality. The MBTI toolkit demonstrated a design to my behavior which I would have never known about if it would not have been for this toolkit and thus I positively accept my results for the same.

Identify how you will use this learning in the future.

This incident had a substantial impact on how I would like to see myself in the future. The toolkit has helped me to provide with data and results which I never knew about myself. I realize this now and I will make sure that I will work on the same and control my feelings and use it on the right moment. In future, I need to concentrate on how not to overshadow my intelligence/innovation with my emotional impulses and reflect on everything I do by practicing patience and tolerance even in most demanding situations. Being organized will be vital for me on daily basis, because organizing the day can help reduce my muddle headedness. Since my scores are high in high openness and high agreeableness I defaultly possess a leadership attributes, this learning can be even used to sharpen the leader side of mine. but low conscientiousness translates into lack of selfless achievement drive which converts into procrastination, and this can be avoided only by not procrastinating and scheduling and achieving objectives for a day. If I can modify these then further modifications on minimizing weakness and optimizing my strengths beyond my expectations can be accomplished further.