Sie sind auf Seite 1von 6

B81PI PROFESSIONAL & INDUSTRIAL STUDIES

ASSIGNMENT B SAMPLES
HIGH
For this assignment I was supervising a multidiscipline 3rd year Business awareness group
as they worked on a project for Engineers without Borders. The students decided to tackle the
issue of flooding in the Kibera slum in Kenya. Kibera is one of the poorest districts in Kenya
and is viewed to be illegal by the local government, who have plans to demolish it and replace
it with a residential area. Due to the lack of wealth and government plans to remove the
settlement, there is inadequate infrastructure and poor waste management. The rivers in the
area are filled with rubbish and this combined with heavy seasonal rainfall, results in
dangerous flooding that destroys bridges thus reducing transport links. The group decided to
develop a bridge that rises with the river levels during floods, thus preventing it from being
damaged whilst maintaining transport links. The bridge will be built using locally sourced
materials and labour. My role was to work with the other two supervisors to keep the group on
track so that they could develop their solution and deliver a high-quality project on time.

At the first meeting, the group had only briefly met before and had a vague idea of what they
wanted to do. There was a lack of motivation to get going with the project and poor knowledge
about the key deadline dates. During the first meeting, I and the other supervisors made it
clear that the group needed to plan what they were doing and to get started straight away so
as not to leave it to the last minute. I recommended that they find out when the main report
and poster deadlines were, then set themselves their own early deadlines to have the work
completed by. This way, they would be able to structure their work, and have it done with
enough time for formatting and other last-minute changes. It was advised that they create a
Gantt chart to keep track of their individual deadlines. These recommendations demonstrate
competency C as I was helping them manage their time by creating a structured approach to
their work. We also agreed to meet each Thursday, so they could update us on the work they
had completed, and I could advise them on how to proceed. I also told them to contact me at
anytime if they were struggling. Through the weekly meetings and by making myself available,
I was taking responsibility of them, I was often having to leave meetings with my own Masters
design group so that I could attend the weekly meeting with group X. I was taking the role of
supervisor seriously by prioritising my time so that I could aid them with their work, thus
demonstrating competency C.

From the second meeting onwards, the motivation and organisation of the group were greatly
improved. They had taken on the suggestions and had created their own deadlines for when
they wanted to complete the project. Each Thursday that we met, they came prepared with
questions and with the work they had been working on during the week. However, it soon
became clear that they were only meeting together during the allocated slot for us to meet
them. I and the other supervisors strongly advised that as their classes became less frequent
and the amount of work required for the project increased that they start meeting twice a week,
once with us and another without. The weekly meetings became routine from this point
onwards, I would review their work and make sure that they each had sections to be working
on for the following week, competency C3. The group stayed on top of the work throughout
the semester and the main advice that I was required to give was in relation to formatting of
their report and poster. In this regard the advice I gave was to use Endnote for referencing,
give themselves at least a week to format the report and leave enough time to print the poster.
With the poster I also advised them on how it should be laid out, so that they prioritise the
information that they display whilst making it attractive to read. I also helped them prepare for
the poster presentation by questioning them in a mock presentation.

Communication between myself, the other supervisors and the group was key for this project.
As previously stated we met together each week to discuss their progression. During these
meetings, I would answer their questions and advise them on how to proceed. This displays
the vocal aspect required for competency D1. Outside of these meetings the communication
was minimal between myself and the group. Only one of the group members would email

1
B81PI PROFESSIONAL & INDUSTRIAL STUDIES
ASSIGNMENT B SAMPLES
myself and the other supervisors to provide minutes and details of the location of the next
meeting. On a few occasions, I had to email the group to find out the location as they had not
informed us, this fulfils the electronic communication for D1. However, the communication out
of the meetings was at a lower standard than I would have liked. The role of taking minutes
and sharing it with the supervisors should have been shared amongst the group and not have
fallen to just X, saying this they may have found it easier to have one point of contact. This is
a point that I failed to raise with the group and if I was to be in this position again I would
encourage them to share the communication role amongst the group. Initially, myself and the
other supervisors were too keen to convey our points of view, this would often involve us
talking over each other. However, after the first few meetings we were much better at
respecting each other and allowing each of us to talk without interrupting each other.
Communication and organisation between myself and the other supervisors was mainly done
in person either just before or after the meetings with the group. These brief chats were
infrequent and the coordination between myself and the other supervisors could have been a
lot better. Next time that I am in this situation I would have set meetings to discuss the group’s
progress and structure our approach, competency C and D.

From this experience I have learnt that I could do with improving my communication skills,
primarily between myself and other supervisors. As mentioned before we would often talk over
each other and this problem could have easily been resolved, if a structure for the meeting
had been discussed. As meetings went on, we were better at allowing each other to talk but
at times it felt like one of us would command the conversation when we should have been
allowing each of us opportunities to speak, competency D2. This is something I should be
working on improving. Also, I should work on my minute taking, I kept very brief minutes of
each meeting, this meant that although I told them to allocate each other tasks at the end of
the meeting, I had no record of who was meant to be working on each task. With reflection
this is poor demonstration of competency C3. A supervisor should come to a meeting prepared
and not just rely on the group to be honest about their tasks for the previous week, next time
I would take my own minutes.

2
B81PI PROFESSIONAL & INDUSTRIAL STUDIES
ASSIGNMENT B SAMPLES

MID

Group X’s project ‘Biodigesters for cooking in Kibera’ derives from the energy sub-section of
the Engineering for People Design Challenge. This is an award-winning initiative delivered by
Engineers without Borders UK with the aim of adding practical engineering perspective to the
theoretical elements of undergraduate engineering courses. The project allows students to
learn and practice vital management, ethical, environmental, social and cultural aspects of
industrial design. Kibera is the largest informal urban settlement in Kenya’s capital city,
Nairobi. Its population is estimated at anywhere between 250,000 and 1 million people and as
it’s not formally recognised by authorities, development of key infrastructure has been
challenging. The project aims to propose an engineering intervention that contributes to
solving the issue of unsafe energy provision. Group X identified significant energy-related
problems faced by the people of Kibera, and generated a solution for providing alternative,
less-toxic cooking fuels as this would have the greatest contribution towards improving health
and reducing environmental impact. The project deliverables include; a group report covering
design features, implementation plans and all relevant social, environmental and economic
factors; and a group poster presentation highlighting findings, followed by a question and
answer session. My role is to oversee the groups’ behaviour, assist in giving effective direction,
provide advice when requested and ensure members take responsibility for completing tasks.
Effective direction covers development of personal attributes that enable students to manage
and carry out the project to a high standard, reach their full potential, organise and develop
teamwork skills within the group.

Responsibility, management and leadership


After sufficient scoping and justification of their area of focus I noticed a dip in the group
productivity. I felt it necessary to demonstrate UK-SPEC competence C at this point by
suggesting a solution that would highlight the required contributions to final deliverables. I
recommended that major requirements and considerations for the group report and poster
presentation be understood and assigned an agreed delivery date and responsible contributor.
This would coincide with the Gantt chart and be accessible to all of the group. Once the
obstacles to achieving the deliverables were identified, prioritised and assigned, productivity
would improve as tasks, deadlines and responsibility would be clearer. I suggested a working
style whereby group members identified their strengths and weaknesses, allowing appropriate
allocation of tasks to maximise effective delivery. This advice was based upon my experience
in a similar situation that led to successful delivery of multi-disciplinary project. I ensured
continuous productivity and work quality by managing the implementation of this suggestion.
To begin weekly meetings, the group would consult the project schedule to measure their
progress and have the opportunity to highlight any issues, enabling group members and
supervisors to assess team and individual performance and provide feedback. Further
evidence of competence in these areas result from a conversation I had with the group in the
early stages of the project where I offered learnings from my participation in the Business
Awareness, Safety and Sustainability module. I took responsibility by stressing the benefit of
establishing the necessary structure at the beginning of the study to reduce time wastage.
Shared platforms including; WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger for communications, an
Endnote referencing bank and a minute-taking rota were highlighted as effective ways to make
group projects run smoothly. I recommended meeting with university librarian Kirsty Thomson
to learn from her professional research expertise, as I have found; there is in fact a level of
skill required in accessing accurate information that will be beneficial to such a unique project
as this. Finally, I took it upon myself to periodically review completed work to ensure that the
high standards being set by the group in meetings, both in terms of quality of discussion and
professional behaviours, was being justified and translated into writing. This gave me
familiarity of the topic and understanding of the progression of the project so if my assistance
was required I would be an asset to the group.

3
B81PI PROFESSIONAL & INDUSTRIAL STUDIES
ASSIGNMENT B SAMPLES

Communication and inter-personal skills


From the outset I invested time into building strong relationships with group members,
including fellow supervisors, and worked to enhance these relationships over the duration of
the project. This promoted productivity and enabled relaxed exchange of information and
provision of non-technical advice when required. The group was diverse; made up of students
of varying age, sex, nationality, academic disciplines and experience; therefore spending time
observing each member was key to understanding the most effective behaviours and
communication methods to use. Some were natural leaders, capable of initiating and
sustaining conversation, delegating tasks and discussing matters freely whereas others had
to be brought into conversation. I employed inclusion techniques to involve them without
exceeding my role. For example, I noticed via the shared group folder that the youngest group
member had sourced relevant information on Kenyan employment rates and the regional
average working wage – data essential to project economic forecasting. I recognised from
previous interactions that he was shy and hadn’t announced his findings at this particular
group meeting. It was important the group were informed of his findings, firstly for project
progression, but also to give credit to his excellent research and documentation. Before the
meeting ended I subtly mentioned seeing this work and believed it was of a high-standard
before asking who was responsible for it, creating an opening for said individual. It was vital
to alter my behaviour and communication style to create the right effect; although my role was
supervisory, I am a student and equal to the other group members therefore I demonstrated
competence in this UK-SPEC area by ensuring at no point did I come across as patronising
or superior. Further relative evidence of this competence arises from my contribution to
preventing conflict arising in the lead up to delivery of the co-authored report. It became
apparent that one group member was not pulling his weight and, if the situation wasn’t
addressed, he would be unlikely to meet commitments by the agreed deadline. I maintained
a professional front by not slandering the member when he wasn’t present and was confident
and flexible in dealing with this sensitive interpersonal situation. I suggested the whole group
reiterate the agreed delivery date verbally at the next group meeting and also in written form
via email, but also to prepare for the worst-case scenario of having to share the load of writing
his necessary section. This ultimately kick-started action.

Future personal development/improvement


In general, I feel my demonstration of responsibility, leadership, communication and
interpersonal skills was successful in this project and this is evidenced by smooth and
successful delivery of a comprehensive group report and poster. I owe acknowledgement to
members of the group and fellow supervisors who were largely self-reliant in achieving
success in these areas. I am fully aware that if the group were less organised and focused,
my competence in these areas would have been tested to a greater extent. I feel this exercise
has been a stimulus in actively improving each of the aforementioned skills. Despite this, I still
see group communication and presenting as a development area of mine and will actively
seek opportunities to further develop these in the future, both professionally and academically.

4
B81PI PROFESSIONAL & INDUSTRIAL STUDIES
ASSIGNMENT B SAMPLES

LOW

Introduction
For this assignment I was tasked with the supervision of Group X’s Business Awareness,
Safety and Sustainability project. The group were asked to improve an aspect of their choice
in any part of the built environment in Kibera, Nairobi. After some consideration, they decided
that the issue that they would address would be the heating of new and existing houses in the
area.

After researching into different solutions and considering the various financial and logistical
aspects of each proposal, the group decided to develop an already existing method of heating
the houses at night. Presently, in some parts of Nairobi, the residents are burning coal beside
their beds at night to help heat their houses and, as a result, many suffer from soot poisoning.
In order to help combat this in a way that the current population would be willing to accept and
able to afford, the group decided to design a “PotHeater”. This consisted of a terracotta pot
placed upside-down on top of two bricks with a fuel source placed underneath and a battery-
powered fan positioned on top. This design would be capable of providing more efficient
heating of the bedrooms without the need for modifications to any existing buildings and could
also be made using almost exclusively locally sourced components.

Following their decision, the group split up to research different aspects of this design, with
some members creating CAD drawings and a prototype of their idea – showing clear initiative
from some group members. As a whole, the group had a fairly positive attitude towards this
project and all members had good attendance at meetings. However, the group struggled
significantly with communicating outside of these meetings, which was occasionally
detrimental their progress. This report will demonstrate how I applied the UK-SPEC
Competencies C and D in order to effectively supervise the group and help guide them as they
completed this project.

Competency C
After the group failed to initiate any contact with the supervisors for the entirety of the first
week of the project, I took it upon myself to begin to establish a relationship with the group.
Furthermore, I suggested that they decide upon several times during the week that they would
be available to meet with the supervisors. After failing to receive any reply I sent a second
email, finally prompting a response from one of the group members inviting us to a meeting
they had arranged for the next day. Although this meeting was not ideal for the supervising
team, we unanimously agreed that it was best for the available supervisors to attend in order
to evaluate the group’s progress thus far and also establish a regular meeting time.

At this meeting, the group informed us that they had decided to address the problems
associated with heating and cooling however, each member had very different ideas as to how
to approach this problem. The group had decided that the optimal way to differentiate between
these proposals was to put them to a vote – the supervisors unanimously disagreed with this
approach. We instead provided council to help them rule out some of their less feasible ideas.
For example, one of the group members had said he was looking into the use of a community
boiler system using molten salts. Knowing that this was not an economically viable option, I
suggested that the group investigated the costs involved in buying, operating and maintaining
these units to help them move forward from this option.

Due to the apparent lack of communication within the team outside of meetings, the
supervisors suggested that the group research the two remaining solutions in disciplinary
teams – with the one robotics student looking at what methods the locals were already using.
This demonstrates my ability to appropriately accept and allocate the responsibility of tasks.

5
B81PI PROFESSIONAL & INDUSTRIAL STUDIES
ASSIGNMENT B SAMPLES
Once a decision had been reached on which solution they wished to pursue to solve this
problem, the supervisors made suggestions as to how they should break down the report
sections and how the group could split the workload between themselves. However, it quickly
became apparent that some group members had been allocated a significantly larger amount
of the workload than others. This quickly prompted the supervisors to help the team
redistribute the workload more appropriately, further demonstrating my ability to allocate tasks
fairly.

Competency D
As previously mentioned, several problems appeared early on with the communication both
within the group and between the group and the supervisors. As a result of the aforementioned
failing to initiate communicate, I suggested setting up a Facebook group chat to allow us to
better gauge the group’s progress outside of meetings while also allowing for quick questions
to be answered without the need to wait for a suitable meeting time when everyone was
available. Through this media we were able to more efficiently organise meeting times and the
group could easily give updates on progress. This shows my ability to use different media to
communicate information effectively.

I was able to give general feedback to the group regarding the structure and contents of their
final report and poster. For the poster, I provided a template that they could use and
emphasised that it had worked well for me previously. The feedback for their report focussed
on the overall structure and some inconsistencies within the report which stemmed from a lack
of communication between members. For example, different sections would refer to different
feedstocks and neither the writing style or format of the report was consistent throughout. This
feedback for the report was presented as comments in a word document, meaning that each
supervisor could input their own feedback or expand upon that of others. This is another
example of me communicating using different media and also of me working effectively with
others.

Conclusion
In hindsight, a more effective way of organising the group may have been to have separate
meetings with the supervisors – rather than us drop in at the end of their group meetings – to
help encourage them to communicate as a team more often.

In addition to this, as all group members were equally invested in the project, no individual
member stepped forward to act as group leader. Encouraging somebody to take lead on the
project may also have helped ease the communication issues experienced throughout this
project. Having some of the quieter members speak up during the supervisor meetings may
also have helped resolve any confusion about the project and helped them better define the
goals they had decided upon as a group.

Overall, I am fairly pleased with the contributions and the advice that I provided to the group.
I ensured that all group members had equal responsibility and contributed to the final report
by using my experiences both from university and industry.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen