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Essay / The Skill of “Problem Solving” During Critical Incidents
As Einstein himself said: “We cannot solve problems using the same type of thinking that we used when of their creation. Not only is this one of my favorite quotes, but it's one that I try to remember and respect when approaching an issue. Day by day, we humans face challenges that need to be addressed and resolved. However, how we confront these problems ultimately determines the extent to which the problem will be resolved. For this assignment, I will discuss the skill of “problem solving” by summarizing my own experience and comparing it to the experience of the interviewee. Comparing the two experiences, I will reflect on what I learned and discuss the insights I gained from the assignment and experience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Last summer I worked as a multi-sport camp coordinator at my local rec center where we had just recently hired new assistants to work in the summer camps. A few weeks passed before I started to notice that the team's efficiency and productivity was quite slow, certainly much slower than in previous years. As more people came on board, staff collaborated less with each other and newbies eventually became unaware of their roles and the responsibilities they had. As a result, it began to have negative effects on productivity and the general atmosphere of the camp. As the camp coordinator, I knew I had to implement new activities to improve this problem and encourage the team to cooperate and communicate effectively before this problem. This completely affected the performance of summer camp. I decided to implement a few new steps into our daily routine at work. I held daily meetings at the end of the day to allow staff to express their opinions, to say how they thought the day went and where they thought improvements could have been made. It also allowed me to express all my thoughts and ideas from the day. On top of that, I set up a buddy system in camp. The buddy system paired a senior camp counselor with one of the junior camp counselors. This system helped newbies become more aware of the role of a camp assistant and demonstrated the expected level of effort. In addition, I designed responsibility sheets which were distributed daily. The responsibility sheet contained the tasks each person was to complete for the day and what time they were to be completed. These actions resulted in big improvements for the camps. I saw tremendous progress in morale and collaboration at camp, and as the camp progressed, more and more parents commented on the fun atmosphere they witnessed. Additionally, the daily meetings and buddy system really helped improve camp productivity. Camp assistants now worked at a faster pace and with less direction from higher levels. As a result, camps have become a more fun and functional place for children. By the end of the summer, we received countless praise and positive feedback from company staff and children's parents and guardians. My father, who is part of the HR team of a large multinational IT company, was the one who I decided to interview for this assignment. I havefelt that his high position and connections with many different people from all over the world made him a great candidate for an interview. My father remembers a time when he became the team leader of a small group working on an IT project at work. As it is a multinational company, many of its team were not of Irish descent and spoke many different languages. As the project progressed, my father remembers quickly noticing the poor English skills of the other team members. Words were mixed together and conversations were kept to a minimum. If they encountered a problem or customers called, they were unable to resolve the problem and communicate effectively, leading to poor productivity and a lot of confusion. As a team leader, my father knew he had to take a stand and solve this problem now rather than later. He didn't want this to happen again. He knew he needed to implement effective long-term strategies and put systems in place that would support people of all languages in the company. My father took action by bringing the issue to his supervisor where they discussed the problem and brainstormed possible solutions. Together, they implemented a workplace translation program. This program allowed non-Irish workers to have a translator on call who could help them understand situations and resolve any problems they might encounter. They also decided to implement weekly language training classes for all multilingual workers with low English skills. The results of these actions would have been exceptional. Using a translation system resulted in much less confusion in the workplace and allowed tasks to be completed much more efficiently. Managers also noticed that much less time was spent re-explaining certain tasks. Language training courses have led to huge improvements in workers' confidence when speaking with colleagues and customers, enabling more tasks to be completed. As a result, more people could work together in groups and more workers could now solve more problems, helping to increase productivity rates by 10%. After comparing the two scenarios, I learned that small changes in the workplace can lead to great results. The Hawthorn studies, for example, showed how changes in rest times, days off, and collaborations helped increase worker productivity. It highlights how small changes in the way employees are managed can lead to better results for everyone in the company. This is seen both through my experience and through that of my father. Productivity and morale improved significantly in the workplace when daily discussions and training programs were introduced for them. Workers now feel more valued and their well-being is recognized. Upon reflection, I gained valuable knowledge about the shared abilities and skills that me and my father possess to help us solve problems. I believe we both recognized our problems and took responsibility for trying to improve them. Llopis (2013) states that “open-minded people see beyond the obvious details that present themselves to them” and “they tackle problems head on.” We were both very open-minded in this case and.