PLP Part 3...or should I say Round 3?

Hello there...

I have been most neglectful of my blog lately, for some good and some bad reasons. The good reasons mostly revolve around cheese, the bad revolve around a combination of laziness, writers distraction (not technically block as I have had no problem writing on other stuff) and other general distractions of living in London. However, I have 3 new blogs to post at once, or as close to "at once" as I can manage. As they say, no buses for half an hour, then three at once (or if you trust TFL, no buses for half an hour, but you can get to your destination in under 20 minutes if you left 5 minutes ago and got a 4 trains and then a bus*)

My three blog posts are three reflections / comments on the PLP. The first will be a comment on how I personally I felt I got on at PLP module 3. The second will be a post on how I viewed PLP 3 as a group exercise. The third will be a review / comment on how I felt the whole package was. But don't worry, I am not going to be just focusing on the PLP, I plan to include how it has impacted the daily grind. Did I say grind? I meant fun, but more on that later. So, without further adieu.... part or round 3.

1. The Weigh in: I travelled to the 3rd module via automobile and arrived in (relatively) good time and was feeling pretty sharp. Part of me was glad for the break from work, but I couldn't help thinking about the work, and team, that I was leaving behind. While the purpose of the course was obviously focused on me, I did find it difficult initially to separate myself from my work. Not that I am trying to stretch an analogy, but I felt that my lack of separation affected my hitting power in the early exchanges. Not literally, but I was not on the ball in the morning session, for sure.

2. Early Exchanges: For me, my goal was set quite early on. I wanted to learn / improve my ability to effectively work in a team with a specific set of goals. I was looking forward to defending my teams interests to the other groups, and to be quite honest, at one point was feeling really up for the fight, or if you prefer, defense of my teams interests. For me, the group I was working in was a really interesting blend of characters and I was looking forward to it. Initially, I probably saw my role as being the person who would take on the responsibility of defending our groups interests. However, like a drunk boxer, I was swinging a miss.

3. On the Ropes: By 12pm (or round 3), I could tell I was not on my A-Game. Not only had I misinterpreted the set up of the exercise, but I had tried to misdirect my group - another group member had to correct me on this. Good work from him. This was a classic case of me trying to plough ahead with my own ideas of how to set the afternoon up successfully. I think my reason for trying "plough ahead" was that I was conscious of the lack of output our group had contributed. For me, I would have felt satisfied (if not overly so) with our contribution if we at least had a clear direction in place for the afternoon, but in doing so, completely missed the fundamental rules of the exercise.

This was particularly interesting as, at a previous PLP I was fed back that I should take a step back and look at the big picture - take the blinkers off if you will. And apparently, I hadn't done that quite yet. Needless to say, I was not feeling particularly comfortable with my own contribution within the group. I tried to analyse this at the time, as recommended to do so by the facilitators, but genuinely found this difficult.

For me, self reflection in such an environment was extremely challenging. While obviously I cant compare the 'stress' of the situation to that of a boxing match, it does seem to me sensible, that the more pressure we get put under, the harder it is to let go and take the step back - something that I would have definitely benefited from. So, after a quick lunch and a pep talk from (and to) a colleague, the bell went for the second half of the session...

4. Don't Fight the Referee, fight the opponent: I guess that that this has already been summed up by Sun Tzu better than I could ever do so, but this will become clear soon. By this point, I felt like someone out fought and out thought by an opponent. I had not really got to grips with the source material and not really worked as effectively as a Team member / leader as I know I can. It had not been a total disaster by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly I was struggling to come to terms with the set up. Maybe this reflection would have served me better during the day rather than at 1120pm after, but better late than never.

I felt that I spent too much time trying to understand the rules of the game, trying to understand exactly what I was trying to achieve, and not enough time actually doing it. This was interesting, particularly because I was working with some very capable people, several of which clearly had a better understanding of the game than me. I did ask for advice from two of them, but perhaps I should have been more forthcoming in bringing forward my own key understandings and knowledge limitations. It is conceivable that other people would have done the same thing too - I am pretty confident that many other people had similar concerns. However, at this point, I was too focused on my own limitations, to bring in others. Again, if I had taken a step back, there is a good chance that I would have increased my own grasp of the scope of the project.

Often, during this point, I worked alone - most unlike me as I love team work.

5. This match was going to Points: Almost inevitable, this one went to points. I had thrown myself into the work throughout the day and despite being bested by it on several occasions, it never totally got the better of me. I have the teams I worked in as well as some industry on my part to thank for that. The push came to the shove when our sponsor arrived and we were required to present as groups. One of the gents from our group gave a great effort with undeniably difficult source material - Great Work EC.

By the very end I had a good understanding of the key costs / benefits of my own individual work, and was able to answer probing questions on them. But that was it - I would not have been able to answer questions to the same level of detail on any other part of the team I was in. In fact, I don't think I could have answered a single question on my other team members business functions. This got me thinking:

How am I meant to work with these guys and persuade them if I don't know / understand their point of view demands? Maybe if I had taken my blinkers off and tried to understand my colleagues demands / needs better, I would have been more effective in working as a team.

For me at no point, did I ever have a true grasp of what the other guys were doing. For me, this was really hammered / punched home in the Q&A session.

6. And the Winner is... Well, our team won, and I think that was in no small part to the excellent job EC did presenting in addition to key contributions from some of our other guys. However there is a point I want to make to all this.

I have framed the discussion of PLP 3 as a boxing match. I don't think it was ever set up to be a fight, but at points, for me it felt like that. However, it was a fight I learned a hell of a lot from., and I will talk about how I felt the content / structure worked in a separate post. This is a very vain and self centred post I am afraid...


A conclusion

But that's just it, learning is acquiring knowledge, and maybe Sun Tzu missed the point slightly (or ignored it) when he said

"Know yourself and know your enemies and you will never be defeated in over 100 battles"

Today, maybe a more appropriate statement would be

"Know yourself, know your friends and know your enemies and you will never be defeated in one battle".

Knowing how we work together is as important as knowing how our enemies / competitors work without us.

Finally, I know some of you think that's a bit cheesy, but for those of you in the know - I did say I had a hell of a lot of big cheese recently, and you cant blame me for sharing it.

DD




* TFL are forever lying to me.