European Self Reflection

Question: Discuss about the European Self Reflection. Answer: It is important to engage self-reflection on one's experience over a given subject (Bruun, Lammers, Srensen, 2013). We are exposed to various issues in our communities, families, and workplaces. This personal reflection explains my experience on issues facing community development and issues that arise while working as a team in a project. Teamwork promotes creative and critical thinking skills for the members (Littlejohn, Milligan, Margaryan, 2012). I learned that the achievement of project goals by a team has pitfalls since some members are free riders. I noted that when some members of a group are free riders, the project goals and activities get sabotaged. However, with effective collaboration, the team produced reasonable results. What made me happy is how the project manager assigned duties to every member to control free riding. Some team members did not want to share their ideas, never assisted the group to solve conflicts, never listened to colleagues ideas, and let their partners do all their works. I learned that, when some members of the panel get lazy, the project goals cannot get realized. Also, I noted that it is important to share my ideas with the partners so as to make sound decisions about the project success. I was happy of how the project manager emphasized on team work. Personally, I have been working with different teams who come from various communities. In all groups, we have made numerous improvements on how we handle tasks. We have improved our technology by creating a server set up over which ideas about our projects are shared. Unlike the past, we can communicate on one platform and invite different perspectives on how to achieve project results. I learned that the success of a project is both personal and a collective act. Individual team members innovate ideas and share them collectively with the entire group. I observed that once individual ideas get respect from the team, then a collective thought is encouraged. I noted that collective knowledge is supported by virtual interactions amongst the group. In my field work internship, I learned that people from different communities have different social beliefs and norms of life. My project manager informed me that while interviewing community members from various areas on their perceptions of drug abuse, I should approach the people differently (Littlejohn, Milligan, Margaryan, 2012). I noted that the various communities have different opinions on substance abuse due to their cultural beliefs. In respect to drug usage by communities, I have seen the local leaders doing something good to address this matter. From their feedback, I realized that the local government authorities have been organizing anti-drug consumption road shows in the community to educate people on the adverse effects of its use. However, I see for myself people carelessly drinking in bars. I am glad that everyone who we interviewed in the field work gave maximum cooperation and did not frustrate us. I am so proud to be one of the reasons behind this success, and I am assured that every team member was happy about how the entire project was a success. I enjoyed working with the team and the community. References Bruun, L., Lammers, K., Srensen, G. (Eds.). (2013).European Self-reflection Between Politics and Religion: The Crisis of Europe in the 20th Century. Springer. Littlejohn, A., Milligan, C., Margaryan, A. (2012). Charting collective knowledge:Supporting self-regulated learning in the workplace.Journal of Workplace Learning,24(3), 226-238.