Self-managed learning and development

Contents

Self management learning is the only way to know oneself, to develop oneself and to sustain oneself. Days are going very fast and people lagging behind lack of such attributes will not go very fast. So there is a need of self management to grow inner side. Such management abilities determine the present and future condition of an individual either in personal or in professional.

Self managed learning is a way individual finds different aspect in learning things, enhancing skills, developing oneself which could lead the society adjustable with the diverse environment. People learn those skills from the surroundings, family, culture and to some extent carrying nature in born.

There are many ways to develop one but the thing is that the individual wants himself to be pouring into which dice. Sectors are available and with the interest factor one has to choose the preferable one. Here are some approaches described below:

• Seminars and Conferences: Seminars and conferences in colleges or universities to be performed or organized by the high professionals. These are the best suited option for anyone to express oneself. The way a seminar goes on is the snapshot of the real world knowledge which is quite absent in text books.
• Internet: Internet is going through our veins and now-a-days very few people are unaware of the fact of internet using. Internet has brought people an opportunity of distant learning. One sitting before the desktop or laptop may acquire the knowledge level of home and abroad with some clicks. (Micheal, 2008)
• Social Networking: Social networking has given a new era of people and people in present world are totally getting involved into this. Time spending in social networking may be the source of self managed learning. Facebook, Twitter or else sometimes provide very useful data or information that helps the people to learn the world.
• Workshops and professional consultancy: Some agencies sometimes create the opportunity for interested people by providing workshops and professional consultancy which to a large extent helps to people become self reliant.

Lifelong learning either in personal or in personal contexts should be concrete and well determined. Some factors are to judge to assess the criterion of becoming self managed learner. This criterion may be SWOT analysis, as it the indicator or assessment of one individual and the easiest way to know oneself in the context of business or personal purpose. Perfect evaluation helps to determine the durability of an individual’s lifelong learning.

Figure: SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis evaluates one’s potential or judgment about going to take the advantage or not. This is nevertheless a superb criterion about self managed learning. If anyone can justify the way discussed above properly, undoubtedly he will be able to know his pros and cons and go to right direction.

Self managed learning goes through the dedication of someone. The success rate of any business venture or in personal life is determine how long a person dedicates oneself to learning.

Self managed learning helps people improve their some skills. These are:

• Brainstorming power: Brainstorming is the process which comes through relating many things together. People adopting this by various learning aspects. Ultimately this brainstorming helps people to create a new and innovative idea and helps building the leadership or entrepreneurship skill.
• Team work skills: Either in personal or in professional lives, every person has to work as a team to achieve the goal. Self managed learning helps to run the team in a right or perfect way. Individuals without the knowledge of self learning face various difficulties to deal with. Here is an opportunity of combining various knowledge in a package.
• Presentation skills: Presentation preparation has become mandatory in business era. Successful persons are successful is just because of their convincing presentation. Those presentation skills come from inner side which has to be developed with self learning.
• Communication skills: Those skills are preferred in business world. Business is for people and to satisfy the ultimate customer, the communication techniques have to adopt. These skills are highly demanded when it becomes a matter of product launching affairs.
• Hurdles breaking: Self learning obviates all hurdles coming towards the venture or in personal life. Learning curve here helps the people to overcome the situation.

Objectives of an organization:

• The purpose of the organization
• Employee satisfaction to achieve the goals
• Turning it to profitable one
• Problem solving elements
• Customer satisfaction
• Suppliers availability
• Inventory availability
• Innovative idea
• Retaining the maturity stage in product life cycle
• Support system
• Longevity of the business

Combining these objectives with personal skills:

a) To maintain the customers’ satisfaction level, communication skill is very important

b) Supplier retention has to be complied with the knowledge of the absolute market

c) Inventory or raw material availability needs the proper knowledge and prediction power

d) Product life cycle affairs need some strategy which comes with the vast knowledge skills

e) Digitized services comes up with the knowledge of internet surfing

f) Innovative ideas and development of new products comes up with the pros and cons of the product changing capacity

This is how the personal skills compile with the other factors to set a business objective and leads to a better future.

To work in an organization needs much more attention and skills. Practical lives are not written into the books. Working with different scenario and coping difficulties are just affairs of some acquired knowledge. Dealing with organization one needs to have

• Time management skills
• Organizing skills
• Leadership skills
• Technical skills
• Technological skills (John, 2003)

Skills absence of different persons varies. Those having lack of time management skills have to adopt some completion of tasks measuring time. Those who are not efficient in organizing have to accumulate some affairs already scattered. Individuals lacking leadership skills have to raise their voice boldly in favor of some legal affairs might be of business purpose, social aspects or else. Absence of technical skills need much work to do onto them; this skill comes through various tools like statistical matters, accounting concepts, marketing hurdles etc. Lastly, technological skill is required to cope with the modern era of business, society or culture.

Development opportunities are always demanded from any class or any group of people. Identifying the current needs and then meet up the requirements when and where needed to rectify is important factor to go forward into professional or personal life.

Current needs: Being a student, the time is to standardized oneself in a furnished way. These things don’t end with simple talks, rather it needs much perseverance. Current needs are limited to set the future and develop the humane inside with skills either personal or professional.

Future needs: Past is past, present becomes past within a twinkle of eyes and so future is our present. So every person in his personal life or in professional is concerned with the future. To project a plan is always for future. So to make the future whatever design has been made is possible if maintained:

• Strategically leading needs strategic management
• Marketing obstacles need SWOT analysis
• Projected finance needs the cash inflow and outflow projection
• Preparing account for home and office needs accounting concept
• Combining all needs organizing skill

Development plan paves and indicates a man about their present condition and future prospects. Whatever the situation is now, it should not affect the future. And for this development plan has to be designed in a way that sets an entire plan into the mind. The development process should be flexible meeting the requirements needed up to different stages or hierarchy. Some of them are given here as a snapshot:

• Developing the curriculum vitae as it is the total pros and cons of an individual
• Learning technical skills to adopt with many tools used in accounting, finance, marketing, management
• Working on the enhancement communication skill as it is required most in the present era
• Technological adaptability is needed much at present times as technology is progressing over the night
• Innovative ideas are to generate to sustain oneself in the market
• Gathering knowledge from home and abroad to be compatible with the world
• Using globalization opportunity to make individual compatible
• Long term planning to design the entire project in pro forma sheet

Individual Development process deals with six steps to be discussed here after:

1. Conducting skills assessment: The two-way interaction process has to be dealt here to develop the plan. No person alone can execute the plan. It needs skill compiling and assessment to accomplish the work.
2. Establishing development objectives: Development objectives deal with the notion “what”. The criterion one has to develop in him/herself is mandatory to recognize the facts.
3. Identifying developmental activities and monitoring strategies: Development activities and work on monitoring on them have been discussed earlier such as seminar, workshop, job rotation, cross training, self development etc.
4. Preparing Individual development Plan: Preparing development plan is needed to be focused on the ground of maintaining the potential of individual. It should be designed in a way that helps to develop the other matters and leads to success.
5. Implementing plan: Implementation of plan has been executed towards the best suited goal. This factor is related with other variables and also dependable on the other variables to fetch it towards the success ratio.
6. Monitoring and revising plan: To sum up, the factor to monitor the entire development plan needs much reviewing. It functions like the control factor of everything.

Development plan is to be measured based on some relevant factors which initiate:

Priority identifies the factors:

• Critical to one’s current role
• Critical to one’s future role
• Cost benefit analysis between two time period

Activities can constitute the learning variable among the individual and professional stages like seminar, on job training etc.

Support describes the need to help achieve the development plan of individual, relates everyone in learning, collaborating and assisting each other.

Target and actual dates relates the proposed work t be accomplished and cost benefit analysis regarding the time period of completion.

Date Review describes the progress on personal development plan and involves all pros and cons to stand a complete data on the prospect.

Development plan either personal or professional reflects the individual learning in both ways. They are to judge the current scenario and match it with the future prospects. If any error found in completing the factors, the conflicts should be resolved and hence develop the ultimate structure of the plan. Here is an assessment template in which the learning criterion is best judged through self questionnaires procedure.

Figure: Personal Development Plan

Questionnaires are to set here to match critically analyses original aims and objectives set earlier.

The above set questionnaire pattern shows the way to time to time check up the data needed and acquired. It will be easy to solve the gap between two variables, expected and already acquired. As human skills are not stagnant, it requires frequent update like any software. The experience thus shows the things mentioned. So based on those criterion individual needs to update their criterion and make the future requirements successful by making up to date acquiring process.

It will help to:

• Enjoy the benefits of updating
• Relevance of knowledge with work
• Coping up with hurdles
• Time to time improvement (Jay, 2000)

For example, one needs to start up his career with affiliate marketing. She has to acquire knowledge about the available sources where the marketing or promotion can be handled. To know the perfect knowledge she has to go through various stages keeping up to date as per the profession needs.

People many a time get frustrated and depressed when faced with challenges. There are ways to sort out the problem. First one is conflict arising and the other one is conflict resolving. These two methods help make a man conflict-friendly and conflict-competent. (Hicks, 1999)

There are seven steps to be followed in resolving problem:

1. Identifying the factors

• Clear about the problems
• Situation or problems arouse before may be different

2. Realizing interest of all

• Relating all factor in favor of all
• Best suited option is when it meets interest of all
• Communicating others to choose

3. Listing the probable solutions

• Creativity enhancing through brainstorming
• Separation of listing and evaluation of the options

4. Evaluation of options available

• Positive and negative sides figure out
• Separation of evaluation and selection of options

5. Selecting best suited option so far

• What the best option is.
• Any scope of compiling best suited alternatives

6. Documenting the agreements

• Listing pros and cons though less important issues

7. Agreeing inverse situation, monitoring and cross check

• Situation may vary, so always prepared for the possible hurdles
• Monitoring the facts
• Creation of opportunities and finally implement

Negotiation is very important element in business world. Those who conduct fair negotiation through his/her personal life; s/he may be able to negotiate in professional life. Negotiation of various styles goes through-

• Preparation: Preparation of negotiation is the main concern. As much as it is good in preparation, it will be good for designing the plot. The class negotiation is the same case here.
• Exchanging Information: Information exchange through various medium plays major part here. It combines two people relating the same factors based on the self interest of both parties.
• Bargaining: Bargaining is the two-way channel and if successful, then moving on to the next step otherwise comes back to the previous stage, bargaining.
• Closing and commitment: Closing the negotiation based on the fulfillment of interest of both parties is the commitment of going forward.

Time management strategy deals with some factors: (Mikolu, 2013)

• Setting priorities: First setting up the demand the things of a person or a business. It helps set the latter factors.
• Breaking things down: All issues should be broken down into many segments to deal with all small to small issues.
• Creating a schedule: Schedule set up is the timing management which helps to focus on the work to be completed part by part.
• Focusing on quality: Time management does not mean that one sacrifices the quality. It has to be directed by the best quality of service or products.
• Avoiding distraction: Distracted matter should be resolved and hence the lead got to rectify the affairs regarding the issues.
• Help from professional: If any matter unsolved, it needs the consultancy of experts and settling down the issues.

Conclusion:

Self management planning helps set up an individual in the way the career needs. The pros and cons of relating all factors may be justified in building one’s potential. The possibilities grown up are to deal with these self management planning.

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