Cultural blog Sprint - 1
What are my values?
I value good people, having a network of good friends, family and collegues around makes everything more enjoyable! I value Honesty, whether that’s with myself or others, life’s a lot easier that way. I value purpose and getting some kind of fulfillment out of a path or task that I’m doing. I value making the world a better place if we can and trying to be concious of the impacts we have on the environment.I also value the chance to create. I love to create whether that be music, making, fixing or designing something, I find the journey rewarding and having something at the end that never existed before is very satisfying. Especially when you can look back at the process and see how far you have come with something. A big one is the oportunity to learn something new, no matter what it is, I have a natural curiosity of the world and everything in it.
What are my Strengths
I feel some of my strengths are having a creative mindset and being able to apply that to the things I do for fun or a task at work. I would say I’m a thoughtful and caring person that is always there for my mates, family or someone in need so the want to help others I feel is a strength. No matter what it is my friends know they can always call me for help or a chat if something’s up. We are all in this together. and life can throw us curveballs when we least expect it. I can be very passionate about a certain cause or idea that I believe in. I like to throw everything I have at something I’m passionate about and try to get the best out of it.
Explain a situation where you have had an ethical decision to make. Discuss how you weighed up the values involved in that decision, the decision you made and the consequences of the action you took
In London a lovely Homeless person I would pass often would perform magic tricks and ask punters for spare change in return. I got chatting with this person on multiple occasions and it was fascinating to hear their story. I am sometimes skeptical of giving money to the homeless especially in some of the areas I witnessed as the drug use and alcohol addiction issues are so prolific that it occurs right in front of you in broad daylight. So it’s conflicting whether to give over money knowing that many use it to fuel a very sad and difficult addiction. So instead of giving this person cash this time I offered to buy them some food and a drink and anything else they needed. Then I would feel better knowing that at least this person might get some good food in them and not buy more drugs or an excess of booze immediately. I opted to buy him some food and drink of his choosing and a new pack of cards that he could use to perform his impressive sleight of hand tricks with. His current deck of cards was very worn and dirty. We had a chat and he wowed myself and some friends with more of his magic. It’s sad to see people in this situation and when you hear there story it really makes you appreciate that it really could happen to anyone. I did buy him one beer as I was on a night out myself and there were people everywhere on the streets, it was a lovely social setting with everyone having a good time. I knew he was not already intoxicated and that buy buying him one and the rest on food etc. he wouldn’t be able to drink to excess with what I had given him if alcohol was a problem. I felt this was better than just handing over cash to someone in a very vunerable situation. However there are no easy answers for situations like this and they all face very unique challenges and come from all walks of life. Just having a chat with someone in a difficult situation can be enough to brighten their day or take their mind of something unhappy for a moment.
Describe how your culture has influenced your values and identity.
Culture is such a hugely broad topic and It’s a little difficult to pinpoint exactly how my culture has influenced my values and identity, I have moved around a lot during my life and been surrounded by many different cultures. I guess being lucky enough to have met people that have inspired me and that have good ethics and practices themselves, in return inspired me growing up to do the right things and also be open to other cultures no matter of their beliefs or cultural differences. It's good to celebrate the fact we have all of these different cultures in the world and what we can learn from eachother.
Evaluate your strengths and limitations in terms of your learning and career development
My strengths in terms of learning and career are being a little bit stubborn at times which I think can help get through challenging or difficult tasks or challenges. The want to succeed and be succesful in the things I do. In terms of limitations I think there are only the ones I put in front of myself. The trouble is sometimes we can limit ourselves which makes things more difficult. My tenacity can help me stay determined to reach a goal and work through challenges, but this can at times be a double edged sword and lead to over commitment or doing too much ending and being worn out. Learning to manage time and wellbeing are essential to staying mentally and physically healthy in times of ‘learning' obstacles. Also reminding myself that the obstacles are where we learn and grow the most.
Share an example from your experience of where you were trying to work productively with others, but there was resistance or tension. Discuss the strategies you used at that time, how effective they were, and your reflections on what other strategies you would try now, and why.
Working in a popular coffee shop that was super busy one day with new inexperienced staff. The chain of productive and effective workflow began to break down and I could begin to feel the tension from the newer staff as they had begun to panic and started making mistakes which then resulted in more panic causing even more mistakes. I paused for a moment with everyone and re assured them that everything is fine and to stay focused and not worry about what happened earlier and to communicate every single time something needs doing. The communication breakdown was part of the frustration and the problem as orders were not being called and then resulting in orders being missed and finally angry customers. Restructuring the tasks of some of the new staff so they felt more comfortable and trying to boost their confidence and let them know that everything is all good that we need to be a team to make this work. Giving them encouragement and helping them with anything they were struggling with. But I think the part that helped the most was creating some humour around the situation and getting the team laughing, this took the pressure off and got things rolling again. On reflection I think i’d probably employ similar stratergies although it would totally depend on the situation itself. Communication is super important in any case and the lack of it leads to most common problems.