Lesson 4: Fostering coming from before acting on

it.
Professional Growth and 2.​ Respond to a conflict situation
Development prudently.
-​ Your response to a problem
Topic 1: Solving and Addressing General sometimes has more impact
Work Problems than the problem itself. Even
It is typically for a workplace to have if you cannot control the
different kinds of people with different situation, you can still control
personalities, perspectives, and attitudes. It how you react to it, so make
is also common for these differences to be sure that you consciously
the cause of workplace issues. If not decide on your response.
addressed and resolved, these issues may 3.​ Preparation takes time
lead to stress and tension for the employees -​ Organize your thoughts first
involved, and situations of bullying, before addressing difficult
harassment, or discrimination, which could, issues. Understand the
in turn, affect their performance, situation thoroughly and
productivity, and work output. identify your real concerns.
4.​ Listen, Reflect and Inquire
The following are common workplace -​ It is hard to be open-minded
problems experienced by employees, as when emotions are high.
identified by Good Therapy: Take the time to calm
-​ Interpersonal conflict yourself, so when you are
-​ Communication problems ready to listen to others, you
-​ Gossip will be able to understand
-​ Bullying their side further and have
-​ Harassment room to change your mind.
-​ Discrimination You will also be able to
-​ Low motivation and jod satisfaction calmly inquire and ponder
-​ Performance issues about their perspective.
-​ Poor job fit 5.​ Express your concerns in a
HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO ADDRESS non-confrontational way using “I”
AND RESOLVE WORK PROBLEM messages
-​ “I” messages put the
1.​ Be aware of your emotions and responsibility on yourself,
how they affect your actions and and take into account your
decisions personal feelings, and your
-​ It is normal to have emotions perception of the situation
in the workplace, but and its impact, as opposed to
remember that acting on “you” messages that place
negative emotions can blame on others. Instead of
worsen things. Acknowledge saying “you are working so
your feelings then try to slow”, you say “I feel
determine where they are frustrated that you take too
 much time with our task -​ Help people take control of their
because i end up having to thoughts, feelings, and actions.
work overtime”. Having these skills allows them to
6.​ Ask open ended questions to help set goals independently and work
define and address the problem toward achieving them.
together. Example:
-​ Avoid asking yes or no Organization - being organized helps in
questions or questions that planning, prioritizing, and carrying out
require short answers. important activities, which enables you to
Open-ended questions allow manage your essential workplace
you to explore the issue responsibilities.
further and look deeper into Goal Setting - being able to clearly and
the perspective of the other definitely know that you want to achieve
party. helps in prioritizing and coming up with an
7.​ Focus on the things you can still action plan that lets you reach your goals.
change Time Management - having strong time
-​ It might be necessary to management skills enables you to work on
discuss or argue about the tasks with no distractions, defined priorities
past for better understanding and clear focus, which helps set and meet
of the issue, but paying more deadlines and become highly productive.’
attention to what can be Self-motivation - completing tasks while
done in the future is more encouraged by your desire to succeed and
productive. not by external factors allows you to be
8.​ Recognize other people’s more productive and progressive with your
opinions and perspectives. project and activities in the workplace.
-​ Other people have their own Stress Management - managing stress can
feelings, opinions and be done through different activities such as
viewpoints, and they are just maintaining a healthy diet, exercising
as real and valid as yours. regularly, meditation and journaling. It is
Disregarding this fact is not important to have this skill so that you can
helpful and may only worsen remain calm and manage your emotions in
the situation. times of stress, and keep steady progress at
9.​ Work together in coming up with work.
creative options Accountability - being able to maintain
-​ Resolving the problem responsibility for your actions and thoughts
together allows you to get to helps in evaluating work and determining
know the person better and the best way to move forward.
build a stronger working
relationship. Improving Self-Management Skills
Topic 2: Developing Career and Life 1.​ Know what kind of professional
Decisions tasks you are good at and your
areas for improvement to help
Self-Management Strategies manage your career path better.
 2.​ Determine which responsibilities -​ Be aware of what upsets or angers
need most of your focus on in order you.
to avoid distractions. -​ Remember that respect begets
3.​ Establish an organization system respect.
that helps you deal with your tasks -​ Apologize for any emotional
more easily, such as the use of a outburst.
filing system at your desk or an -​ Do not let your negative emotions
agenda book. from work extend to your home.
4.​ Assign deadlines and make sure to Gibbs Reflective Cycle
follow it strictly.
5.​ Focus your time, energy and skills
Created by american sociologist and
on one task at a time for more
psychologist Graham Gibbs in 1998, set up
efficient time and effort
a systematic way of thinking about what
management.
people experienced during a specific event.
6.​ Remain patient, calm and
Step 1: Description - Detail the situation,
considerate to help you think clearly
event and activity without going into the
and objectively and empathize with
conclusion. Make sure all information is
others better, thereby being more
complet.
effective in helping them.
Helpful questions asked:
7.​ Look after yourself by maintaining a
-​ What happened?
proper diet, exercising regularly,
-​ When and where did it happen?
taking care of your personal
-​ Who were the people involved?
hygiene, lowering your stress levels,
-​ What actions were done by the
and taking breaks when you need to.
people involved? What was the
8.​ Assess your progress and
result?
accomplishments objectively so you
Step 2: feelings - Discuss the feelings felt
can determine if you have met your
and thoughts that came up during the event.
goals. You can seek assistance and
They do not need to be discussed in detail,
feedback from a mentor to get a
but awareness of these thoughts and
well-rounded evaluation.
feelings must be obtained.
Managing Emotions at Work Helpful questions asked:
-​ What did you feel before the event
-​ Do not let negative emotions caused happened?
at home affect your work. -​ What did you feel during and after?
-​ Practice deep breathing and -​ How do you think others felt during
relaxation techniques. and after the event?
-​ Slowly count to ten to calm yourself Step 3: Evaluation - Assess if the
whenever you feel agitated. experience described in Step 1 was good or
-​ Clarify before reacting to avoid any bad. Determine what approach was
misunderstanding. effective and how it worked, and what
-​ Channel your strong negative approach was not. Be as objective as you
emotions into exercise. can be.
-​ Do not respond and decide when
you feel angry. ○​ Helpful questions asked:
 ○​ What went well
during the event?
○​ Why did it go well?
○​ What didn’t go well? Developing and Maintaining
○​ What did you Positive Attitude at Work
contribute?
○​ What did other Your career and life at work are influenced
people contribute? by your attitude. It is important to have a
positive attitude in the work to have the
Step 4: Analysis - Identify the learnings following benefits:
obtained from the situation to help you know
what to do in case something similar ●​ Foster a positive workplace
happens in the future. Steps 3 and 4 are environment
usually done alongside together. ●​ Limit stress
●​ Increase levels of productivity
Step 5: Conclusion - In this step, think ●​ Give more energy
about what else you could have done in the ●​ Improve relationship with clients and
situation in hindsight. Use the information workmates
from the preceding steps to help you come ●​ Demonstrate capacity as a leader
up with a good conclusion. ●​ Develop decision-making skills
●​ Inspire others
○​ Helpful questions asked:
○​ What were the
positive and negative
effects of the
situation?
○​ What will you do
differently if it
happens again in the
future?
○​ What skills do you
need to develop to
deal with such a
situation?

Step 6: Action Plan - Come up with actions

to be taken in future situations. Refer to the
conclusions identified in Step 5 when
making concrete promises to yourself on
how to deal with such situations.
 Self-Regulation Theory

The self-regulation theory (SRT) details the

components and processes in deciding on
your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions.
The SRT posits that the following factors
determine our behavior:

●​ Personal standards of good behavior

●​ Our drive to meet those standards
●​ Our level of awareness of our
Boosting Self-Confidence actions and situation
●​ Range of our willpower to avoid
temptations and choose the best
Self-confidence is your belief in how good
path
you are at something, or how likely you are
going to accomplish a task. However, it Four Components of SRT according to Roy
does not actually measure your skill. Baumeister
Here are some ways to improve your 1.​ Standards - of desirable behavior;
self-confidence: 2.​ Motivation - to meet standards;
3.​ Monitoring - of situations and
thoughts that precede breaking
standards;
4.​ Willpower - allowing one’s internal
strength to control urges.
These four components are interconnected motivations, goals, needs,
to help establish our self-regulatory activity. desires, and beliefs
○​ How the client felt - this must
Empathy Mapping also be carefully tackled.
This can be gauged through
subtle cues like body
language, choice of words
and tone of voice.

Step 2: Synthesize the needs

●​ Make a synthesis of your client’s

needs using the empathy map as
your reference to help you determine
your design challenge.
●​ Remember that the needs must be
verbs or action words, which signify
activities and desires.
An empathy map is a tool used to help you ●​ Determine your client’s needs using
better understand your clients and their your observed traits, more
needs. It has four (4) quadrants that signify specifically the contradiction
key traits that clients demonstrated during between two traits. This refers to the
the observation or research stage, such as disconnect between what the client
what they said, did, thought, and felt. The says and what the client does.
following are steps in empathy mapping: ●​ You may use Abraham Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs to help you
Step 1: Fill up the empathy map understand and define your client’s
underlying needs. Refer to this
●​ Create 4 quadrants on a board or hierarchy also to determine which
paper need must be prioritized:
●​ Look back on your notes, videos,
and other recordings of the research
or observation, and take note of the
following:
○​ What the client said - include
significant quotes and
keywords
○​ What the client did -
describe, illustrate, or take
pictures of actions or
behaviors
○​ What the client thought of -
this must be based on careful
observation and analysis
about the client’s thoughts,
Self-Actualization - achieving a person's opportunities and develop necessary
full potential, including creative activities partnerships to generate and act on ideas.
Esteem Needs- prestige and feeling of
accomplishment. Both clients and employees also benefit
Belongingness and Love Needs - intimate from innovation. For the clients, innovation
relationship, friends can provide them with improved products
Safety Needs - security, safety and efficiencies and better prices. The
Physiological Needs - food, water, warmth, benefit of innovation for the staff is the
rest fostering of a better and more productive
●​ Write down the identified needs of workplace and thus making them more
the client. involved and happier at work.

Step 3: Synthesize your insights

Innovation in an Organization Leads to:
●​ Insight refers to your own
realizations that can help solve the ●​ Competitive advantage in
design challenge. capabilities that gives your
●​ Combine the insights that you had, organization an edge over other
especially the ones about the competitors and provide better
contradictions between two of the products and services to clients
client’s attributes. ●​ Maximized return of investment
●​ Write down your insights. (ROI) since innovation has a direct
impact on performance and
Topic 3: Contributing to profitability
●​ Increased productivity and improved
Workplace Innovation
efficiency
●​ Development of a positive company
Employees who continuously seek ways to culture
improve themselves and enjoy contributing
to the innovation effort regardless of their
roles are needed by organizations to be Encouraging Continuous Improvement
more efficient and productive. It is helpful for in the Workplace
employees to be curious about work
practices’ productiveness and effectiveness,
instead of just following them as they are.
Innovativeness is a trait that is very
essential to the employees of an
organization.

Innovation is important because it can lead

businesses to new and better products and
services, and thus can help them achieve
commercial success. With innovation,
businesses are able to respond faster and
better to changing environments, grasp
 Topic 4: Presenting Relevant
Information

Critical Thinking - is an important step to

take before making a decision to prevent
any further negative impacts. In order to do
this, you must first gather all information
needed to take into account in making a
decision.
Information can come from many different
places and it is important to have an
7 Habits by Stephen Covey (R) organized system in gathering information.
The following are five simple steps you can
These habits are a set of guidelines in living follow when gathering information:
a full, purposeful and good life. Practicing 1.​ There is so much information
these contributes to improving the available to you so make sure to get
workplace and working well with others. the right and relevant ones by asking
the right questions.
2.​ Determine where to get the needed
information identified from the
previous step.
3.​ Once you have identified the
information sources, find the
information you need to get.
4.​ Use your own knowledge and
experience and add the new
information you gathered to come up
with a solution, conclusion or
decision.
5.​ Consider other sources of reliable
information so you can get as much
information as you can. Sort the
According to Covey, our self is divided into information during the critical
four parts that need to be fed and thinking process.
developed:

1.​ The spiritual self

2.​ The mental self
3.​ The physical self
4.​ The social/emotional self