Reflective Blog 8-2

This blog is going to be an example of a critical incident report. I am going to describe a situation which was unfair that actually happened to me; I am not going to use any real names for privacy reasons. A critical incident report describes something that has/had signifigance to the writer. The instructions for this assignment basically just told me to answer 5 questions found in a critical incident report, so I'll explain the situation, and then answer the questions. I am going to use an example from my first year at college, where a group project didn't go as well as planned.

Critical Incident Report Example

 The situation in question happened to me about a year ago in my first year attending post-secondary. I was assigned a group assignment, and the instructor let us choose our own groups. I choose 3 people: Jack, Jill, and Judy. Our assignment was to complete a research paper as a group, as well as give a presentation to the class. The entire project was worth about 15% of our grade, so the pressure was on to get a good mark. At first our group did well together, no arguments, and everyone seemed to be doing their part; but as time went on, certain problems started to arise.

One of our group members (Jill) decided that participating in the group wasn't important to her, and she decided to slack off. I started to notice it the most when we would schedule team meetings and she wouldn't show up. This highly affected the effectiveness of our group, and caused a lack of motivation.

The motivation in our group started out well, and all members were committed to achieving our project goals in order to get a good grade. However, once Jill started to participate less and less, the motivation and over all goals of the group changed. The group goals, or norms, were simple and to the point. These norms were rules and guidelines that helped our group stay on track, and see the progress made. The norms are a very important part to a group, and lets the group leader know whether the group members are doing their part. Jill payed no attention to the norms, and ignored the deadlines causing panic and frustration for all the other members. When it came time to hand in everyone's individual part of the project, Jill's was badly written, un-edited, and extremely short. It was clear that she put no effort into it at all.

Because of these issues with just one group member, the cohesiveness, conformity, and deviance of the group were all very low. The final grade wasn't too bad considering the circumstances, but it could have been much better if things were handled differently in the group. I can definitely say I learned a lot from that not so pleasant experience, and when faced with the same situation I will approach things differently.

 The following are questions found in a critical incident report:

1.Why do I view the situation like that? I think the reason why I was so upset about this situation is because I was appointed group leader, and I didn't do enough to keep my group in order. I've never had to deal with anything this extreme before, and I found it hard to talk to Jill directly and tell her how her actions were affecting everyone.

2. What assumptions have I made about the problem? In this situation, I didn't talk to Jill and ask if she was having difficulties with her part of the project, which could be a big reason as to why she wasn't participating as much. I assumed that Jill was just being lazy, and because I never talked to her about it, I never got the full story.

3. How else could I interpret the situation? As I said in the previous question, I could interpret the problem by saying that maybe its not her fault, and maybe she really does want to do her best but she just may be having difficulty. I could interpret the situation as a cry for help, or I could interpret it as a cry for attention; either one is different form my original interpretation.

4. What other action might I have taken that could have been more helpful? Well, I could have actually talked to her about the situation at hand, and asked her why she's acting like this. I could also confront her and let her know that the group would be willing to help her get back on track because after all, we are a team and we stick together.

5. What will I do if I'm faced with a similar situation in the future? If this happens again and I'm group leader, the first thing I'm going to do is talk to the person causing the problem, and see if we can figure something out to make the situation better. Also, I would set aside time for team meetings where all members have to attend, no exceptions. In these meetings I would make sure the group is all on track; it can also be a time to ask question's, and come up with solutions to any problems that may arise.

 Well there it is, my critical incident report. I hoped you enjoyed reading it!