Personal Learning Assignment 1

The Big Five Model:

Out of everything covered in class, I loved The Big Five Personality model. The Big Five covers major variation
in human personality and also predicts how people behave in different real-life situations.

The Behavioural style indicator helped me to understand more about myself. I discovered about a few new
traits of my personality. I had never given thought to the Agreeableness dimension of my personality. But after
filling the survey, I realized that I am very high on agreeableness. Moreover, I believed that I love new
experiences and trying out new things. Surprisingly, I am not as open to new experiences when compared to
others.

We discussed extensively about this model in the class and the learnings are extremely helpful for me as I
faced similar situation during my job. I had to manage a team of 12 consisting of very diverse members who
had different levels of education, ambitions, skills and commitment. I did not have any formal authority over
the group and had to complete the task in 5 weeks. I concentrated more on the task than on the people. Now,
when I analyze the situation again, I feel that I should have invested more time in understanding my team
member’s personality and assign them work based on their personality strengths and provide feedback as per
their personality dimensions. It would certainly have made the feedback more effective and project more
efficient. I struggled to efficiently manage the team as I did not give importance to the group dynamics.

Case: Nitish at Solutions Unlimited:

We frequently observe incidents similar to “Nitish at Solutions Unlimited” in corporate life. Conflicts exist
between different employees and departments due to power struggle, competition and asymmetric
information. While discussing this case in class, we were divided into three groups and I was assigned the role
of the HR. Initially, I thought that there is little to defend for me as HR is clearly responsible for the existing
mess. But by the end of lecture, my opinion changed. I realized that Nitish was equally responsible as he did
not make any effort to solve the conflict by directly discussing the issue with the HR and always tried to arm-
twist them through seniors. I learnt about EVLN model and how Neglect and Exit can be detrimental for us. I
really liked the 3R model (Redirection, Reciprocity and Rationality) as it is an excellent tool for turning rivals
into allies and can also be applied outside workplace.

Overall, the first week of IGP has equipped me with some great tools to understand the people better and to
analyze and act smartly in adverse situations.