What’s your personal work style?
That’s the question Uni@Work tutors encourage their learners to consider from the very beginning of their higher education courses, when a variety of ice-breaking activities are undertaken. These can be individual or group exercises, often involving physical activities or presentations to the group such as ‘two truths and a lie’, where the group have to guess which statement is untrue, based on what they know of the presenter.
The ice-breaker activities are aimed at getting learners to reflect on their own personalities. By using feedback from their colleagues and their perceptions of other people, they begin to consider how they interact and the effect they have on others. This is intended to be the start of a lifelong journey of continuous improvement, receiving feedback and acting on it positively.
Have you ever been in a situation at work where your best efforts seem to be getting nowhere, due to a ‘clash of personalities’ with a key person? It can feel as if you are repeatedly hitting a brick wall. In frustration, you can end up thinking: “I just don’t understand what the problem is. Why is he/she blocking this?” … and becoming discouraged or even abandoning the project.
To help learners to understand their own personalities and those of their colleagues, Uni@Work tutors use a system based on the model of personality first identified by the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961). Learners fill in detailed questionnaires from which a unique personal profile is developed, based on four different personality types.
Working in one-to-one and group sessions, tutors then use a facilitative learning style to help the group discover how to use knowledge of their own and others’ particular preferences, strengths and weaknesses to adapt and connect with fellow workers, increasing effective communication and understanding. Being aware of how other people are likely to react, and how they prefer to be engaged with, can go a long way towards removing barriers to success.
Uni@Work provides Higher and Degree-level education, including Higher and Degree Apprenticeships, completely in the workplace. Programmes are tailored to the unique business needs of employers and learning preferences of employees. Substantial government funding is available. We can also advise on the Apprenticeship Levy, due to start on 6 April 2017.
Contact Uni@Work for more information.