MAJOR ASSIGNMENT: You will write a 750 - 1,500-word human relations management reflection paper/power point that describes how your experience was influenced by different group properties, behaviors, and processes as well as reflect on your own behavior and learning. You will be assessed based on thoughtful, convincing, insightful, and exploratory writing and reflection, a strong connection between the experience and the learning or insights gained, and the use of specific detail and narrative accounts that convey an understanding of the experience supported by course material and personal assessment results. This paper/ power point gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your ability to apply concepts from the course to analyze real organizational problems and develop appropriate solutions using what you have learned. Utilizing case studies in this way provides real-world practice without the risk, and the deliberate application of skills and knowledge to determine what, how, when, and why it works in the case scenario. The reflection also allows you to apply your learnings to other team and individual developmental settings. Developing a Life Plan for Effective Human Relations 1. Introduction A carefully developed life plan will enhance your relationships with people in your personal and professional life. This plan will also help you avoid being trapped by a lifestyle that offers financial rewards but little else. In addition, a life plan can help you retain your self-confidence in a labor market that is characterized by a great deal of uncertainty. Today, everyone needs a new mental model to survive in a climate of change and uncertainty. Most Americans will hold several jobs throughout their working life, and many of these jobs will lead to involuntary termination. As noted by the head of a prominent outplacement firm: Companies no longer offer people careers. People create their own careers. 2. Preplan Activities Prior to preparation of your plan, it is important to engage in a certain amount of self-examination and reflection. Self-examination involves taking a careful look at those human relations skills needed to be well rounded and fully prepared for success in your work life and fulfillment in your personal life. To assess your human relations skills, complete the self-assessment exercises that appear at the end of Chapters 2 through 9. These activities will provide you with increased awareness of your strengths and a better understanding of those abilities you may want to improve. Preplanning should also involve a review of key concepts presented throughout the text. What cultural influences have shaped your attitudes? How much are you influenced by your own expectations and the expectations of others? Are you ready to take the steps needed? Do you understand how your personal values were formed and how they influence your ethical choices? Are you able to engage in appropriate self-disclosure? What image do you project to others? Do you hold any prejudicial attitudes? Answers to these and other questions can help you develop an effective life plan. A full understanding of the concepts presented in Chapter 9 is, of course, very important. Read the material carefully, and be sure you understand the new model of success, the meaning of right livelihood, and the four nonfinancial resources that can enrich your life. Also, pay special attention to the plan for making needed changes in your life. 3. Preparing the Plan You are encouraged to develop a life plan that helps you develop effective relationships with yourself and others. The plan should include the following sections: a. Defining success. Describe the model of success that is currently influencing your life and discuss the criteria you are using (or will use) to measure success in your life. Indicate how your model of success was shaped. Will you be judging your success by standards established by yourself or someone else? b. Achieving right livelihood. Right livelihood is work consciously chosen, done with full awareness and care, and leading to enlightenment. What type of career will provide right livelihood for you? What criteria will guide you in making your career choice? What role will money and security play in your career planning? Will you be seeking a balance between work and family? c. Determining the role of nonfinancial resources in your life. There are four nonfinancial resources that can enrich your life. Discuss the role of each resource in your life plan. How important is each resource? Do you plan to maintain some degree of balance between financial and nonfinancial resources? If so, how will you achieve this balance? d. Planning for changes in your life. One of the positive aspects of personal planning is that you are making your own choices. You decide what kind of person you want to be and then set your own standards and goals. As you develop your plan, think about the positive and negative habits that currently influence your life. What negative habits would you like to break? What positive habits do you want to continue? Are there any positive habits you would like to form? In this section of your report, identify at least one negative habit you would like to break or one positive habit you would like to form. Discuss how you will break an old habit or form a new one using the five-step process described in Chapter 9. Be specific as you describe what will happen at each step. e. Developing a personal mission statement. Developing a personal mission statement can be an important career-planning step. Its purpose is to clarify, for yourself and others, your career direction and the personal philosophy and values that will influence the way you intend to conduct your personal and professional life. With the aid of a mission statement, your personal planning can proceed with a clear sense of purpose. It can help you avoid investing time and energy in activities that are inconsistent with where you want to go. George Morrisey, an advocate of personal mission statements, suggests that preparation of this written document should start with a period of quiet introspection. He suggests we spend one or two hours writing down answers to the following questions. What career path do I want to follow? What type of work would I really enjoy? What is my basic purpose in my work and personal life? What is unique or distinctive about what I can bring to an employer? What are or should be my principal sources of income? What philosophical issues, personal values, and priorities are important to my professional future? What commitments am I ready to make to my employer? My family? The mission statement you prepare will not necessarily contain all of the answers to the above questions. Some may not be important enough to be included. After you have developed the first draft of your mission statement, show it to friends, colleagues, and others who can provide you with meaningful feedback. Once the mission statement is in final form, have it printed and placed where it can be easily seen. Morrisey says: Keeping the mission statement visible and referring to it periodically will help it become a living document that can increasingly influence your thinking, your planning, and your operating decisions.