Igniting the spark

While writing the EMA for my current module (last before the research module) I'm getting distracted by trying to think about what my research topic might be. There are so many areas and such a depth of material narrowing down the selection is going to be hard. The advice which struck home was that I'm going to have to live with this for a year so it had better be something I enjoy! 

Active travel is a definite candidate. Something I'm involved in, passionate about and would have access to be able to do primary research. My niggling concern about doing anything in this area was the fact that I might be too passionate which might cloud my objectivity and impact on my academic rigour.

The other obvious candidate would be a work based study - but soooooo many areas, complexities and emergent issues so how on earth could I narrow down the choice. The advice of my friend Amanda on the need to really narrow down the selection keeps ringing in my ears.

Several years ago I was involved in a development programme when I was working with Network Rail called APEx (achieving personal excellence) run by Warwick Business School. Something I learned during that experience was to 'notice what you notice'. So what did I notice?

On a team call last week my colleague Joost mentioned he was really missing being able to spend time with his team and that there were people in his team he'd never yet met in person. All because of Covid-19. I noticed this comment and it sparked a train of thought.

What is interesting is not only did I 'notice' the comment, my subsequent thoughts dipped with huge enthusiasm into communities of practice, appreciative systems, learning systems

Think I may have found the route to choosing my research topic :-)

Earning value from my studies

A situation arose at work recently. One of our partners, upon whom we have some key dependencies, notified use that some dates in one of their projects and moved back.

Looking at the information provided I was struck that delivery of the first milestone had slipped by 5 weeks. This was because the work had taken longer than planned - remotes working and COVID-19 restrictions had played a big part in the delay. All the subsequent milestones were now predicted to move back by the same amount.

As I looked at this what came to mind was my recent reading on this Earned Value. It didn't feel credible that the subsequent milestones just move back. That would assume that only the first phase of work would take longer and all subsequent phases would adhere to their original planned durations. But COVID-19 restrictions and remote working continue to be in place - and with predictions of a second wave may get tighter. What would feel credible is for the duration of each phase to be extended by a proportionate amount and the end date of the project to move back further than 5 weeks.

This was again brought to mind when reading Schon and his concept of reflective practice and the difference between earning-on-action and learning-in-action.  In this situation I have demonstrated both.  Learning about the concepts of earned value and doing theoretical examples for a TMA (on-action) versus the dynamic reflection in the midst of action when faced with an emerging situation (in-action).  

References:
M815 - project management - earned value
TU812 - Systems Thinkers - Schon