Question:
What changes have you seen in occupational safety and health issues during your work experience? How do you view safety differently now than you did earlier in your experience? Use Kolb’s cycle to outline the stages of your learning across your work experience–name each stage and describe what you did at each of the 4 stages step by step in your answer.
1. Concrete Experience – the learner encounters a concrete experience. This might be a new experience or situation, or a reinterpretation of existing experience in the light of new concepts.
When I started my new job as a project manager at Puget Sound Energy in March 2020, there were concerns about COVID-19 and the ongoing rise in the number of cases. My first week at my new job flew by, and before I knew it, the entire company had been informed that we were all required to work from home until further instructions were given. I’ve been receiving training and talking to project managers about the possibility of taking on some of their projects, but other than that, I haven’t done much in this position so far. I did not know how this widespread shutdown would affect my job or my ability to carry out my responsibilities in an appropriate manner. My previous position as an engineering specialist allowed me to work from home two out of the five days, so I was already accustomed to doing things from home. However, doing things from home five days a week was going to be challenging for me. I was curious to see how this new experience would play out and how I would react to the changes in the safety and health process that would affect both my career and my well-being. I was also interested to see how others would react to these changes. During this time period, I was going to be forced to contend with new source of stress as well as uncertainty.
2. Reflective Observation of the New Experience – the learner reflects on the new experience in the light of their existing knowledge. Of particular importance are any inconsistencies between experience and understanding.
3. Abstract Conceptualization – reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a modification of an existing abstract concept (the person has learned from their experience).
4. Active Experimentation – the newly created or modified concepts give rise to experimentation. The learner applies their idea(s) to the world around them to see what happens