Kolbs Learning Style

Part One

Two years ago I worked in the marketing service of a wine company. Normally I was responsible for organizing events but my colleague in charge of the customers complaints felt sick and my manager asked me to replace her for a couple of weeks.

Nobody told me anything and I started answering the phone and try to handle the first complain. I remembered a woman calling to complaint because the bottle she bought was corked. My first reaction was to apologize to her saying that it will not happen again but at the end of the conversation she said that she will not buy anymore wine from our company. It was a concrete experience as I just get into the task and said the first things I had in mind.

I made reflective observations as I realised that I completely forgot to emphasize with the woman and I actually didn't solve her problem, as I didn't offer her any alternatives such as offering her a new bottle or a voucher.

That leads to abstract generalization as I understood how things must go when handling complaints: listen the consumer carefully, emphasize, apologize and react in a way to find a solution to satisfy the consumer not to let him a bad memory of her experience with our company.

After this first fail, I applied this theory to other consumer complaints (active experimentation) and it actually worked much better as I managed to keep consumer loyalty by solving consumer problems.

What I learnt from this assignment is that the learning is complete only when the learner has passed through the 4 steps of the cycle. There are people who are not successful because they always act without thinking (no reflective observations about what they do), others who do not increase their skills or their level of professional practice because they make the same mistakes for years without drawing lessons (no abstract generalization).

Part 2

After taking a learning style test (see appendix 1), I noticed that I am more an accommodator (Concret Experience/Active Experimentation). I prefer to "approach a task" by doing it straight away and I "transform it into something meaningful and usable" by feeling things. I am more a "do and feel" person who relies on intuition (see appendix 2).

I learn best when I can be involved in projects, or group discussions. I dislike passive learning situations such as lectures. I am able to achieve things; in general, by putting plans and experiences into practice, I follow my instinct. I tend to solve problems in an intuitive way by trial and error. I see difficulties as challenges and opportunities for action, I like taking risks and I am particularly successful in situations where it is needed to adapt to specific circumstances. I am more an extraverted person who is sometimes perceived as impatient and brusque by others. But I am also