Meta-learning After Second Cycle
In the second cycle, I have utilized the learnings from the first cycle to come up with better judgments, decisions, and actions. We ended the first cycle with the acknowledgment that while we have achieved our objectives based on the evaluation, we have yet to achieve our desired outcome. After the implemented action, we still have consecutive days of zero sales. This has led to the second cycle in which we are challenged with identifying our next steps and
objectives as a brand. In onboarding a social media strategist, we acknowledged that as business owners, there are a lot of things we need to learn and relearn.
Context
My reflection on the issue and what was happening has allowed me to take time to step back and look at what we have been doing by putting myself in the shoes of our customers.
When we ventured into the second cycle, I felt that we have been so into the business that we failed to delve deeper into what our customer needs. I have assumed that being aware, and in effect knowledgeable in marketing, we would be able to handle marketing by ourselves. But being the owner and at the same time handling marketing, I am bound to misinterpret data, form my assumptions, and influence the decision. Thus, I lean towards my collaborators to effectively execute these functions and in turn, effectively execute our strategies. Deciding to onboard a third party to look into our business is basically opening ourselves up to criticisms and only after we have accepted this and have looked at it positively, have we maximized the opportunities for the brand.
Process
The action research is designed for an organization’s changing and ever-evolving needs.
Continuous improvement of processes and iterations are important for business growth. At the
start of ARC2, it is seen why and how we have considered onboarding a social media strategist.
As a result, I am also more open to the challenges and possibly unintended outcomes from ARC2 knowing that we are working with a third party who does not know the brand the same way as we do. While we remained to be the primary decision-makers, we have recognized the expertise of our strategists and have deferred to them especially when it comes to creative execution. This captured changes in our roles, I, particularly as acting marketing manager, have prior
assumptions when it comes to developing the promotions and executing them. What we have missed during the implementation was clarifying the measures for evaluation. While we have set the objectives as a team, we have not determined who would monitor all the efforts and generate data to be able to measure the success of the plans. This is similar to how the first cycle
monitoring was conducted. Everything as regards data and promotions has automatically been delegated to me, and as shared in the previous reflection, it led to missed data and other
significant recordings. For ARC2, we are faced with the same concerns as we realized at the end of the plans that there are data that cannot be automatically generated from our social media accounts such as the growth in followers. This should have been monitored more closely.
Likewise, during the tally and conclusion of the giveaway promotions, I had to explicitly ask for help in managing promo entries when I initially assumed that all three of us would work on it.
While this seems minor as compared to the grand scheme of things, we should have clearly stated roles and delegations at the start of every promotion. Further, as the marketing manager, I should have been able to delegate tasks and define how my business partners can help.
Premise
My immediate assumption when we onboarded a social media strategist is that we have less work to do. However, this was instantly debunked as well as we dwell on the strategies and
work back and forth as regards planning the action and implementing it. Likewise, we have worked hand in hand in reviewing and evaluating all the existing data we were able to gather since the beginning. This proves how we have barely scratched the surface. I go back to my earlier reflection in ARC1 where I mentioned that the biggest challenge for us was planning. It takes a good reflection on our strengths and weaknesses, individually and as a team.
As Wenona shared when we are reflecting on the action research, “I learned that to run a small business you have to have the skill to wear multiple hats or at least the willingness to learn the skill of the new hats that you’re gonna need to wear- even if it is uncharted territory in your 10 years work experience.”
Our second cycle further affirms that as a small business, we do not have to carry everything on our shoulders. We, instead, have to strategically and collaboratively utilize the resources that we have to achieve our desired outcomes.
Overall, I am indebted to the whole action research for giving me the motivation to take action. As shared by Larsson (2020), there is a quote that goes: “More occurs from movement that will ever happen from meditation and contemplation.” Basically, “Take action, ANY action” (p.353). Without this drive, as a new business owner, I might have allowed myself to take longer to review our data and just continue to rely on word of mouth in terms of reaching our customers. In my first reflection, I mentioned how we should be able to separate our personal relationship vs. professional interactions and we have shared how we are all working towards achieving this. As friends, our organizational culture is more impersonal and has yet to be fully defined. But as we went along, guided by our learnings, we were able to differentiate and work on the business professionally. We have learned to seemingly switch into business owner mode when we are discussing business-related matters as compared to informal discussion. Using our
strengths, we can also turn our weaknesses into opportunities for growth. Mostly, we must be seeing eye to eye as business partners. There may be instances, as mentioned in the stories and outcomes wherein we have different priorities and assumptions, it remains to our advantage that we have collective goals as an organization. In the end, we must understand that our business is not the first of its kind. When we acknowledge that our business is not unique, we will not ignore solutions (Larsson, 2020). Thus, we can ask for help from experts and others who have come before us. They can help us understand the business better and ensure that we achieve our business goals.
Applying the Lasallian Reflection framework which is anchored on the core values of Faith, Zeal of Service, and Communion in Mission, I reflected on my experiences through the three important stages of See-Experience, Analysis-Reflection, and Commitment-Action.
Figure 15
Application of the Lasallian Reflection Framework
In understanding the situation and the social issues, I have a responsibility as a business owner to not only identify and segment our target market but know and understand them. In the
process of empathizing with the customers and with my collaborators, I am able to observe what LHB as a business should be doing. We recognize that bringing Filipino brands in the US heavily relies on our target market’s affinity and assimilation of the Filipino culture. Further, in elevating the situation to a cognitive level of analysis and critical reflection, I refer to how Kotler et al. (2017), encapsulate the new description of a customer – which is more than targets.
Likewise, he has affirmed that in the online world, social media has redefined the way people interact with one another. This enables people to build relationships without barriers such as geography and demographics. With our use of the social media platform in engaging with our customers, we provide them a sense of belonging into their communities, further driving social inclusivity. We have reflected on how we can be more competitive if we can connect with communities of customers, as well. Lastly, in engaging myself and others into the work-mission where plans are put into action, I have grown into being a business owner working towards sales into realizing the purpose of the business which is to deliver and provide my kababayans in the US a means to be closer to their home, albeit physically distanced. We remain committed to delivering happiness in every box we serve. It is through the belief that “Everyone deserves a little happy box from home.” that we know how we can move forward even after the action research.
