48 Jane’s Again in Canada

Team 106 Poster

Team Reflection

Our team focused on an established consignment shop located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, known as Jane’s Again. In its small community, Jane’s Again has become the standard in the thrifting industry and in what they consign. They offer second-hand clothing, accessories, shoes, and anything that can be worn, specifically for women. It started off with Jane, who wanted to incorporate more thrift shops and promote second-hand items, especially when the fashion industry nowadays does the very opposite. Today, Jane’s Again has a good reputation in not only helping shoppers find in-trend items through thrifting, but also affordable yet high quality pieces for its locals. With its good work, in terms of, promoting sustainability by reducing waste and switching to reusable methods, Jane’s gained support from about 8,000 partners and from loyal customers. Overall, Jane’s Again, is one of the many businesses out there who voices a strong message of making sustainable choices, to truly respect our Earth, but also address issues like landfill waste production made by us humans.

It is evident that businesses play a crucial role for social good as it promotes many to adapt to sustainable practices, unknowingly or knowingly. Like Jane’s Again, many businesses promote such practices, which are usually supported by both suppliers and consumers. The practices might vary, but with such effort, environmental issues are being heard and addressed. There’s also a space of awareness that curates, which also leads to healthy social responsibility, which businesses and people should showcase when it comes to our home. With strong support and unity, many businesses communicate more with others, leading to more effective solutions for social issues.

Talking about communication, with this experience we were able to attain better communication skills to truly understand one another, whether it be language barriers or just different mediums of communication styles. It taught us to be more knowledgeable yet mindful of one another in order to effectively work together as a team. Without clear communication or understanding, work cannot be successfully done. As learned in our courses, communication helps grasp the issue, build support for one another, and achieve consensus (Scribd, 2019). Since this is a team, this experience also leads to various viewpoints to be showcased and expressed with one another, leading to effective solutions and considerations for any problems present. Lastly, we all learned to be more flexible and adaptable towards new settings, such as this experience. All of these are significant when it comes to management. Being able to share information, take feedback, have leadership in some shape or form, being able to make decisions, solving problems, time management, etc. are few specks of our experience together.

The learnings from our coursework made us feel more confident and prepared going into this project. In order for us to complete this project, having a business in mind and an interview completed was the most crucial part. However, as difficult as that might sound, it wasn’t complicated at all since we all had the resources available for us to use. Such as, when creating the interview questions, we were able to use the appreciative inquiry approach to create specific questions that target the positive/strengths of our business, as well use the interview question guide (Scribd, 2019). In general, knowing the basics about management, such as the POLC (Planning, Organizing, Leading, & Controlling) just helped us understand how to ask the questions and what type of questions to ask. Definitely having previous knowledge made us more aware and clear of our roles, which really moved us forward as a team.

Teamwork makes up everything, and the best part of our team was no hesitancy and just straight to the point. As repetitive as it might sound, clear communication was key. We would clearly address the roles of each person, and if there was a problem, it would be addressed and we would try to solve it as a group. If someone was unable to meet at the same time, then we would schedule a different time where everyone would be available. Similarly, that’s how the work was distributed, evenly. We had one person conduct the interview, and we as a group, created the interview questions, one person worked on the story, and together as a group created the poster, and finally as a group worked together for the reflection. For the weekly minutes submission, each time we had a different member of the group that would submit that after our zoom meeting. That’s how we were able to divide up our work, and we would also check up on each other through text message or when we would meet, just to have everybody on the same page.

Now that we have experienced this amazing opportunity of being able to work together with international students, what worked for us was the participation of everybody. Everyone in our group worked efficiently and effectively, and so we were given this opportunity to work in an inclusive setting where everyone participated equally. Another would be the follow ups we had via Zoom or via text messages, just to check up on one another, and a clear agenda/role of what each member would do for the following week. All of these were things that worked for us as a team. This helped us to stay consistent, motivated, and responsible for what needs to be done. There wasn’t much that did not work, however if there was one thing that did not work, we as a group would say lack of time. When we started working on this project, we did have difficulties in reaching out to the business we wanted to interview, so there was a lot of pressure and uncertainty of whether or not we would get an interview on time, and our follow up assignments done on time. Another was not getting to know each other as much, since we would immediately start working on our project, which is unfortunate since this was an amazing opportunity where we are working with a lot of diversity. Time was the only struggle that we would say did not work, but managed through.

In all, we made memorable experiences, in which there was fun, but also attainment of new knowledge in this journey of five weeks. We learned how to both adapt and adjust, while also gaining effective skills that are necessary in the course of management, in the real world. We were able to learn about a business, connect with them, and showcase to others how its presence is making an impact in our world. Just like Jane’s Again, there are many businesses out there who are continuing to make efforts in promoting sustainability in our world, and it is our privilege to have them a part of our economy.

Individual Reflections

Vittorio Morganti

When I first heard about this assignment, I was hesitant. I was concerned about the difficulty of working in an international setting. Despite this initial hesitation, I read more about the project and its details, which was very interesting and exciting. The main thing I learned from this experience was adaptability. Since we were in an international setting, everyone’s schedules and time zones were quite different, and adapting plans to fit that was key to our success. The readings from the course definitely helped supplement my knowledge and ability to complete the tasks for the COIL assessment. Our readings mainly detailed CSR, how companies follow it, and UN sustainability goals. It also brought up real-world examples and studies to help back up its points. These readings helped me select the company to formulate questions for our interview and truly understand how Janes Again is so successful at following these sustainability goals and a better future. We conducted our teamwork through online forums/platforms such as Google Drive and Canva’s to do the assignments and Zoom and Messenger to communicate ideas and meet. Despite the challenges of meeting due to our busy lives, we all adapted to taking meetings in cars or on trips and even just rescheduling, making it work and bringing us success.

Ruby Cruz 

Initially, I was worried about how we’d make this work as a group from different countries. I wondered how we’d keep up with what needed to be done, what would happen if we couldn’t, and how we’d handle the time zone differences. Thankfully, it turned out to be much easier than I expected. We set up a group chat where we could discuss everything related to the project, which kept us connected and organized. Coordinating meeting times was a bit challenging with all the different time zones, but we worked it out by openly sharing our schedules and finding times that worked for everyone. If someone couldn’t make it, we’d adjust by setting up a later time, or even meeting while on the go—whether in the car, on the street, or at work. I learned a lot about adapting to different communication styles and being more flexible with my time. Overall, the experience went much smoother than I expected, and I really enjoyed working with this group. It was a great way to experience teamwork in a cross-cultural setting.

Camilo Polo

Starting a project with people from different countries made me feel nervous. I was being put out of my comfort zone,  but ever since we started I have been feeling more engaged and happy about being part of this team and aim2flourish initiative. Things have been running smoothly and we have learned how to collaborate online and complete our given tasks in an organized manner. My team members have been nothing but supportive to me and everyone, we have developed patience and teamwork in the process. Our company, Jane’s Again, has made us dive deep in the UN sustainability goals and learn how to meet economic and sustainable requirements to create a better future for us and the upcoming generations. To conclude, I am very excited to keep working on this project and keep learning to collaborate, create relationships, and learn about the important balance of economic sustainability.

Prabsimarn Kaur 

Genuinely speaking, I had mixed feelings for this project. Part of me was really excited, in terms of being able to work with different students from different countries, which was really fun. The other part of me was nervous and stressed thinking about how exactly all of this will be managed and completed, especially when I have never experienced something like this before. However everything went through smoothly, and I didn’t even realize that time moved so quickly because here we are, fully done. I think this would not be possible if it wasn’t for our group members. I think we were all extremely patient and understanding of one another, especially when it was evident that we all have different time zones, schedules, due dates, communication styles, etc. It was a bit challenging, especially when we would have to set up and meet for our weekly meetings, but not as difficult because from the start we all understood that these are difficulties we will face in the future but can be resolved if addressed right now. At the start, we were having difficulties reaching out to some of our members in our team, however we remained flexible and continued to contact until we reached a response. I think I learned a lot not just within a group setting, but also in terms of research, interviewing, and creativity that was involved in this project.

Rafael Montero

At the beginning, I felt quite lost with this project, and to be honest, I still feel a bit that way. There were many aspects I had never encountered before, such as collaborating with people from different countries and time zones. I didn’t even have a clear understanding of sustainability, let alone how it operates in a business context. However, we managed to overcome these challenges and advance the project quite well. Through various messaging platforms and video chats, we coordinated our efforts despite the international barriers to accomplish our tasks and meet our deadlines. On a more personal note, there were times when communication with my teammates became difficult for me since I had never used the chat application we were on and wasn’t fully comfortable with it. This occasionally led to me missing a meeting or not fully understanding what my colleagues were discussing. Additionally, I faced some family issues that kept me preoccupied and busy, which made me feel less satisfied.

Jacob Sutherland

I went into this project with experience working with online groups from my own University, but never with people who live across the world or in different time zones. At first, it was difficult to find a time to hold a meeting. Our schedules and time zones were different, making it hard to find a time that worked for everyone. However, after a little while, we found a time that consistently worked for everyone, leading to a pretty smooth experience. We also communicated through text which avoided the need for extra meetings. When it came to working on the project, everyone knew what their role was. Everyone knew when they had to get their share of work done so that the project got finished. The excellent participation ensured we had similar course loads, making the experience enjoyable for me and hopefully everyone else as well. I enjoyed working with this group and would gladly work with them again!

Sources: 

Scribd. (n.d.). Principles of Management-OpenStax-Part 1. Scribd. https://www.scribd.com/document/594110543/Principles-of-Management-OpenStax-part-1