Blog #1: Communication and team behaviour

Communication is very important in our lives. Humans, unlike eagles, do not live along; thus being able to communicate well is an important skill that each individual must equip himself or herself with. Humans feel that they are capable to achieve greater task as a group, these concept can be seen through all those traditional childhood stories.

The principles taught during class were especially useful to help me understand more on communication and also, the different types of team behavior. Each teammate will have a unique role to play with, and by knowing which role one’s being assign to; not only could it increase the bonding within the group but it could also gives an identity to each teammate.

During last week’s lesson, our group has been told that our presentation is actually on 27^th Jan 2012 instead. We were caught in surprise, as it’s something unexpected. We greatly accept the fact and Terence said that we could start researching on the topic during the weekends and also. There will not be any meetings during Chinese New Year as we feel that it’s a time to be with family.  Also, we have all decided to use Dropbox, an online storage application, to store our files.

We had an online meeting on Tuesday night to assign and allocate the presentation slides. We were supposed to use MSN as our communication medium but half way, we decided to switch to Google Documents. For it not only always every one to edit on the document but also, but it also have a function to allow us to communicate with each other. I’s much more convenient.

We use the scope for the PowerPoint presentation and the outline of what each speaker should do as a guideline. The outline was sent to us by Terence days before for he is unable to us on the discussions.

The discussions went well, everyone was greatly involved in the discussion. We manage to divide the presentation into four parts. Though during the meetings, there’s some clarification on the scope of the presentation, we manage to come to an agreement of what it means. Everyone paid attention to each other during the discussion and everyone is very positive and contributes well. At the end of discussion, after task allocation, we decide to meet up the next day (25^th Jan) and have rehearsal on 26^th Jan afternoon.

After the discussion has ended, I decided to start on my slides so that the next day I will have something on my hand.

During Wednesdays meeting, everyone continue on their slides and clarify the doubts together they encounter during the preparation of the slides. After the meeting, everyone is very confidant on his slides. The last part of the presentation is the script and the rehearsal part.

During the final meeting, I was not fully prepared. My script was not finalize yet and had to make them wait for me. I really appreciate their understanding and that they do not give me pressure while waiting for me to finish my script. Xiang Yun volunteers to collaborate our slides together.  After the rehearsal, I realize my slides are too long and I need to shorten it.

Although I tried to shorten my scripts, I still overrun during the actual presentation day. I really want to apologize to my group mate when every one of them tried their best to finish their part within 5 minutes.

Here’s my conclusion about my group mates base on the few meetings and lessons that we had for the past few weeks. Terence, our group leader, he did well in his part as a leader and is very responsible. Joel, though he is not the one who will initiate things but he will be there when you needs him and do what is being told. Xiang Yun, he prefers listening rather than talking and voice out the areas that we might miss out during discussions.  

Base on the meetings that we had, I felt that everyone is trying their best to contribute to the group and also, to have a better understanding of each other. I feel comfortable as a part of the group.