Gettin' good players is easy. Gettin' 'em to play together is the hard part~ Casey Stengel

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Reflection on Teamwork and Communication


With less than a week to the end of the semester and having done several assignments and projects, I have come to a realization that without teamwork and effective communication, many of these tasks would have been almost impossible to accomplish relying solely on oneself.

In terms of communication, I personally feel that my strength lies in my active listening skills and the ability to empathize with my group members. Nevertheless, there is definitely still room for improvement. However, I fared rather poorly in terms of encoding messages as my team members (both projects) have difficulty in understanding ideas I had tried to put across on many occasions especially at the start of this module. This can be imputed to the fact that I was probably not succinct during the discussion as I have a tendency to beat around the bush. But I felt the situation began to improve along the way as I grew aware of this problem and attempted to rectify it. Also, the oral presentations made me realized that I am somewhat still lacking with regards to audience awareness as I failed to maintain eye contact with the audience and I was overly-dependent on my notes.

With regards to teamwork, I am relieved to say that I managed to practice cultural sensitivity and there were no unnecessary conflicts throughout the duration of the two projects, namely CG1102 and CG1108. But I still feel that my competency is somewhat lacking as I often have to rush to meet deadlines many a times for the CG1102 project. One major reason could be due to a lack of commitment on my part and miscommunication among our team. However, through the progression of this module, I did learn to collaborate and coordinate with my team, which I felt was very meaningful as I truly felt that we were really working together as a team and not a group of mere individuals. Another important point that I have garnered from working in a team-based environment is that by being frank and yet tactful , knowingly or unknowingly, we build better rapport with one another which is a crucial trait of a successful team.

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Although I am reaching the end of this module, I earnestly felt that I have acquired many essential interpersonal and communication skills throughout the course of which I am very certain will be useful in my career in the future!

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7 comments:

  1. Hi Roger,

    I think this module made us reflect a lot, and we get to realized a lot of things we seldom take note of previously, such as the way we speak, the tone and body language. Nontheless this is not the first time we have done presentations but through this module we had placed great emphasis on the process. We reflect on our actions, and improvements we can do to apply to our next presentation. Most of us have improved over the period of time, and through your post you have mentioned that you have learnt to practise cultural sensitivity to prevent any unncessary conflicts. I think this is very important as we are going to work with more people of different background and this is something we cannot overlook at. It's great that this module has benefitted you in a way or another and I wish you all the best for the upcoming years.

    Regards,
    Alden

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  4. Hey Roger,

    I think you have expressed the changes this module has brought over you very well. Our communication skills may have improved greatly but as you said, there is still room for improvement. And it's true that being tactful is a good quality to ensure smooth communication between people.

    This module has also taught us a lot about teamwork and communication in a team. And reflecting upon Oral Presentations and meetings has helped us analyze our mistakes and think of ways to correct them. Let us remember such lessons for the rest of our lives...

    Good luck!

    Krithika

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  5. Hey Roger,

    I think you have expressed the changes this module has brought over you very well. Our communication skills may have improved greatly but as you said, there is still room for improvement. And it's true that being tactful is a good quality to ensure smooth communication between people.

    This module has also taught us a lot about teamwork and communication in a team. Reflections on Oral presentations and meetings has helped us analyze our mistakes and think of ways to correct them. Let us remember such lessons for the rest of our lives...

    Good luck!

    Krithika

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  6. Hey Roger!

    Its amazing how we all feel the same way about this module. Indeed, this module has taught us many things which will all be applicable to us in and outside NUS.

    I agree with you that this module has helped us work as a team with minimal conflicts. Also, our skills as a presenter have improved vastly. From the two presentations you gave, I could see how you improved over a short span. This shows how effective the module has been.

    Working with you for the CG1102 project was really enjoyable. Although I was not a perfect team member/leader at times, I also have learnt a lot of useful things from this module which I can use to improve.

    All the best for your exams.

    Cheers
    Preeti

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  7. Hi Roger,

    I agree with you that the skills that we have acquired in this modules would be valuable in our career.

    This module had been a great platform for us to learn from each other. We had watched each other's growth from stumbling on the Q&A of oral presentation 1, to becoming persuasive speakers in the op2.

    Over time, I feel that you have become a more confident speaker. Let's continue to remind each other to practice these skills in the future. Looking forward to working with you in the future.

    Happy revising,
    Ying Cong

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