Final Reflections

With a quick blink of an eye, what seemed to be a torturous semester will soon flicker into fleeting memories of never-ending coding, nervous presentations and sleepless nights. While the length of every semester is the same, what I have experienced this semester is certainly more enriching compared to my first semester in school. One important lesson that I have learnt is that both teamwork and communication are very important factors to perform well in any settings and what I have recognised is that good communication can generally lead to better teamwork.

In my first post I touched on the many important reasons to why communication between people is important, and right now I couldn’t agree more with what I have written. As the group leader, I have to constantly assure that progress are kept within deadlines, every member knows exactly what they are doing, and any abrupt changes made to the project are conveyed to each individual teammate promptly. Without any good forms of communication channel, it would be hard to keep each individual updated with the progress of work. Sometimes, it gets frustrating when I am unable to contact my team members and I believe they feel equally annoyed when they are unable to reach me when the need arises. It appears that remaining contactable and communicable has become a very important part of our lives, especially on occasions where deadlines are tight and work has to be done fast.

In this semester, I also learned to appreciate teamwork to a greater extent. Many of my modules in this semester require tasks to be done in groups; and any attempt to work on these tasks alone would not be sufficient. If work had not been efficiently allocated or if any of the team member’s work is not up to standard, the progress of the work would be majorly crippled. Take for example our CG1102 lab tasks. With deadlines that are within the timeframe of one to two weeks, any delay in individual’s effort will greatly hinder the team’s overall advancement of the project. My team actually encountered moments where we find ourselves frantically piecing the codes written by individual member just hours before the deadline of the lab tasks; this is largely due to mismanaged timelines that resulted in work to be done only towards the end of the deadline. This essentially boils down to my failure to enforce a tighter control on the timelines and the lack of collaboration among members of the team.

In short, regardless of whether my mastery in communication and teamwork have improved or not, what this semester has shown and emphasised is that both communication and teamwork are both important and relevant to the working environment that we have now.


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Reflections on Oral Presentation 2

While on the whole my team did not performed terrifically well for the presentation, I felt that I have made considerable improvements since my last oral presentation.

Firstly, I spoke in a better manner when compared to my first presentation. The things that I said were more coherent, and my words certainly made more sense to the audiences. I believe that the audiences will be able to understand the points that I am trying to convey to them easily. Speaking to big groups of people is not my forte and therefore I am pleased with this aspect of my presentation.

Secondly, my reliance to look at the presentation slides has decreased sustainably. Instead of speaking directly from the slides, I made a more suitable use of the slides to support what I was trying to tell the audiences. A good speaker should not be one that is only good with his words but should instead be one that can incorporate appropriate visual aids to empower his own speech. That is truly an art in itself and being a good speaker is something that I would like to achieve.

However, I actually forgot to reiterate some of the points that I had wanted to place more emphasis on. This resulted in me having to trace back to previous points (and even slides) to actually elaborate more about them. This is obviously a bad practice, and it inevitably boils down to my lack of preparation. Perhaps I should have just left these points alone and not have bothered to retrace my points, as it breaks the logical flow of thoughts.

All in all, while I am satisfied with my overall execution for the presentation, I acknowledge the fact that the room for improvement is still plentiful. Hence I hope that for my next presentation I will be able to surpass what I have done for this presentation. Only by continuously improving then can I be a proficient speaker.


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Reflections on Meeting

Albeit the meeting only consisted of three people, the experience is meaningful and we certainly have a lot to away from this exposure. For the first time, I was given a chance to be the leader of the meeting and even though the meeting went on smoothly, I felt that we certainly have a lot to improve on in terms of making the meeting more effective and purposeful.

My first observation is that there were frequent occurrences of random pauses during the discussion. Sometimes, all of us will be keeping quiet, thinking of how to carry on with the discussion. This was partially a fault of mine as I felt that I could have put in more control to direct the flow of the discussions; instead of waiting for replies from the rest. Preparing a more detailed agenda regarding the points to be discussed can be helpful in this case.

Secondly, I observe that we can be too informal and comfortable at times. While we did not stray away from the main points, sometimes our tone can get informal and casual. While a tinge of humour can have a positive effect of keeping the mind fresh, people tend to slack off if they get too relaxed with the situation. Setting down some house rules to govern the manner in which the meeting will be run could be useful. The leader of the meeting could also start with an appropriate tone to kick start the meeting at the correct note.

Also, I felt that there were also considerable merits for our meeting. Firstly, we were ahead of the scheduled timing and were left with an ample amount of time towards the end. Secondly, we kept ourselves focused on the task at hand and hence were able to make quick decisions for our project. All in all, everybody was sure of their task and aware of what they were supposed to do and hence meant that the meeting has fulfilled its purpose adequately.

Conflicts and Solutions

No matter how good we are in handling relationships, conflicts are bound to occur sometime in our interpersonal relationships, be it in a group or with another person. Take for a simple example of a team of three wanting to accomplish a task on time. Person A is the leader and he dedicates tasks for person B and C. Some changes then occurred and A wants B to contact C about the changes. However C fails to receive the full changes that happened as we are fully aware of how communications can get distorted at times. This in turn led to C carrying out his tasks in the wrong manner. In the end, the task could not be completed on time, everybody becomes frustrated and the blaming game begins.

Is it the fault of A as he should have ensured that C received the exact message? For all one knows he could have been more assertive and choose to convey the message himself instead of getting someone else to pass it on. Or is B at fault as he failed to pass on the information as accurately and detailed as possible? Perhaps, since he should know the importance of the changes and it would be disastrous if C perceive the changes differently. And can we blame C for the mistake as he failed to check back with A to see what he has received from B is correct? Maybe, since C should know that conveyed messages are usually inaccurate and as a responsible teammate, he should always check back with his leader. But one thing is for sure, we know that the team is unable to complete their task in a timely fashion and has thus, failed.

The gist of the problem that lies within the team is that important house rules for the team are not properly laid down. In this context, proper communication channels should have been decided before the start of the task, since all of us are very much enlightened by how important communication is. House rules are very much important in ensuring that the team works in a cooperative manner. With this in mind, what other house rules are important within a team and how should they be decided?

Culture, Communication, and Me

On Saturday night, I was at Orchard road to experience a festival that we know as Thaipusam, a major religious festival celebrated by the Hindus in Singapore. It was a truly fascinating event, with spirit-lifting music and vibrantly coloured costumes encircling the whole stretch of road. While the event did cause a substantial volume of traffic congestion along the streets of Orchard, passersby certainly did enjoy a change in atmosphere that this event brought along. To add on, this is probably the only festival where major road closures occur along this prime district.

The narration above shows aptly an intercultural scenario that occurs in Singapore. While primarily populated by Chinese, Singapore is a nation that is populated by citizens of different race and religion. There is a high chance in which the people whom we meet, the people whom we listen to, the people whom we speak to may all be of a different race, religion or nationality. With that, it makes considerable sense to me that I should take an extra effort to enlighten myself with the culture differences between me and that of my working counterparts.

While we are familiarised with what we know as IQ and EQ, a theory on cultural quotient (CQ) has been proposed. This is a study postulating that understanding the link between a person’s cultural background and their behaviour is imperative for successful business management. The way we react towards an American, a Chinese or an Indian have to be different so that we will not send out the wrong signal and cause any unnecessary misunderstandings. To maintain effective communication, one has to identify with whom they are talking to and react accordingly. We certainly do not want to give a hug to a Chinese on a first meeting!

Everybody comes from a different background and culture. Irregardless of our unique traditions, we should take some time off to familiarise ourselves with the rich cultural background of whom we are working with, only so can we better interact and work with them.

Why words can be better.

Since birth, a baby will cry to draw attention, a child will smile to show his joy, and an adolescent will shout to display his frustration. Communication is inherent in us and anybody who wants to denounce this fact will find it hard to do so. Similarly, it is the same fact as to why communication is so important to each and every one of us and mastering it should be something mandatory rather than supplementary. Without good communication skills, I can at best let my loved ones know that I love them. With good communication skills, I can let them know how much I love them; in any forms that I deem fit and in any ways I like. Having an exceptional communication skill is essential for anybody who wants to do well in his life.

The other mandatory skill that any successful person would posses is teamwork. No one exists alone and because of that everybody has to learn to work with each other, whether you like or dislike the people whom you are working with. While it is enjoyable to work with people you like, working with people whom you do not like certainly shows a level of character in yourself.

It is also notable that effective teamwork comes with effective communication. Delegation of work, discussion of work, reflections after work all requires good communication. One can work all day but if he does not relate what he has done to the rest, none of his teammate will be able to continue or add on to his work. Without a decent level of teamwork and sufficient amount of communication between each teammate, progress would be hard and intangible.

Sometimes, actions do not speak louder than words.