Communication and teamwork are probably among the most important skills in my life.
I would confess that my communication skills still need improvement (probably due to language and cultural differences). Misunderstandings and undesired consequences sometimes occur when I could not convey my ideas accurately to other people.
For example, I had an unpleasant experience in my project for ACC1002X last semester. The cause was simple: I did not decode my teammate’s message accurately while I did not send explicit message to my teammates. While I finished one thing and told him, he interpreted it as another thing. We misunderstood each other and ended up with a conflict. My teammate claimed that I did not do my work which sounded offensive to me.
Well, when I recall this experience, I wished that I could have taken CG1413 before doing that project. Misunderstanding could really cause a lot of trouble in my life. Only when we communicate with each other well can we work together and be efficient.
As a computer engineering student, hopefully I will be working with many other computer engineers as teams in the future. So, teamwork is really important for me. As a member of a team, I don’t usually work as a leader. More often I will be the person who come up with ideas or the person who does the work. But that doesn’t mean I do not have the personalities of becoming a leader. Although grown up in a country where education emphasizes individual effort, I think I have a lot of experiences of teamwork both in China and in Singapore. So, working together with people from different cultural backgrounds would be fine with me and I hope I would have a nice semester with my teammates in CG1102 and CG1413.
Hi Xiang Yu,
ReplyDeleteMany of us also have had many instances of gross misunderstanding. What we really need to do, is to keep our cool and clarify the other person's (or our) actual intentions instead of reacting rashly.
This is especially important when the other person has gone livid - losing ourselves in such a situation will really only make matters worse. Fire will just make the fire fierier.
Whilst I know that it is easier said than done, but what we can do is to try. :)
And of course, this tip goes to myself as well... >.< Let's both work hard and try harder to "think before we speak", shall we? ;) Have a nice day! :D
Yours faithfully,
Juncheng Chen
Hi Xiang Yu,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you have learnt and reflected well on your past experiences. I would like to point out that learning effective communication and teamwork need not necessary start from CG1413. The learning process is actually a life long everlasting experience. As long as you constantly interact with people and reflect on your actions, I am sure you can learn a lot about from just reflections along.
I have the same sentiments when it comes to teamwork. Especially in our course, we will often matched up with people with different backgrounds and cultures. If we keep a positive attitude and communicate properly, Im sure several success stories will come out from you and your team :)
Yours faithfully,
Junhao Quek, C04e
Hi Xiang Yu,
ReplyDeleteI also believe that misunderstanding is one of the most dangerous problems in a team. If we work on a big project, when each person's work affects the others', we need to make sure that we fully understand what we need to do and have a detailed plan for it.
Your experience might not be very nice about the ACC1002X project, but I'm sure that you have learnt a lot from it.
Not being a leader is not a problem at all. As long as you can contribute to the group, you are doing well.
And it's very nice that you have a lot of experience in team work; that will help you with your projects at university and also when you go to work
Yours sincerely,
Ngo Tuan Vu
Hi XiangYu,
ReplyDeleteIdentifying and resolving misunderstanding among teammates is very important while working in a team.Also its nice that you have reflected on your past experiences and next step would be to try to improve on the shortcomings:).And of course as long as you contribute your ideas effectively to the team your role is very important.Have a great semester ahead!!
Cheers,
Meenu
Hi Juncheng,
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree that we all need to cool down and think before we speak. It only makes things worse if we cannot control ourselves and end up with quarralling.
Hope these won't happen this semester :)
Have a nice day!
Xiangyu
Hi Jun Hao,
ReplyDeleteYes! We need to learn to communicate every day as long as we communicate with people. Reflecting is really useful. It helped me a lot especially when I cannot cool myself down. We all need patience and trust so that we can work together very well as a team. I hope our project this semester will go well!
Cheers,
Xiangyu
Hi Tuan Vu,
ReplyDeleteYes, although the project last semester ended up not very nicely, I have learnt a lot from that failure. Anyway, life is about learning from mistakes and failures. As long as we can improve ourselves through mistakes, that will be a success.
Have a nice day :)
Xiangyu
Hi Meenu,
ReplyDeleteI agree that reflection can help us improve. Well, as long as I do my best to contribute to my team, I can feel the responsibility. It is really amazing when we finish a task as a team and it feels good to contribute!
Have a nice day :)
Xiangyu
Hey Xiangyu,
ReplyDeleteRegarding your unpleasant experience in ACC1002 module teamwork, I believe technology could have come in great help. I dont know if you used spoken messages or written (email, IM) messages to communicate. What I feel is that, that using written means of communication can really help in such conditions. They help in highlighting your point clearly, and if you dont understand it once, you can always go back to read it later. Moreover, a written statement always stands true. No person can argue against his own written words.
I believe as long as one is working in harmony with the team, there can be no communication problems.
Wishing you all the best for this semester.
Regards
Angad
Hi Angad,
ReplyDeleteCommunication in written form is really important. It provides people with a record of whatever they have said and could be easily referred in the future.
Thank you for commenting my blog!
Regards,
Xiangyu
To sum up, communication and teamwork skills are the tools that will help me for my whole life in the future. Without good communication and teamwork skills, one would be struggling in the modern society with great difficulties.
ReplyDelete