Post #6 Reflections on Personal Teamwork and Communication

I admit, I did not thought that learning teamwork and communication could be such an intricate process before starting on this module.

Teamwork use to be a very simple idea of working together, dedicating workload and then merging everything together for one final presentation or talk. But throughout the CG1102 project and CG1413 project, I had seen how difficult it is to work together, especially when the dateline seemed so near.

A team is made up of individuals; hence, opinions differing from each other are unavoidable. I started the module not knowing how to deal with difference in opinion, and came out understanding that each opinion had its own advantages and disadvantage; listing out each opinion and comparing or combining the opinions is the only way to come up with the best solutions.

Throughout the journey, our team had our quarrels and miscommunications. There were also times where I felt that some of my teammates are irresponsible and insensitive when they asked me to come for meetings on Sundays and only sent the slides to me at the very last minute, oblivious to the fact that compilation is still needed. Some things I learnt is that deadlines have to be set earlier than the actual date you wished to see things done, and not get agitated over some insensitive comments or requests, vice versa.

In order to achieve a goal as team, working together in harmony is a must. There must be trust within the group, yet that trust must be supervised lest it gets misused by another; I have learnt how to work with people, trusting them, yet making sure that my trust is not betrayed. With that said, I should always make sure that I do not betray their trust either.

After watching the two presentations and the meeting videos taken, I realised my communication skills were way inadequate. I could not express myself enough for them to be persuaded into using my idea or be convinced that my idea will work. But after these lessons, I did learn that the essence lies in knowing and applying the 7Cs of communication (Clear, Concise, Concrete, Correct, Coherent, Complete and Courteous). A presentation done, which fully complies with these 7Cs would leave the audience feeling complete and probably more interested to hear more from me. This, would be something that I definitely want to achieve in life.