wOw.... It had been hectic these two weeks since school reopened after the mid semester break. But I am glad we (my team) are still surviving!
It had definitely been a great experience working on this research project with a group of friends whom we started off as strangers. Different people have different style of working. Some may choose to work fast while some may prefer to work slowly at their own pace. As such, the research project had taught me to adapt to different individual's style of working, making me a more flexible and accommodating person.
Throughout the course of this research paper, the one major problem we had was the lack of time. We were practically rushing through each draft to meet the submission dateline. This was probably due to other work commitments that we had on hand. As a result, we were unable to focus our attention on this project and the end product was rather sketchy. Also, it was hard getting everyone to meet on a common day due to our timetable clashes. I guess ultimately, it was a test of our time management skills, having to juggle all our commitments at one shot.
Having 4 people in a team might be an added advantage in terms of manpower. But at the same time, having so many different conflicting ideas during a meeting was quite a hindrance and made decision making difficult at times. In addition, because of the clashes in our timetables, we resorted to online meetings over MSN a couple of times. Usually these meetings would be held at around mid night. This was probably one of the aspects of this project that should not be promoted. Through this channel of communication, we had a couple of misunderstandings with regards to duty allocation. It was inefficient as most of us were tired from the long day we had and it was simply not productive. To complicate the situation further, non verbal cues kicked in.
Overall, I would say that it had been an enriching experience having to complete a professional research paper in such a short period of time. It was pleasant working with 3 of my team mates Jia hwa, Dai jing and Chen xin. Communication wasn't really a major problem for the four of us as we were very open minded and accommodating. I feel that this is a trait of my team worth mentioning as it made us a better team. We were very frank and open with regards to our comments and everyone took it positively. In doing so, we built a strong mutual understanding among the four of us. This enabled us to work efficiently as a team as we grew to know each other's expectation better. =)
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Hey Edwin! My group has also faced the problem of schedule clashes and therefore resorted to holding our discussions on MSN and I would not promote that also unless it is really impossible for everyone to meet up. Time management is important and being able to allocate work fairly and 'equally' to every member is a difficult thing to do. Therefore, I would suggest playing to the strengths of your group members and allocate them with work that they are more familiar with (eg. people more proficient in churning out graphs and be put in charge of that). Understanding the different working styles of your members will also help to prevent misunderstandings from occurring. However, this requires mutual understanding among the group members and everyone has to be satisfied with the workload that they are being allocated.
Hello Edwin, I can understand how frustrating it is sometimes when everyone has their own ideas during a meeting and no one seems to be making any compromises. Makes me feel like we are all wasting our time. Therefore, being patient and showing empathy are really important to progress in such a situation. Moreover, you late night meet-ups on MSN must have really required more patience and perserverence. Kudos to your team for succeeding in the project!
Hi Edwin, I'm glad that the research project has benefited you in some ways and a round of applause for you and your group members for being able to stick through together and overcome the research project.
I agree that working with new people do pose some uncertainty at first but this is the reality of life. Everyone of us started off as complete strangers in this world and it it through interactions such as being classmates, being in the same CCAs, having the same interests, being in same project groups, working in society, etc., will we able to meet new people and foster new relationships in life. Like what you have said, this can cause an individual to become more flexible and accomodating towards others when he/she has learnt how to work with other people.
The saying "time is money" is a true reflection when all of us from different majors and with different committments come together to try to do up the report. Essentially, I think that we seldom or rarely have the time to sit down together as a whole group to discuss and write the report. Hence, good time management skills are important here as this will allow us to be able to complete whatever tasks we have without compromising any other. One possible way will be to split up the workload for the report writing and dedicate different sections to different group members according to the workload each individual has. For example, if a member has a test coming up, he/she can be assigned less taxing stuffs to do first so that he/she has time to study for the test. The workload can be increased again after the test is over. In this way, it will portray empathy and fairness for that person.
With respect to meeting, I still believe that face-to-face meetings are still the most efficient form because thoughts and ideas can be transmitted directly to other group members and communication flow will be easier. In this way, things can be done faster and more effectively. Hence, it will be good that the group members are equipped with skills such as active listening and recognizing non-verbal cues so as to facilitate better communication during face-to-face meetings.
Well, I would said that your group has done a good job with the Yellow Ribbon Project after reading through your report draft during the peer review session. Can see that your group is dedicated and responsible in trying to achieve the best for this report. Anyway, thanks to your group for the feedback on my group's report during the peer review.
Hey Edwin!
I believe all of us faced similar problems with regards to schedules and meet-ups.
I really agree on how meetings over MSN are really inefficient and inefficient. It's just so difficult to put across something accurately. My group tried it once and decided never to do a MSN meeting again.
I guess most of us here struggles with time management issues. This project has certainly taught me how to manage my time more wisely. i.e. Be prepared before each meeting and be clear what you want to accomplish at the end of the meeting. I realised that in the past, we often meet up not knowing what is to be accomplished and always spend the fist few hours deciding what to do and how to go about doing. Through this module, I learnt the importance of setting up an agenda and how preparing for the meeting can really reduce alot of time needed.
And of course, knowing your groups members more definitely helps in making delegating work easier. =)
Hi Edwin,
Good reflection on how lack of time affected your group dynamics to some extent.
What I like most is what you said about how this experience has changed you to be "more flexible and accommodating".
When you said "non-verbal cues kicked in", I think you meant instead that without non-verbal cues over the MSN it was harder to communicate as you couldn't read their body language?
Hi Edwin,
I forgot to add that it is interesting how you showed that sometimes more is not necessarily better as in your case where there are four in the group instead of three.
Thanks for the honest reflection!
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