Post #6: Reflection on Teamwork and Communication Process

Wow, time has flown and we are at the end of the semester. I had initially started the semester thinking that CG1413 is going to be another boring and useless module, but I’ve been forced to revise my mindset.

The first few weeks of the semester was basically about the fundamentals of effective communication and teamwork. What I find most useful are the 7C’s, active listening and conflict management. These are skills that I will continue to use even after completing this module. For example, the utilizing the 7C’s would help me to write better, no matter if it’s it simple emails or long reports.

The second half of the course involved putting all these ideas that have been taught into use. We did loads of things twice; Meeting 1, Meeting 2, Oral Presentation 1, Oral Presentation 2. After going through each hurdle, we watched a video of what we did (Well, for all except one. :) ), and then did a reflection. Repeatedly, practicing something and then reflecting on it seems to be a rather good strategy for improvement. We learn from our previous mistakes and then do the meeting or presentation again. I feel that this really makes sure that we do not commit the same mistake twice.

I’ve also realised some of my strengths and weaknesses after going through all the hurdles in this course. I’m good in setting a direction for the project. I’m usually able to suggest a method to tackle the CG1102 problems that is agreeable with everyone. However, I’m not as good when it comes to presentation in front of audiences. I think I’ve improved on this weakness somewhat, but I still need a lot more practice before I can become a truly outstanding speaker.

CG1413 has also taught me a lot about teamwork. Throughout this module, we were always working in groups. We had plenty of opportunities to put what we have learnt in the first part of the module into play. For example, our CG1413 project group was made up of people from very different cultures. We had several problems, such as language barriers and employed various techniques such as active listening to get around them.

To conclude, I’ve really enjoyed this module. I’ve really learnt a lot of useful skills that will help me in future: presentation skills to present my work to others, and various techniques to work well together and to communicate effectively, so as to prevent things like this:

from happening. Good luck to everyone for their final exams!

Post #5: Reflection on Oral presentation 2

We had our second oral presentation (OP2) on Monday, 22nd March. Being the first group to present is like a double-edged sword. We were able to present without the pressure of needing to better the previous group, but the other groups have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. For example, our classmates were able to brush up their problem statements after seeing the fault in ours.

I felt somewhat more confident being in front of the class. Could it be because I’ve gotten to know my classmates better? Or is because I already had the first oral presentation 1 (OP1) under my belt? Or is my success due to the “handsome” haircut that I got the day before? :)

I think that the past experience of OP1 helped the most. It is much easier to present for the second time. Knowing the audience better and being better groomed contributed to my confidence, but to a lesser extent.

During the presentation, my question to the class didn’t come out right. The class simply looked confused. There was an abrupt transition from me droning on and on to me asking a question. What I should have done is to pause for a little while before asking the question. This would give the audience time to adjust.

My energy level during the presentation was also rather low. This was because I totally forgot about the fact that the audience “feeds” on the energy that I radiate. I will definitely keep this in mind from now on.

While I feel that I’ve improved somewhat compared to the OP1, I acknowledge that I still have plenty of room for improvement. The process of presenting (practice) and then reflecting on what went right and what went wrong would definitely help me improve.

Our group started working on the presentation pretty late. We were told about this presentation way before OP1. We had more than ample time if we had started working then. As a result, we had to squeeze the rehearsals for the presentation on Sunday and Monday morning. Time management could have been much better.

I also think that the group focused too much on the slides. We spent a lot of time touching up the slides and trying to do cool stuff and have thus neglected perfecting our speeches. After all, we are the ones doing the talking, not the slides.

All in all, I really enjoyed working with this team. Everyone pulled his own weight and was willing to put in the extra effort to help the team excel.

Post #4: Reflection on meeting 1

We had planned to conduct our first meeting on Wednesday at 11 am in an unused classroom at AS6. The meeting started late as we had initially assumed that the room 206 would be empty. We had to hunt around for another unused classroom. So, there was poor planning on our part. We should have checked the availability of the room in advance.
This was my first time chairing a meeting. The other members in my team are Joon Wai and Kai Ren. They were pretty supportive even though I made several mistakes during the meeting.

My first mistake was poor time management. I got carried away by  the discussion and did not keep track of the time at all! As a result, the meeting had to end rather abruptly at noon as I had to attend a tutorial. During the meeting, I was sitting with my back to the clock. What I could have done was to orientate myself such that I’m facing the clock during the next meeting. Facing the clock would constantly remind me to keep track of the time.

Another mistake that I made was that I didn’t really give the others many chances to speak. The fact that I had already pretty much worked out the project in my head, combined with the pressure of looking good on camera, has probably caused me to “bulldoze” my way through objections. I will keep this in mind and will try to avoid this during our next meeting.

All in all, the meeting wasn’t that big of a fiasco as it looked. While it didn’t go perfectly, we still managed to assign tasks, and decide on what to do. Furthermore, we managed to get to know each other a lot better. We had only worked with each other once in class before starting on this project.

Once again, thank you Joon Wai and Kai Ren for your support during the meeting.

Post #3: Resolving interpersonal conflict

John has worked really hard and has just graduated from NUS with a first class honours degree in computer engineering. He was lucky enough to join a large and reputable company, ABC Company and receives a good salary for his work.

After a few weeks of work, John felt that his manager, Mr Tan always assigns menial tasks such as sweeping the floor or photocopying documents to his division and not to others. He felt that these kinds of jobs are tedious and beneath him. While his colleagues were also unhappy with the situation, none of them showed any interest in expressing their dissatisfaction to Mr Tan.

John decided to stand up for the group. So, he went up to Mr Tan and explained that everyone in the division felt that they were always unfairly given the most tedious chores. However, Mr Tan rudely said, “Get back to work”.

Enraged, John decided to complain directly to the human resource (HR) department. John subsequently won the case against Mr Tan, and Mr Tan was called down for it. John’s division was then no longer given such menial tasks and John was regarded as a sort of “hero” amongst his colleagues. However, John soon noticed that everything that required Mr Tan’s authorization, such as his leave application either took a long time to be approved or was ignored altogether.

John decided to complain to the HR department again. However, when the HR department tried to confirm his story with his colleagues, none of them backed him up.

After enduring the poor work environment for a few months, John eventually decided to leave the company.


There are many factors affecting this workplace conflict scenario and we can consider some of the following questions:

How could John have done better in this conflict?
Should he have simply endured those tedious tasks?
Was workplace politics the only factor that caused his downfall?
Should he have known something was wrong when his colleagues didn’t dare confront Mr Tan?

Post #2: Observation of team behaviour: intercultural and interpersonal communication

The development of modern aviation technologies has made it easy for us to travel around the world at will. We can easily find people of various nationalities and cultures dispersed all over the world. Hence, our intercultural skills are constantly tested as we work with people from other cultures in today’s modern workplace.

Culture is the way of thinking of a group of people who share common behaviour traits and background knowledge. Intercultural communication is the complex process of communicating to people through a cultural barrier. Different words can even mean different things to people of different cultures. For example, a Chinese might think of a tower as a pagoda, an American might think of it as a skyscraper and a Frenchman might think of it as the Eiffel tower.

Interpersonal communication as it name implies, is simply communication between two or more people. An important factor of interpersonal communication is our emotional quotient (EQ) which influences the way we interact with other people.

I’ve observed that while forming teams, people who do not know each other initially seem to have a natural tendency to stick with people of their own country or race. For example, Indians team up with other Indians and Singaporeans stick to Singaporeans. When members of the team come from the same culture, we feel comfortable as we understand and can relate to the other members better; we are in our “comfort zone”.

I reckon that this is one of the reasons as to why we were randomly grouped with people from various cultures in this course. By forcing us out of our “comfort zones”, we have to interact with people of other cultures, thereby improving our intercultural and interpersonal skills. By improving these skills, we can communicate better and hopefully avoid embarrassing social faux pas in our future careers.

Post #1: Communication and teamwork: Discuss this in relation to you.

In today’s workplace, one is expected to work in teams. Many projects are too big for one to handle alone. Either the project spans across multiple disciplines or the project would take an unfeasibly long time to complete alone.

A team is a group of people working towards a common goal. In a team, our strengths are magnified and our teammates can help us to overcome our weaknesses. In a team, the members share resources and work together to deliver a final product. Being able to understand others better would help me to reduce misunderstandings, enabling me to maintain a good working relationship with my teammates. I would also require good communication skills to present and defend my ideas. Good teamwork would definitely not be possible without effective communication.

Communication is the delicate process of transferring a message from one entity to another through various channels. Various forms of “noise” such as language barriers and the context of the message can distort the interpretation of my message. Therefore, effective communication is required to get the message across properly.

Being able to communicate better has many uses. An example is that it gives me an edge in marketing myself to prospective employers. Being a better communicator enables me to stand out from the crowd, giving me a better chance of advancing in my career as compared my peers.

Effective communication is, to me an art. Understanding the concepts of communications is only one of the first steps of improvement. Only with constant practice and refinement, can I learn to communicate more effectively.