REFLECTION ON COMMUNICATION AND TEAMWORK

It has been a great learning experience and personally this course has been very useful and I have learnt the importance of effective communication and teamwork and how it plays a major role in our career. We need to use these skills throughout our life to succeed in all spheres of life.

It is well known fact that the greatest creation of God is Humans, who have the ability to communicate and listen. I have realized through my learning the importance of listening, which is vital for effective communication. This has also paved a way for better understanding of the synergy between seamless thinking and expression. I have realized that effectiveness of communication is not judged by what we say, but how effectively it reaches receiver.


We had to do two projects in this course each in groups of 3 or 4.Through these projects I realized how important teamwork is and when we work as a group the task at hand becomes much easier provided the work is delegated effectively among the group members. I also realized that misunderstandings are common when we work as a group that too consisting of people from different cultural backgrounds .It is important that we should try to avoid misunderstanding as it will hinder the progress of the team as a whole.

In this course we learnt many things like interpersonal and intercultural communication, interpersonal conflict resolution and these projects were a good platform where we could put to use the things we learnt. The meetings and presentations were video recorded which helped me identify the areas where I was weak and had to improve because when we see the mistakes we made visually it is easier to correct and we tend to be careful not to make it again .The presentations have helped improve my speaking skills both verbal and non verbal and also increased my confidence level.


The blogs served as a platform to share my thoughts freely with others and also know about others view points on the topic and comment on it. I personally feel that the things learnt in this course are very valuable and will be very helpful in my future endeavors. At this point I would like to quote Isaac Newton -“What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean”. Hence there is always scope for improvement. Hence I hope that I improve on my weaknesses and use the principles learnt in this course effectively in order to succeed in the future.

I conclude the blog by summing up my learning in a sentence.
“Effective communication and team work is essential in every sphere of life and represent two eyes of a body which co-exists and are inseparable”

REFLECTION ON ORAL PRESENTATION 2

The topic our group had chosen was FOOD WASTAGE AND WORLD HUNGER .As a whole I think my team did a good job and we were able to achieve our goal of raising awareness about the imbalance in food wastage and world hunger among the youth.

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION:

I personally feel that I have improved on my verbal skills compared to the last presentation. I think my voice was clear and audible to the audience and was pitched at the right level for the audience. But I feel I could have laid more emphasis on the key points by pausing at appropriate places. I also think that my pronunciation was good and could be understood by everybody




Regarding the non verbal skills, the font was clear and the visuals were used appropriately and well timed with the presentation. The content was clear and concise and was well organized. I think I was confident, relaxed and established good eye contact with the audience, there by trying to capture the entire attention of the audience. I was familiar with the content and I think that helped me establish good eye contact with the audience rather than concentrating on what I had to say next. I feel I could have made better use of hand gestures to lay emphasis and explain certain key points.

The content was well organized and there was good use of connecting devices. I think I have improved on my speed compared to my previous presentation. Though I answered a few questions in the Q &A session, I personally feel I could have answered more questions.

TEAM REFLECTION:



I feel that as a whole my team did a good job and we also achieved our goal of creating an impact on the present day youth’s mind regarding the imbalance between food wastage and hunger and making them aware that they can play a major role in solving this problem. Our appearance was well coordinated. There was an good rapport between the team members and transition from one speaker to other was also smooth. I feel we need to improve on our certain areas like coordination and should have rehearsed more times as there was time lag during switching of slides. On the whole I enjoyed working together as a team throughout this project and also made use of the communication and teamwork principles we had learnt.

Reflection on meeting 1

It was the first time I had a meeting which was being video recorded. Hence I was a bit conscious of it in the beginning but later I became at ease and was fully concentrating in the meeting. Our time span was limited since we had to complete the meeting within 1 hour. Firstly, we had to find a serene place to discuss about our project and we found one. We organized ourselves to start the discussion.

We had already written down the agenda for the meeting and we followed the agenda closely during the meeting. Our team leader listed out the points and we discussed each point. During the meeting we put into practice the various skills we had learnt earlier. Each of us were able to communicate what we wanted to convey clearly to others and we were polite in our approach and hence there were no hiccups. Thus we were able to cover all the points needed and also complete our discussion on time. I feel I was clear and confident in conveying my points but I feel I should improve on my body language.



There were a few shortcomings. Our voice was not very clear at all times and hence we were not audible in certain parts of the video. Thus we realized that we need to speak louder in the forthcoming meetings. Personally I feel that I should have been better prepared for the meeting as there were times when we were not very sure if what we were doing is correct. Hence I hope to do better in the upcoming meetings.

RESOLIVING INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT

Conflict is a part of life and it is inevitable. Conflict begins in one’s self like what to study, what food to eat and which movie to go. When so be the case for self, it is necessary to face the conflict and find the solution.The success lies in resolving the conflict by proper understanding, healthy discussion and a win-win approach keeping in mind the end objective.

It once happened that me and my very close friend had some sought of a cold war between us for some silly reason and our views in few educational areas were different. At that time ,we had to do a project in our school. I was under the assumption that I would group up with my close friend, and hence was not bothered searching for a team mate. But my friend ,due to the misunderstanding between us decided not to do the project with me without letting me know about it and had also found another team mate. When I got to know about this ,it was too late to find a good team mate as most of the class had already formed groups. I really got mad on my friend and also showed my anger on her directly saying that it was not wrong on her part to do the project with someone else but she should have informed me about her decision so even I could have found another group mate and would not have been in a fix. I also stopped talking to her to make her realize that I was still disappointed with her act. After a few days, my friend realized her mistake and apologized to me for her mistake.

Thus I sum up that conflicts are inevitable and cannot be avoided but needs to be successfully tackled .In order to resolve a conflict ,firstly we should understand the core issues giving rise to conflict , give a patient hearing .We should not allow emotions to overrule but communicate our view point effectively .we must accept our mistake gracefully if we are wrong otherwise tell that we agree to disagree on the point politely .
Do you agree with my view that conflicts are not avoidable but resolvable in most cases?