Reflection on Oral Presentation 2

After watching the presentation video, I can proudly say that I have made a far better job compared to what I had done in the first oral presentation.

Learning from the mistakes from the first oral presentation when I did not prepare the scripts, enticing myself that I could do without full preparation, I did thoroughly write the scripts, proofread, and corrected the mistakes. In addition, that my team mates and I rehearsed again and again helped me in improving the speech and seeing beforehand what it would be like in the real presentation.

A mistake from the first presentation was that I couldn’t maintain eye contact with the audience. In the second presentation, I did my utmost to keep eye contact with them, looking at different groups of audience. That was also credited to my well-prepared notes. Most of the time, I did not have to look at the screen but instead spent my time with my audience.

My wording also fit my role as a marketer. It was enthusiastic enough to persuade my customers to adopt my product, yet still formal enough to fit the ambience. Besides, wearing formal clothes made me feel professional as well as helping me feel the responsibilities that I had to carry.

One point that needed improvement was the Q&A part. I think my team mates and I did not prepare well enough to give out satisfying answers to all of the questions raised.

As a team, thanks to the thorough preparation and the rehearsing phrase, we could perform a fine job during the presentation, switching smoothly from one speaker to another, synchronizing the slides with and speech, and working together to answer the questions during Q&A, though not very productively :)

In conclusion, I would like to thank Win Yee and Christabel for the great jobs they have done. Without them, we would not have had quite a successful presentation like that.


Below is the video clip of our presentation, credited to Christabel:

Reflection on Meeting 1

Above is a screen capture from our team meeting's video.

After watching the video recording of our team meeting, I feel that we did perform well during the meeting. After an issue was raised, we all contributed to the discussion to find out the solution to the problem. Our team leader, Jeremy, did a very good job in steering the discussion. Each bullet in the agenda was solved chronologically and plausibly thanks to him. Abhinav was the one with the best programming skills among three of us; hence, he helped us clarify any doubt and understand how to implement the code. Each of us did try our best to tackle to problem. However, since the problem was not really a problem at that time, the discussion was faster than expected in the agenda. Nonetheless, we were dynamic enough to discuss issues that had not been decided in the agenda, which showed that we all prepared the problem thoroughly beforehand.

However, there was some room for improvement. The seating plan and the angle of the camera was not good. Hence, in order not to hide Jeremy from view, Abhinav and I had to set our laptops on our laps. Though they are called laptops, it is very unprofessional to put the laptop on one’s laps during the meeting. Another thing was our body gestures. It is never easy and natural to hold a meeting with the presence of a camera no matter how hard one may try. Our movements were stiffened and wooden, which were not shown in latter meetings without the camera.

On the whole, I think that our meeting was successful and productive. We could managed to tackle all of the points in the agenda faster than expected and there was little time wasted on irrelevant topics.

Resolving interpersonal conflict

The friendship between my best friend and me had been strongly built for a very long time. It seemed like we always told the truth to each other and never said “no” when the other needed help. This friendship kept growing up even when I had a girlfriend. I still tried my best to balance the relationship between my girlfriend and my best friend so that I could make both feel happy.

Things happened when my friend asked me to come to help her with the project on the following day. The problem was that I had already dated my girlfriend to go out for movie. At that time, like a natural reaction without thinking carefully, I made up a stupid lie about having family business to refuse her. My friend was easily convinced and I was sure she would never know the truth.

However, everything turned out to be totally different from what I had imagined. I was caught by my friend while I was hanging out with my girlfriend. That was a really uncomfortable experience to me. Like a child caught doing bad things by his parents, I felt absolutely embarrassed. Even worse, my friend totally ignored me on the next days. It would have been easier for me if she simply complained to me or even shouted at me for cheating her. In that case, I could have had a chance to say sorry. Yet, she kept silent and avoided talking with me even when I tried to call her many times.

The situation prolonged by a couple of weeks. During that time, I suddenly felt so empty. I remembered the good time between us then realized how important this friendship was to me. I couldn’t imagine how sad and lonely I would be if I lost this friendship forever. Those thoughts empowered me to find out the best way to cool down with her. I set my mind on saying sorry to her. Fortunately, my friend and I talked with each other again after a long period of cold war that seemed like longer than a year to me. Maybe after all that time, both of us had found out our friendship was too strong to be easily broken up that she finally accepted my apology.

Friendship is hard to be kept yet easy to be broken. Conflicts will inevitably arise from time to time; however, if we know how to wisely deal with them, our precious friendship will certainly evolve.

This is a photo of my best friend and me. We were going on a field trip. It feels so good when having friends around. May those memories and our friendship last with time :-)

Intercultural Communication: Conflict and Resolution

Working in an international environment also means that one has to familiarize with the diversity of cultures, languages, and so on, which can sometime be very troublesome.

When working in a group of different cultures and languages, the most frequently occurred scenario is that there are two or more people from the same country.

I am being in the same situation. In my CG1108 group, there are two Chinese Singaporean guys. As an instinct, when working together, they start talking in their mother tongue, Singlish, a combination of both English and Chinese at the same time. Fortunately, since I can speak a little Chinese, I can somehow catch up what they are discussing. However, the other member in our group, a girl from India, cannot understand what they say. She keeps asking me to translate their discussion into English, which is rather frustrating.

Speaking in their mother tongue may be faster and easier for them to express their ideas. However, it will eventually slow down the whole process of the group as the non-Chinese speaking members have to wait for the translation in order to catch the ideas. In addition, the non-Chinese speaking members may feel that they are left out in the discussion, which will result in lesser contribution to the group work.

It would be thoughtful if all members of the group discuss the group work in one common language so that everyone can fully devote to the work. By that way, the process will be pushed faster and the result will be more fruitful.

Although there were intercultural conflicts among our teammates, we did well cooperate to finish runner-up in the LEGO Mindstorms contest. Here comes the clip

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REFERENCE
1. Intercultural (Image): http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/images/intercultural.gif
2. LEGO Mindstorms contest - Us runner-up @1:30 (Video): http://www.facebook.com/frank.ngo

Teamwork: What They Are to Me?

What is the difference between a GROUP and a TEAM? A group can be formed by a collection of people with something in common, such as gender, interest, or religion. Forming a team is much more difficult. A group qualifies as a team only if its members focus on helping one another to accomplish organizational objectives. There is no "I" in "TEAMWORK", which means everyone has to contribute to the goal set by all members.

Nowadays, no one can work on his or her own. The massive workload requires collaboration of people in order to achieve the goal. Therefore, mastering the skills to successfully work in team is a must.

For example, the first priority when doing teamwork is that members of the team have to set up the rules for the team. Though it may be uneasy at first, it will help the team easily solve problems occurred later. Chances are that the conflicts arise during the working process (in fact, they always do); all that the members have to do is to do their utmost to obey the rules and contribute to the teamwork.

There are many other skills that are essential to the success of teamwork, such as communication skill, discussion skill, and so on. Some of them can be learned through reading material. However, as people say, practice makes perfect. One can only enhance his or her skill by really apply what is learned to reality. By that way, the skills can be more and more sharpened; and the outcome of the work will become more and more fruitful.

I was really impressed when watching this video. It was the result of amazing teamwork: everyone contributing to the success of the show, no one being allowed to stand out of the crowd or to be the star. The synchronization was purely fascinating.


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REFERENCE
1. Teamwork (Image): http://www.toastmasters.org/OtherImages/Teamwork.aspx
2. Team Work: Birds or People? Find Out (Video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF80RqLkl6E