Month: November 2013

Significant Progress

As we are finalizing our final presentation, I finally feel like I am seeing clearly the progress I have made throughout the term in my LDP. While the process was slow, and I will need to continue to develop certain skills once the course is completed, I am very satisfied with my development personally. In the past I have struggled immensely with anxiety, which greatly affected my ability to communicate with others clearly and confidently. This has made college, specifically working on group projects extremely difficult for me. While it has gotten better over the years, I have made the most progress on it during the past term, while participating in this class.

Specifically, I have made progress on “challenging the process”. In working on our final presentation especially, I have been clear in voicing my opinion when I disagree with a particular pathway we are pursuing. I have vastly improved my ability to communicate why I disagree and at times offering a solution. A usual occurrence in my group has become me asking “is this what we are being asked to do, or is it what we want to do.” I think that in challenging the process in an open ended way really allows us to collaborate as a group, while moving in a more productive and efficient direction.

I have also made significant progress in making sure that I focus not just on my work specifically, but the product we are creating as a group. I think that doing so has helped make it so no one person is responsible for anything, and that the work we do turn in has approval from all members. Working in such an inclusive and collaborative way has also helped me further my goal of “relationship management.” While our group has never had a problem socializing, there have been times where disagreements have led to tensions amongst the group.  In pushing for a collaborative approach to all of our work, we have been able to eliminate the bulk of the tension, allowing us to work effectively as a team.

Proposal Panic

With the final proposal due date drawing nearer my group has been meeting almost everyday. Our progress has been slow, but steady. We’re trying to focus more attention to building up proof to make our proposal more credible. Our focus on the details instead of the broad picture should help us to build a stronger argument and improve our proposal immensely. As one of the group members with a stronger writing ability I have been put in charge of writing the final proposal up to make the style and wording consistent. In order to get everything done in a timely manner, and since I am the one putting everything together I have been assigning roles to other group members in order to make sure everything research related is getting done. I have definitely made strides when it comes to speaking up within the group and no longer hesitate to disagree, improving greatly on my goal to “challenge the process”. When challenging the process I try to be strong in my wording and clear that we need to refocus, while also encouraging my other group members to share their ideas. By evaluating and questioning parts that potentially need changing we have been producing better work.  But, I have had trouble trying to articulate exactly what I’m trying to say. In order to work on my clarity while speaking I have been gather my thoughts for longer before speaking. I think that while my improvement in speaking is slow, it is still getting better. My group has been very helpful in giving me time so I can better articulate myself and are also clear in letting me know the point I’m trying to get across is unclear.

 

Calm Before the Storm

This week we presented our prototype to our classmates. I was one of the people presenting, and overall I think I did very well. I am slowly but surely improving my public speaking skills, but seem to be doing better in small groups. Talking with people one-on-one makes it much easier for me to clearly articulate what I’m saying. Opposed to when I speak in large groups and let my nerves take over- leading to my (and my voice) shaking, fidgeting, avoiding eye contact, and struggling to process my thoughts and vocalize them. I’m hoping that with continued practice our final presentation won’t be as anxiety provoking as the first. In order to practice in preparation for our final presentation, I plan on taking a more active leadership role in my group. By having to clearly communicate with people, in an authoritative way I will be more comfortable and prepared to do so in a larger group setting. I will also try to immerse myself in all aspects of the group work, even if specific work is designated to me so I can be as knowledgable about our presentation as possible. By being extremely informed and gaining confidence in my speaking abilities will allow be to excel in our final presentation delivery.

As a group we’re working together much more productively than before. I am effectively achieving my goal of “relationship management.” I have been doing so by trying to become more involved with all aspects of the project including everyones individual part. By expressing my interest in what they are doing, and “challenging the process” as we move along, I have been able to create a solid working relationships with all of my teammates. Managing my relationships with all members has played a part in our productivity, since we are able to communicate more clearly and allowing every opinion to be considered instead of prematurely disregarding them. We are getting things done faster and with better quality than ever before. I think that part of that is because we don’t currently have any work due. Our focus right now is preparation for the proposal and presentation. I think that as long as we stay up to date on what we have to do and continually work on our project that we should be headed in a very good direction.

My Place

Within our group I think that my place as group organizer has become pretty solidified. I often find myself being the person who keeps track of deadlines, guidelines and reminding other members what projects are coming up. I think that in doing so I help to keep on on track and headed in the right direction. I also think I do well making sure than no one person gets stuck with the bulk of the work and try to enforce the idea that all projects are group projects and should be treated as such i.e. getting everyones input and perspective and having all of us be accountable for everything we turn in and not just the last person who saw it.

By ensuring that we are effectively working as a team, I have been able to work on my goal of relationship management. As a team member, I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you are doing more work than someone else, or feel like your not being heard. So in order to make progress on relationship management I am actively working to ensure that no one person feels like their not being treated fairly. I have been doing this by making sure we go through each assignment as a group to assign parts, and then have the group add input so even if someone is putting the final pieces of something together they aren’t  solely responsible for what it will include. I have also made a significant effort to make sure the quieter members of the group get hear. While I am one of the three softer-spoken members of my group, I have made it a point to speak up to and ask the opinion of the quieter members so everyones voice can be heard. I think that by helping others to speak up I am seeing the importance of having all members of a group contribute their opinion, which in turn is helping me to speak up and contribute. By having all members contribute their opinions we have been able to complete assignments more accurately which will ultimately help our projects success.