BA

I believe I deserve 45 out of 50 potential points for my professionalism grade. I believe I always approached class in a positive manner, BA 352 was actually my favorite class, I was always open to different ideas and structures. This class has been completely different than what I am use to. I am use to a clear road map in a class with clear directions, this class was not presented in that manner for the purpose of preparing us for this type of communication in a work environment. I realized the purpose of this class and accepted the different structure of the class. Once I established acceptance towards this format I was excited to attend every class and was excited to adjust to new procedures. I also lifted my teammates emotions by making them laugh and giving back positive energy. I conclude that because three people in my group told me that I do a great job at keeping the groups spirits positive and high.

I believe I respected everyone in our class. I never turned down ideas in a rude manner, made friends with 2 international students, and did not engage in arguments with my group. In my peer reviews one of my members stated I do a good job showing compassion for the team and embracing participation from everyone. Showing compassion and welcoming all ideas were efforts to demonstrate I respected everyone and was interested in the growth of individuals. I was also able to make friends with 2 different international students, I always believed it would be hard to interact on a consistent basis with someone that was raised in a different culture. However, I was able to respect different cultural views and gain knowledge about other cultures. Yue Sun served as inspiration for me in my learning after seeing her have strong work ethic even being away from her country.

I was late to class once due to a misunderstanding in my work schedule and communicated with my group my reasoning for being late. For group meetings I ensured my work schedule would not conflict with group meetings. If my schedule conflicted with meetings I notified my group. I was absent from class once due a bad cold, I ensured to receive all notes from my group and finished all required work.

I believe taking initiative and being responsible were my strengths this term. I believe the first half of the term would of been more difficult to engage in conversations. I felt my group had a lot of shy members that were timid to speak up. I took the initiative to improve conversations, thus leading to highly effective meetings by the end of week 10. I was always responsible for attending all group meetings and completing all assigned tasks. I took on about four individual tasks through the term and never failed to turn them into the group at the appropriate time.

Overall, I believe I demonstrated excellent professionalism but unfortunately should receive less points for my absence and tardiness one time. I believe minus 5 points is good for missing a day of class for being sick

This entire term I was attempting to balance being a facilitator and recognizing when I need others to facilitate. I feel comfortable leading my team into discussion but felt I might of seemed like I did not care about others inputs or ideas. This is why I felt by asking questions, encouraging motivation, and challenging ideas I would convey my message of emotional intelligence towards my group. The first half of the term I attempted to break shyness barriers by encouraging my team to participate and state ideas. The second half of the term I took a step back and let someone else lead the group, I felt it was time for me to do this because after the midterm peer reviews many said I need to work on asking questions and challenging ideas. I felt this meant I was being too centralized in leading the conversation. Taking a step back allowed me to view our progress in a different manner, a manner I did not see before, I contributed by asking questions and helping my team being able to defend and enforce their ideas by challenging ideas in a manner that promotes idea growth.

Leading effectively and motivating my team worked best for me. I believe the times  I led discussions it led to big important ideas being developed and active participation. For example, our idea for our proposal came through a conversation being led by me. I was able to find a common interest in my group and use that interest to develop our idea. This allowed our group to enjoy our proposal and be interested in it, ensuring active participation from all members. Motivating my team is what I am most proud of; it is clear to me my team felt I helped them get motivated. Three out five teammates all said I do a great job in ensuring they all stay interested in the topic and motivate them to keep pushing forward even after a tough result. For example, our first proposal received a horrible grade, causing my entire group to feel demoralized and second guess our overall project. I felt our idea was good, we just did not put enough effort in the first draft. I conveyed that message to my entire team and ensure them we have plenty of time to fix and laid out a road map for improvement. Emotions changed and our proposal saw a significant jump from our first draft to the final draft.

Even though I improved in asking questions and challenging ideas I still need to improve on stepping back at times and play a devils advocate role. One reason for this change is because not many are comfortable playing this role, but having this role is vital to a team’s success. I feel it would only benefit me being able to be flexible between being a leader and a devil’s advocate. The second reason for this change is I want to encourage others not be shy to lead. This will give my team a sense that I care, and I don’t lead because I want the title, but because I was to be an efficient and motivated group. I will continue to work on this by practicing to challenge ideas on a daily basis.  For example, hanging out with friends always causes conversations with argument, this would be a perfect time for me to practice questioning ideas and theories.

Articles are great, but an article will never give you the experience. An article will not tell you your strengths and weaknesses, and article won’t allow you to commit a mistake and reflect on that mistake to prevent it from happening. An article does give you knowledge but it does not give you intangible assets that are more valuable than knowledge. Experience is the number one teacher, and this was accomplished by the group work done in class. The article on the ladder of inference provided great information, information that I would have never developed. However, you can not get rid of habits that lead to ladder of inference. To get rid of these habits, adjustments need to be practiced and observed.

Presentations are over! We have come a long way, it was a difficult procedure due to the lack of direction, however, my group has grown on an individual and group level. Our first proposal was horrible and contained very little group knowledge. It was pleasant in being able to turn things around after our first proposal and talking as a group about how to improve our proposal. We all took on separate tasks and set clear goals to be accomplished on an individual level. The entire group responded and we put a proposal together we were proud of. I personally feel this week I’ve been able to prove to myself I am capable of being a facilitator and contributor. The first half of the term I concentrated on leading and facilitating my group while the second half I tended to question ideas and strengthen proposed ideas.

Final week before presentations, this week has been full of opportunities to close out strong on our group progress. Realizing this week is the last week I will be able to work on my weakness, I constantly challenged my group mates and ensured approval from all teammates towards an idea. I was able to assign individual tasks to each member to complete for our final powerpoint. I practiced assigning tasks by providing reasoning why an individual is better for a certain task than another individual. This created an understanding and opportunity for others to agree or disagree with the assignment.

This week has presented me the opportunity to work a lot on my weakness’. We have met as a group multiple times to work on our proposal. After receiving our grade on our rough draft we realized we were lacking a lot of work. However, this week allowed me and everyone else in my group to play their role in order to produce our final proposal. I was able to get my group to participate a lot more during discussion and also promoted challenging each other. After practicing this among each other we were able to produce a final proposal we all feel is a lot better. This week I would like to focus on receiving feedback from my teammates. I want to ensure they all know I am not challenging their ideas because I do not like them, but because I am interested in growing that idea.

After receiving feedback from my group, I have reconsidered my strengths and weaknesses. The entire term I have been attempting to ask more questions and actively have my group mates participate. After the feedback I received I concluded I have been doing a really good job getting my teammates involved; they all believe I do a great job making sure their ideas and opinions are clearly understood among the entire group. However, I am still lacking the ability to play a devil’s advocate role, I get too comfortable playing the facilitator role that I digress from my focus of asking more questions. However, after receiving my feedback I have stepped back just a little as a facilitator and instead challenge ideas. Not only has this led to me producing great ideas, after hearing the entire group challenge ideas, but it has also allowed me become a better facilitator. This week I will continue to facilitate but ensuring I step back a little more than usual and continue to motivate my teammates to defend their arguments and ideas.

Week 5 presented opportunities for growth, such as working on my presentation skills, successfully implementing a contingincy plan, and accepting feedback on my weaknesses and strengths on groupwork. Presenting our project to the class allowed me to practice how well I communicate to others and think on the spot. Questions were thrown at me that ive never considered but was able to think of an answer on the spot. In the past ive forgotten my thoughts while presenting due to my nervousness. However, knowing I had my group with me presenting allowed me compose myself and deliver my message through an effective way.  I was also able to implement a contingincy plan by agreeing to present a night before the presentation due to our teammate feeling ill. This was really easy to carry out and everyone did not have a difficult time adjusting. Finally, I realized I tend to over power my opinions and ideas without constantly checking in with my teammates. I believe this should be easy to work on by practicing to make sure all my teammates agree with my ideas as they are being built as opposed to checking in once they have been built.

Through the first half of the term I believe ive been an overall good groupmate. Ive been able to represent our group during our presentation, create a new pathway after realizing our original idea was not well defined, and I always make sure to participate in all activities. As I feel ive been a good thinker and facilitator to our group, I believe the second half of the term will allow me to work on my weakness of encouraging my teammates to participate more in times of brainstorming.

This week presented my group with an opportunity to handle conflict. As a group we feel our draft proposal did not receive equal attention from all members. We felt some contributed more than others, the good news is no one was opposed to these thoughts. We all agreed it was not an attempt to put more work on another member, but more about a lack of communication and lack of direction. This opportunity has allowed us to sit as a group and solve an issue in a healthy and effective manner. After the discussion our group decided to meet more often for better communication. I believe the rest of the term will be smooth.

Week three has created an environment within my group that involves trust, equal efforts, and friendships. This week has made all of us more comfortable among each other, thus allowing us to work better as a team. We have successfully overcame our first issue, our need statement was not defined well enough, by brainstorming ideas again and tweaking our statement by incorporating all our ideas. Our new need statement has a little input from each of us, I do not believe I would feel as good as I do about our needs statement if each of us did not contribute to the statement. The other impressive barrier we’ve overcome is being the only 6 person group. It can be hard getting a 6 person group together at the same time, however, we all understand the commitment and have adjusted our priorities.

I am proud of the adjustments i’ve made to my technique among group work. I am speaking more and have not been shy of stating my opinion. It has also helped that my teammates support my ideas or help me tweak my ideas. I feel I have been more effective in a group in these three weeks than I have my entire educational career. I will continue striving to be the best group member I can be and keep providing my group with feedback and challenging myself to question others.

This past week I have realized how effective, efficient, and easy group work can be. Brainstorming as a team develops ideas that are  usually better defined than individual brainstorming. I believe this due to the simple activities done during class, these activities have lasted about 4 minutes each and the outcome has always been some type of idea. For example, listing three of your favorite things and finding someone with similar interest led to multiple business ideas in about ten minutes.

My group met out of class for the first time and held a very efficient meeting. During the meeting we discussed our policies and expectations, the meeting gave me the feeling that our group will work well together. Communication during the meeting was excellent and everyone knows any challenges within the group will not be taken personal. Everyone understands challenging each other will only produce better work. This provided a lot of relief to myself because I believe enforcing my weakness, challenging others, will not be as difficult. I will continue to challenge my teammates when it is appropriate.