In the first chapter of our book it talks about the stages that a team goes through until they start to meld together ad work well. We learned that the steps are: forming, storming, norming and performing. Throughout the semester I have seen my group go through all of these steps, and it wasn't until recently that our group went through the process.
At first we didn't really know each other, we were obviously in the forming stage. We worked for quite a while in the forming stage, I would even say for a majority of the semester. It was tough to try to get the group together because there was a serious lack of effort from multiple members of the team, in honesty I feel that all of us were guilty of this.
This lack of effort is what made us pull ourselves through the storming stage and into the norming and performing stages. The consulting project really made us get together and produce results in order to get the assignment on time.
I feel that this experience in groups has taught me how to deal with others who are assigned to a project even when times get tough. I feel like this is how the real world is, not everyone has the same level of priority on something as the others in a group do and frankly that is expected. What I have taken away is that problem resolution is an important skill to develop, and I will continue to work on how well I work with others in a group setting.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Team Video Conference Call
Video conference calls are a useful thing that we are able to utilize now that we have the technology. They allow for meetings to happen without actually meeting in person, which is a great way of cutting costs. In our video conference we were able to coordinate who was taking care of which aspect of the report. We were able to get organized in an efficient way so that all the aspects of the presentation are handled.
One of the downsides of doing internet meetings is that you are in essence dependent on how the connection is. In our case we had a hard time getting connected through Google hangouts because we had a weak connection. So while a remote meeting is useful, it is not as reliable as an in person meeting. All in all however I would say that the remote meeting was a good experience and will be something that I can see becoming the most common ways to conduct meetings in the future.
One of the downsides of doing internet meetings is that you are in essence dependent on how the connection is. In our case we had a hard time getting connected through Google hangouts because we had a weak connection. So while a remote meeting is useful, it is not as reliable as an in person meeting. All in all however I would say that the remote meeting was a good experience and will be something that I can see becoming the most common ways to conduct meetings in the future.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Making a Mark With Short Presentations
This week we talked about how to effectively use a flip-chart while presenting. presenting this way is a whole different ball game because not while things are planned out and prepared before hand there is possibility of writing on the flip-chart while presenting.
With flip-chart presentations it can be harder to keep an audiences attention because you may be writing on the chart or the colors or words could start to blend together. A way to keep contrast with in the text is to mix up the colors that you are using, it is a great idea either to alternate colors or highlight certain words so that they stand out.
In our class we will have to present an assigned topic in a few weeks using flips-charts and I think that it will be an interesting experience. yesterday in class Pro. Middleton introduced how to use a chart like this and she gave some helpful insight. The thing that stuck out to me most was writing while talking and writing big enough, I feel that it would be a waste of time to prepare for a presentation and then write too small which makes it difficult for the audience to see what you have written. Letters should be at least two inches and should be in all caps so that the words are easy to read.
Personally I am not god at writing in all caps so that will be something that I need to work on in order to prepare for my presentation that I will have to give with a flip-chart.
With flip-chart presentations it can be harder to keep an audiences attention because you may be writing on the chart or the colors or words could start to blend together. A way to keep contrast with in the text is to mix up the colors that you are using, it is a great idea either to alternate colors or highlight certain words so that they stand out.
In our class we will have to present an assigned topic in a few weeks using flips-charts and I think that it will be an interesting experience. yesterday in class Pro. Middleton introduced how to use a chart like this and she gave some helpful insight. The thing that stuck out to me most was writing while talking and writing big enough, I feel that it would be a waste of time to prepare for a presentation and then write too small which makes it difficult for the audience to see what you have written. Letters should be at least two inches and should be in all caps so that the words are easy to read.
Personally I am not god at writing in all caps so that will be something that I need to work on in order to prepare for my presentation that I will have to give with a flip-chart.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Online Interview
The online interview was interesting for me, as far as the interview went, I would say it is more like a normal interview. The questions were thought provoking, I made sure I was using PAR stories to answer questions and I did what I could to bring the questions back to my resume.
The things that were interesting or almost weird to me were the things that weren't in the dialogue. In the room that I did the interview in there was a light with a ceiling fan, the light was behind me and as such it made it look like the top of my head was shining, if I have to do an interview over Skype I wish make sure the room is well lit and that the light is in front of me. I will probably sit in front of a blank wall so that the things that are in the room don't end up distracting from the interview.
I also noticed the there is not as much room for hand gestures, where if I want to gesture I need to bring my hands up near my face and I feel that if I do that then I will be distracting from the interview. In order to preserve the same level of interest I found that I would use more facial expressions. Yukio, the person I was paired with, noticed something that I do that I want to change, the problem that was identified was that when I think of how to answer and when I start answering a question I tend to look off screen or away from the person. I will be sure to work on this so that I can have the most successful interviews that I can./
The things that were interesting or almost weird to me were the things that weren't in the dialogue. In the room that I did the interview in there was a light with a ceiling fan, the light was behind me and as such it made it look like the top of my head was shining, if I have to do an interview over Skype I wish make sure the room is well lit and that the light is in front of me. I will probably sit in front of a blank wall so that the things that are in the room don't end up distracting from the interview.
I also noticed the there is not as much room for hand gestures, where if I want to gesture I need to bring my hands up near my face and I feel that if I do that then I will be distracting from the interview. In order to preserve the same level of interest I found that I would use more facial expressions. Yukio, the person I was paired with, noticed something that I do that I want to change, the problem that was identified was that when I think of how to answer and when I start answering a question I tend to look off screen or away from the person. I will be sure to work on this so that I can have the most successful interviews that I can./
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Spreading Your Word
This week we talked about business letters for when written communication is sent between you and someone else. The main point that stuck out to me was about using appropriate voice. We know about both active and passive voices so I won't spend time going through those, but rather I will try to answer my own question which is when is it appropriate to use passive voice in a persuasive letter?
I know that many times when trying to persuade someone we use the direct approach to writing which is to draw them in with facts about what you are trying to do or something and then putting an agenda in the letter so they know what is about to come at them. Active voice is used in persuasive letters in, what seems to be, a majority of situations.
I think that passive voice would be used if someone is trying to get someone else to do something that they don't really want to do or don't feel they need. In these cases passive voice could be used to draw the reader in and get them to feel good and then deliver the bad news of what you want them to do.
Knowing the differences about when to use which kind of voice is important because it will make your writing more effective. To overcome my problem of not knowing when to use passive voice I will go back to the book and try to find out because I know that it is something important and something that I should know.
I know that many times when trying to persuade someone we use the direct approach to writing which is to draw them in with facts about what you are trying to do or something and then putting an agenda in the letter so they know what is about to come at them. Active voice is used in persuasive letters in, what seems to be, a majority of situations.
I think that passive voice would be used if someone is trying to get someone else to do something that they don't really want to do or don't feel they need. In these cases passive voice could be used to draw the reader in and get them to feel good and then deliver the bad news of what you want them to do.
Knowing the differences about when to use which kind of voice is important because it will make your writing more effective. To overcome my problem of not knowing when to use passive voice I will go back to the book and try to find out because I know that it is something important and something that I should know.
Ch 5 Presentation Thoughts
My group had its presentation this week about chapter five so I was able to practice presenting and actually make a presentation for the class. Afterwards I have now been able to see the video of our presentation to see better what I need to improve. Watching the video was an interesting experience because I don't usually see myself from the third person perspective and also the video didn't have sound on it, but this made it very easy to see what I do when I am in front of people.
Going in to this presentation I was nervous because I don't do well speaking in front of people, my biggest fear is to put myself in front of people and have the presentation turn out like a failure. While this didn't actually occur while watching the video I found that my insecurity about that was also presented. This nervousness caused me to be very jittery, I honestly remember having a "Ricky Bobby" moment from the movie Talledega Nights, Ricky Bobby is the main character and after winning a race he was being interviewed on camera and he did not know what to do with his hands and as a result he continually raised them into the view of the camera. I feel like I acted similarly while presenting where I did not know what i should do (or not do) with my hands so I was continually doing something that could be distracting to audience members. Something that I also noticed was that I am not very aware of the space, I move a bit but I stay in a place that might be distracting (I had the projector on my face because I was tall.
Some things that I did well as well as my team was our transitions, this was something that we actually didn't practice before hand, but when it came down to it, we did them pretty well. We also did a good job at incorporating humor throughout the presentation to help keep the audience's attention.
For the next presentation I will practice going through the presentation more with my group so that I will feel more comfortable with the material and as a result I think that I will not be such distraction with my hands. In addition I will work hard to keep my hands still while not speaking in the presentation so I don't take people's attention away from where I want it.
Originally published 3/8/14, updated 3/20/14.
Going in to this presentation I was nervous because I don't do well speaking in front of people, my biggest fear is to put myself in front of people and have the presentation turn out like a failure. While this didn't actually occur while watching the video I found that my insecurity about that was also presented. This nervousness caused me to be very jittery, I honestly remember having a "Ricky Bobby" moment from the movie Talledega Nights, Ricky Bobby is the main character and after winning a race he was being interviewed on camera and he did not know what to do with his hands and as a result he continually raised them into the view of the camera. I feel like I acted similarly while presenting where I did not know what i should do (or not do) with my hands so I was continually doing something that could be distracting to audience members. Something that I also noticed was that I am not very aware of the space, I move a bit but I stay in a place that might be distracting (I had the projector on my face because I was tall.
Some things that I did well as well as my team was our transitions, this was something that we actually didn't practice before hand, but when it came down to it, we did them pretty well. We also did a good job at incorporating humor throughout the presentation to help keep the audience's attention.
For the next presentation I will practice going through the presentation more with my group so that I will feel more comfortable with the material and as a result I think that I will not be such distraction with my hands. In addition I will work hard to keep my hands still while not speaking in the presentation so I don't take people's attention away from where I want it.
Originally published 3/8/14, updated 3/20/14.
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