Undeniably, the basis of a formation of a human society are built upon the foundations of effective communication in between themselves and the strength of their unity and bonds, as they struggle against the hardships of nation-building. In other words, communication and teamwork are actually parts of our lives, in a sense that it is something we will engage in every single day.
On a personal note, communication holds a great portion in my life. I have lost count of how many misunderstandings I had created from the words coming out of my mouth for the past 20 years or so, and each time I reflected on why I commit such an avoidable mistake in the first place. I personally place much emphasis on communication because I cherish friendships, and to destroy one verbally is my worst nightmare. Sadly, it did happen a few times and I deeply regretted the lost friendships along the years of education.
To define strong teamwork, I would say "communicate effectively first before gauging how strong your teamwork is"; a group of students stepping all over each other as they attempt to complete an assignment just about sums up how strong their teamwork is. Some would say that both exists as a collective, a kind of "Which comes first? Chicken or egg?" question, but in my opinion a sturdy foundation of communication must be laid upon first before we even consider anything else during the formation of a team. A team communicating well within each other will naturally display an impressive amount of teamwork.
In NUS, working together as a team with strangers proves to be a testing challenge every semester. It is a difficult task, really. Setting up a good first impression, understanding each other, be sensitive when communicating within the group so as to reduce hostility, conflict management, dividing up a fair share of workload, the list just goes on endlessly. I am a believer in teamwork, because during my secondary school years in an uniformed group it was proven again and again the amount of achievement that can be accomplished with a successful team in a short amount of time. I sure hope I can apply all the lessons learnt during that period in my tenure in NUS, not solely for the grades but for the satisfaction gained upon every successful task done as a team.
Friday, January 22, 2010
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Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteThe examples you used to relate teamwork and communication are relevant, which is rare to find in the blogs I read. Good job in selecting your examples.
However, I find that the first two paragraphs are unnecessary to communicate the idea of communication and teamwork and how it is related to you. I understand your attempt to draw interest from the readers on such an abstract topic. You may want to try to define teamwork and communication in your first paragraph and explain briefly the importance of them. I chose to define teamwork and communication at the start of the blog entry as I want to set the scope of my blog entry for my readers as I elaborate it further in my blog entry. Alternatively, you can also add the definitions of teamwork and communication on your third paragraph and start your blog entry from the paragraph.
In my opinion, the explanation of each point can actually be reduced. In other words, you can actually use fewer words to communicate the same idea. An example would be this particular sentence: “I have lost count of how many misunderstandings I had created from the words coming out of my mouth for the past 20 years or so, and each time I reflected on why I commit such an avoidable mistake in the first place.” I will actually phrase the idea as “I have created numerous misunderstandings due to miscommunication with others although I did some reflection after each misunderstanding.
I hope my comments are constructive and I look forward to see your improvement in the future blog entries. You know the topic of the blog entry clearly. You have the potential to write a blog entry that can capture your readers’ attention. Keep going!
Li Hua
Hi,
ReplyDeleteJust for some clarifications...
As according to Lihua's comments and the overwhelming exceed in word limit (sorry I failed to take notice of it during blogging) and so my post is editted, just the removal of the first 2 paragraphs.
Brandon
Hi Brandon
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with you that communication is important, not only in teams doing projects, but in our daily lives as well. As you mentioned, most conflicts can be avoided with better communication, as they are caused by misunderstandings. You mentioned misunderstandings created from saying the wrong things. I feel that this can be reduced, by becoming a better listener.
One of the ways to become a better listener is empathy, which is to put oneself into the speaker’s shoes. This will enable one to better understand the speaker’s perspective. One will then respond more objectively and will result in fewer misunderstandings. Deferring judgment is another element of a good listener. This will allow the speaker to finish his message and will enable one to get the full understanding of the message spoken. Having the full message is important in preventing misunderstandings, as one will not form judgments or rebuttals based on an incomplete message. Paying attention to the speaker is important too. We do not want to form conclusions, while missing out some parts of the message.
There are still other points to take note of, in other to become a better listener. However, the points that I pointed out above are what I feel is the more important points to prevent misunderstandings. Therefore, listening is also part of the communication process, and we should aim to become a better listener, so as to communicate more effectively.
Leonard (C06)
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteIt is really generous of you to share your past experiences with us on this blog. It shows that you are willing to learn and improve on your communication skills. This is exactly what we should be doing: reflecting upon our actions and changing it for the better. I believe that you will be able to be an effective communicator in the near future, and foster stronger relationships with people around you.
I agree with you that communication should be the foundation of a successful team. Communication is required to foster a deeper understanding between members, and thus it reduces conflicts. Resolution of conflicts will be much easier as members understand the personalities of one another.
I understand the feeling of accomplishment that you had during your days in uniformed group, as I was in a uniform group too. We had a competition that required teamwork and we spent weeks training for it. Initially, we had problem co-ordinating as we were from different ranks, but eventually, we got together as a team and things starts to get better. Though we did not win the competition, we had a strong sense of achievement when we hoist the flag of our school to signify accomplishment of the task.
Your reflections have indeed given me a chance to think of my very own experiences. Good start to the first post and I am looking forward to the next one.
Regards,
Ryan
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI can understand how you feel when you mention in your personal experience how grave mistakes are committed just by a simple but complex issue like miscommunication. Simple as many people know that it is important to have good communication, complex as most of us are still not proficient communicators after all these years.
And I like how you explained how communication and teamwork should work cohesively, and how one strongly influences the other, rather than explaining both issues individually.
But there are some suggestions you might want to consider to further improve your post. Firstly, I feel that your post does not elaborate sufficiently on the concept of effective communication. I understand how you feel when you explain with personal experiences what problems can occur when there is miscommunication. But it does not explain what effective communication/miscommunication really means. I can get a vague idea of these concepts in your post, but I feel the concepts can be enforced clearer.
Also I feel that your post might have been overly dominated by personal emotions and suggestions on how miscommunication can be improved on are also not touched on. You might want to be balanced in how you present your personal experiences and which parts involve the concepts of communication and teamwork.
Even so, I really think you provided interesting insights and look forward to see more of your posts. (:
I share the sentiments that communications is indeed important, not only in the non personal field, also personal field. As you have mentioned, there are countless of misunderstandings which occur due to miscommunications, which result in very undesirable consequences, as worse as losing the ones we cherish. Although it may seemed very extreme that miscommunications can cause one to lose a friend or someone close, it is undeniably that it can happen. Communications are what bond people together, people communicate to understand each other, if this communication is not done properly, we may misinterpret what other people say and receive the wrong message.
ReplyDeleteTeamwork and communications are indeed tightly coupled. I agree that communication provides a stepping stone for effective teamwork to flourish. Although basic, it is of utmost important that the members in a team learn how to communicate effectively so that individual’s ideas can be transformed into team idea. Through proper interpretation of each others’ message, the team can enhance their performance greatly because effective and relevant improvements can be made.
I am hopeful that you will be able to apply the lesson that you learnt in your NUS life and apply them when you embark on your journey out into the world outside. Overall your post is clear and concise with relevant self experience sharing.
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment on my blog, I will be sure to remember to use what you have said in future blog posts. That said, I found your post to be very insightful, and offers a real world perspective on what is communication and teamwork is to you. I agree that effective communication has an important place even in social situations and that life would have been better if I did not, to use a cliché, “open mouth, insert foot”.
The part on teamwork also allowed me to see the steps to move toward creating an efficient team, and emphasizes precisely how difficult it is to create one. Although, I have to agree that teamwork is really essential for everyone, and any skills learnt on improving teamwork should be cherished. However, I disagree that only effective communication leads to good teamwork, as there are more factors that will affect the relationship between the people, such as their experiences and willingness to be part of the team. Still this is merely a personal opinion.
On the other hand, I do not understand some of your points as the inferences are left implicit and for me to interpret, for example the point of a group of students stepping all over each other. Perhaps a more explicit explanation would help to clarify the points.
An interesting and entertaining read, I am looking forward to your next post.
Regards,
Kimberly