Effective Communication and Teamwork
Perhaps the above 4 words are the most important words of my 2nd Semester at NUS: "Effective Communication and Teamwork". Communication skills hold a lot of importance for me. Defining it -
Effective
- Communication is about getting and receiving thoughts with little or no distortion.
- Team Work is about believing in the team, and advancing aggressively towards a common objective.
I am a person who keeps bubbling with ideas, and getting my ideas across with minimal amount of distortion, means Effective Communication to me. Effective Team Work, a quality that I still feel that I have to nurture and develop, holds real importance as my future jobs will require me to work in teams.
Instead of going deep into the details of communication and teamwork, I will just use this space to talk about why I would like to be an effective communicator, and why I want to be the best team-worker. I dont want to talk about "what" is communication and teamwork. It is actually just a "Good-habit" and "Great qualities" that I want to imbibe over the 4 months of this module.
The best learner is the one who learns from his previous mistakes and experiences by reflecting on his thoughts. To give me an incentive to be the better person I want to be, I will rather confess and actively realize some of the mistakes that I might have committed.
I dont think that I am a really good communicator of my thoughts.
The main reasons I can attribute to this is that perhaps I think a lot and dont like being involved in lots of conversations that involve others' points of view. (This doesnt mean that I dont talk. Give me a topic of my interest, and I can put my whole mind in front of you!)
But the key thing is communicating effectively. The thing I really dislike about others is the way they attach a point of view to every single existence on earth, and then propagate that point to everybody. Perhaps this is one of the barrier of communication that I have. I have a point of view, but I keep it to myself, and thus miss being part of important conversations.
Communication not only involves points of view, but also ideas and thoughts. My work later on will require me to communicate my ideas effectively, and I think that this quality can be nurtured heavily.
Coming to team work, I have worked in a team before and I am working now too. I have teams for almost all my modules. I think the best part of being in a team is that you really come to know of your short-comings and believing in others. You learn the art of motivating others and also staying motivated towards the same goal.
My experience in working in teams has been good so far, but I still feel that I do lack a bit in "Putting in my best".
This is all I have to say about being an effective communicator and team-member. The blog is about reflecting on myself, so I dont expect to write much about "What" the things are, but "why" the things are. Learning the "What" part is eventually the main aim of this module, but getting a window to write something that perhaps might improve me, is rare :P
Pointing out strengths does not require strength, but pointing out weaknesses in one-self does require strength. Also what good a learning is if it just strengthens your strengths, and talks nothing about your weaknesses. I dont say here that my communication and team work skills are really down-under, but yeah, there is always a scope for improvement :)
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Hi Angad,
You speak true words, identifying one's weakness is the only way to go about improving yourself. And I'm glad that you have identified the flaws that you are going to work out over the next semester and beyond. :)
I also agree that effective communication involves the facilitation of a bi-directional exchange of ideas and information. We exchange many ideas daily, and most of it involves personal ideas and opinions. Thus, to condemn other people's opinions about the world is like constructing a huge dam across a huge wealth of information.
Therefore, I concur that your dislike of other people's opinions about anything in the world is a barrier to effective communication. Communication cannot after all be a linear one-sided supply of information. ;)
With that said. I strongly feel that we must learn to be able to accept other people's ideas, and accept them with grace. After all, everyone has their own point of view, including ourselves. :)
Here's to us and to a great semester ahead. I wish you well. :D
Yours faithfully
Juncheng Chen
Hi Angad,
As you have pointed out, to achieve good teamwork, one must be open and upfront with their ideas. Hence, it is important to speak out one's ideas instead of bottling them up. Doing so will not only slows the team progress, it might also give people a wrong impression of a bad team-player.
With this in mind, it is important that we learn not just to communicate, but to communicate effectively even when in a team of diverse backgrounds and personalities.
With clear goals in sight, I wish you all the best! ^^
Yours faithfully,
Junhao Quek, c04e
Hi Angad,
As you mentioned in your article, you don't like other people to talk about their views on everything and try to persuade you. I'm having the similar communication barrier with you. I think the best way to solve this problem is that we can practice to become a better listener so that we can both listen to other people's ideas and judge on our own which information is useful and valuable and which is not.
Besides this, I think due to the difference in cultural backgrounds, people may have different habits of expressing themselves. We can try to accept them first and then understand them.
Yours faithfully,
Xiangyu
Hi Angad,
My first impression is that your entry is long and detailed. I have quickly browsed your blog and realize that you are taking CS3216 Software development on Evolving platforms this semester. My seniors say that it is one of the hardest and heavy-loaded module which require tons of teamwork skills and "can be compared to an 8 MCs module ". And it also means that at least 4 of your modules require working in team (CG1108,CG1413,CG1102 and CS3216, correct me if I'm wrong).
Luckily, we have a good chance to practice teamwork through this module, CG1413. I agree that team members should know of their short-comings and believing in other members. By doing that, we can improve ourselves by avoid our mistakes and taking feedbacks in a serious manner.
And there will always be room for improvement, no matter how good you are.
Wish you all the best,
Tuan Vu
Angad, Your self-analysis is quite interesting. It is great that you have identified your shortcomings.This way you will be able to work better on them. I hope we all make good use of this module as a platform on which to hone our communication skills and emerge as skilled team workers that the present workforce lacks.
-Lakshmi
P.S. I think the "above 4 words" are the most important words of not just this semester but of your whole life ! This semester is just your first chance to improve upon them. :)
Hi Angad,
Its great to see that you have reflected upon your shortcomings and as you have said there is always scope for improvement.Effective communication and teamwork are of utmost importance not only in this semester but throughtout your life at NUS and beyond.
Cheers,
Meenu
Hi Angad,
You may be wondering why I only comment on your first post after so long. I was just browsing through your blog and I thought I should at least tell you about my thoughts.
The first post is definitely different from most people. You did not write about the concepts and theories, instead you talk about how you want to improve from it. You put examples of your own experiences into the picture. The content is great.
However, the post is a bit long (About 600++ words). I believe you would have improved on that for the subsequent posts. Try to keep the post concise. Sometimes the argument keeps going around in circles and I do not quite understand what that paragraph is about. Although you put headings and bolded the important words, I feel that the structure of the post is still a bit messy. The post is more of like in a “speaking” format instead of in the writing form. I believe your excitement to share your thoughts with everyone may be the cause of the “speaking” format.
Hope my comments would help you in your subsequent posts.
Cheers,
Kevin Lin