My learning experience for the research project was on the whole a positive one. I came away enriched with the subject matter at hand and learnt a great deal about teamwork and effective communication, both within the team as well as in the form of formal report writing. I would like to share two qualities that I have found to be of utmost significance – empathy and openness.
Clear communication requires openness and empathy. Take for an example, when my fellow group member, Sherine, was to sit for two tests before a coming deadline, she told Seow Teng and me beforehand. It was with Sherine’s openness and understanding on Seow Teng’s and my part that we were able to split up the work further and complete it without delaying our progress.
Openness and empathy also foster cordial interpersonal relationships. As a considerable amount of work had to be done within a short span of time, seamless teamwork was essential in ensuring that all the deadlines were met. With the burden of school work and heavy personal commitments, coordination of meeting times and work assignment had to be tight and well-thought. We were able to exercise openness, empathy and diligence to ensure that work was distributed appropriately and completed by the deadlines. Furthermore, we did not hesitate in laying out differing opinions, thus ensuring that no bad feelings were accumulated and that rigorous discussion could be carried out to come to a shared conclusion. The overall atmosphere in the project group was an extremely cordial one, and we were thereby encouraged be diligent to play our roles as credible team players.
I embarked on the project with a foggy concept of formal report writing (especially citation of sources) and doing research, thus the learning curve was rather steep at the beginning. Through the meticulous guidance of our tutor, my group members and I learnt how to conduct a proper survey and refined our report time and again right down to the finest details. With that and motivation from my fellow group members, I got to hone my report writing skills.
From the last couple of weeks, I have learnt that dealing with issues requires openness, mutual empathy and focus on the objective. Whenever issues arise, it is important to keep the big picture in mind and work towards a win-win situation. As such, should misunderstandings arise while preparing for the oral presentation, I would put myself in the other party’s shoes and work towards to a mutually beneficial outcome.
To improve on communication within my group, I would practise active listening more often. Personally, I tend to speak more than listen and as such, I may miss out on valuable contributions from my group members. Practising active listening would enhance our esprit de corps, making time spent on the project more enjoyable and the final presentation smoother.
