I took up this module because I wanted to improve my communication skills and I heard a lot of good reviews about this module from my brother who took it in the previous semester. Now that 13 weeks have passed, I would say taking Es2007S is one of the best modules I have taken in NUS (Despite its heavy workload).
This module has improved my communication skills in resume writing, cover letter, business proposal, non-verbal communication etc. One particular area, which I improve the most, is on oral presentation.
I remember when I presented during the mock peer teaching, I did not know what to expect at all. I wasn’t aware that a huge part of a presentation is actually based on the preparation. As a result, I did not prepare my script and did insufficient PowerPoint slides. I am thankful for the constructive feedbacks I have received from my peers and Mrs. Gan. One of my biggest takeaways for the peer teaching is that preparation is key to the success of a presentation.
As a result, I tried to implement what I have learnt during the preparation of my actual peer review. I thought of ways to capture the attention of the audience, taught of the origami activity to engage the audience and of course, did more PowerPoint slides. I was rather satisfied with my group’s performance as I thought we managed to teach a rather dry topic quite well. Preparation for peer teaching also taught me the importance of teamwork in a presentation and I believe my group has learnt how to tap on each other’s strength and personality to yield the best results.
Thereafter, I was quite inspired by the good comments and decided to put more effort and practice for the proposal presentation. My aim was to speak more confidently and be able to engage the audience more efficiently. Despite countless rehearsal and practice, I was still quite nervous during the presentation. However I believe I did relatively well compared to the previous time.
This module provides a whole new experience as compared to my psychology modules. I believe these skills will be greatly beneficial to me in my other modules and in the workplace. Thankfully, one of my tutors also complimented my presentation skills in my Social Cognition psychology module!
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this module and it is really beneficial for university students! Take care and all the best for finals guys☺
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Post 3: Reflections on team based research project proposal
We started off by brainstorming the various topics we want to do. As everyone has differing opinions, we were unable to make a decision on the same day. Hence what we decided to do was to shortlist 3 different topics and do some background research on these topics before coming to a conclusion. 3 days later, we were able to come to a common consensus and decided to touch on eating disorder. I believe giving ourselves the time to do background research allows us to be better equipped to make a better decision. This can also mediate the effect of "groupthink" as we consider everyone's opinion without letting a dominant voice drown the rest. I believe this practice will be greatly beneficial in the workplace so to avoid making a haste decision.
Next we started to divide the workload according to each expertise and proficiency. I was primarily responsible for the background information, Jake was the main coordinator and Jeremy was the editor. I believe we worked well because we manage to tap on our strengths. Furthermore we were able to complement each other's limitations. For example, one of my weakness is that i do not pay attention to small details. Jeremy managed to complement that as he is highly attentive to small details. This can be definitely used in the workplace as if we can identify every member's strength and tap on them, this can reduce wastage of resources and greatly increase the overall team's efficiency.
Thirdly, i believe we communicated well especially in group discussions. At the start of every meeting, we will set the objectives of the meeting and ensure we hit the objectives before dismissing. This greatly improve our efficiency and saved us a lot of time. From my previous experience with other project meetings, we tend to work without a goal in mind, thus we tend to deviate away from the main point and this resulted in a huge wastage of time. This is a very simple yet practical practice that I will implement in my future group discussion and in the workplace.
However, we do experience setbacks and challenges as well. One of the challenges we experience is that there is miscommunications between us and the interviewee. This is due to us forgetting to put a deadline for the interview, hence they were not sure when to reply. Fortunately the interviewee, Dr Patrick Tan got back to us at the twelfth hour. This important lesson is something that we will bear in mind as we enter the workplace in the near future.
Last but not least, another challenge we faced is the problem of last minute work. This is understandable as many of us has other assignments and exams to prepare for. However a better way to resolve this issue is to start doing the proposal earlier, which we failed to do so. All of us came to a conclusion that we should always start early and never procrastinate. I believe procrastination is one important habit we should eradicate in the workplace.
In conclusion, I enjoyed working on this proposal although it was really heavy. We managed to acquire precious skills and techniques, so to work better as a team.
Next we started to divide the workload according to each expertise and proficiency. I was primarily responsible for the background information, Jake was the main coordinator and Jeremy was the editor. I believe we worked well because we manage to tap on our strengths. Furthermore we were able to complement each other's limitations. For example, one of my weakness is that i do not pay attention to small details. Jeremy managed to complement that as he is highly attentive to small details. This can be definitely used in the workplace as if we can identify every member's strength and tap on them, this can reduce wastage of resources and greatly increase the overall team's efficiency.
Thirdly, i believe we communicated well especially in group discussions. At the start of every meeting, we will set the objectives of the meeting and ensure we hit the objectives before dismissing. This greatly improve our efficiency and saved us a lot of time. From my previous experience with other project meetings, we tend to work without a goal in mind, thus we tend to deviate away from the main point and this resulted in a huge wastage of time. This is a very simple yet practical practice that I will implement in my future group discussion and in the workplace.
However, we do experience setbacks and challenges as well. One of the challenges we experience is that there is miscommunications between us and the interviewee. This is due to us forgetting to put a deadline for the interview, hence they were not sure when to reply. Fortunately the interviewee, Dr Patrick Tan got back to us at the twelfth hour. This important lesson is something that we will bear in mind as we enter the workplace in the near future.
Last but not least, another challenge we faced is the problem of last minute work. This is understandable as many of us has other assignments and exams to prepare for. However a better way to resolve this issue is to start doing the proposal earlier, which we failed to do so. All of us came to a conclusion that we should always start early and never procrastinate. I believe procrastination is one important habit we should eradicate in the workplace.
In conclusion, I enjoyed working on this proposal although it was really heavy. We managed to acquire precious skills and techniques, so to work better as a team.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
ES2007 Yewtong's Blogpost 2: Evaluating intercultural behavior
An example of an intercultural scenario I have witnessed is a conversation between my sister and a relative from rural China. This happened 2 years ago when my uncle from China came to my house to stay for a week. I observed that he is quite bossy and kept ordering my sister to do things for him such as washing the dishes, cleaning up after him and even packing his bed. On the third day, my sister could not tolerate him anymore. She confronted him and scolded him for being bossy and lazy. Of course, my uncle retaliated and started to "lecture" my sister. He started to "teach" her how a woman should behave, how she should be submissive and serve the males in the family. Furthermore, he added that the highest virtue of a woman is to "serve the males in the household" so to improve the quality of life in the family. My sister argued that women are not born to serve males and the equality of males and females. She even accused my uncle for being a male chauvinist pig (A male person who thinks women are merely objects to be used for pleasure, esthetic value or labour). The conversation ended of with both parties complaining to my parents.
I understand that my uncle come from a highly masculine culture whereby they view men as strong, assertive and focused on success and view women as modest and tender. Furthermore, in his own family, his wife must be submissive and is expected to do all the chores at home as he is the "head of the family". On the other hand, my sister is raised in a highly feminine culture whereby they view men and women more similarly. She has her own career and is able to support herself and need not be dependent on any man. Hence she got annoyed when my uncle expected her to do all the housework. My uncle is also shocked when my sister retaliate and scolded him to be demanding and unreasonable as it is something he won't experience in his own family.
I believe they will be able to communicate more effectively if they factor in culture differences in their interpersonal communication. As this allows them to have a shift in mindset and alter their expectations of one another. My uncle should understand that Singapore is a relatively more feminine culture while my sister should know that my uncle lives in a highly masculine society. This shows that knowledge in other people's cultural can be tremendously useful as it alters our style of communication and expectations, thus improving the quality of our interpersonal communication.
How would you interpret this conflict in light of your understanding of culture?
I understand that my uncle come from a highly masculine culture whereby they view men as strong, assertive and focused on success and view women as modest and tender. Furthermore, in his own family, his wife must be submissive and is expected to do all the chores at home as he is the "head of the family". On the other hand, my sister is raised in a highly feminine culture whereby they view men and women more similarly. She has her own career and is able to support herself and need not be dependent on any man. Hence she got annoyed when my uncle expected her to do all the housework. My uncle is also shocked when my sister retaliate and scolded him to be demanding and unreasonable as it is something he won't experience in his own family.
I believe they will be able to communicate more effectively if they factor in culture differences in their interpersonal communication. As this allows them to have a shift in mindset and alter their expectations of one another. My uncle should understand that Singapore is a relatively more feminine culture while my sister should know that my uncle lives in a highly masculine society. This shows that knowledge in other people's cultural can be tremendously useful as it alters our style of communication and expectations, thus improving the quality of our interpersonal communication.
How would you interpret this conflict in light of your understanding of culture?
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Post #1 Resolving Interpersonal Conflict
Alex is a new manager of a company who is tasked to improve the efficiency of a few part-timers in the marketing department. These part-timers seem to be having a fun time and are not being serious at work, so Alex called for an urgent meeting to address this problem. When Alex met the part-timers, he didn’t even introduce himself but rather started questioning them in a harsh tone.
“Why are you guys skiving at work?!” said Alex harshly. There was a long period of silence after what he said as the part-timers had no idea how to react. After a while, Alex got impatient and started reprimanding them again.
“Are you all deaf? You all are worse than primary school kids! At least they know how to respond.“ He ranted furiously. Finally one of the part-timers named John couldn’t take the insults and started to rebuke Alex.
“It’s not true that we are skiving at work! The managers didn’t even assign any work for us to do. You have to blame the incompetence of the managers and if you continue insulting us, we will all quit this job!” John uttered. The rest of the part-timers then nodded in agreement.
Alex was really shocked and embarrassed. He reacted by postponing the meeting to the following day and walked out of the meeting room shamefully.
The main problem in this situation is that the part-timers are not efficient enough. However, I believe Alex over-reacted without getting his facts right and he should have built the right rapport with the part-timers first. I think Alex was too anxious to solve the problem and he should have exercised active listening instead of insulting the part-timers. Thus instead of focusing on a solution to the problem, Alex affixed the blame on the part-timers causing them to become defensive and start threatening to leave their job. However, John should have replied Alex in a more respectful way rather than threatening him.
I believe Alex could have better resolved the issue by using a win-win strategy. He should have first define the problem, try to hear what the part-timers have to say and empathise with them. Secondly, they should brainstorm for possible solutions and carefully weigh the costs and rewards that each solution entails. Next they can test out the solution mentally by evaluating it. In this case, the conflict could have been avoided.
How do you think Alex should have reacted to solve the problem?
“Why are you guys skiving at work?!” said Alex harshly. There was a long period of silence after what he said as the part-timers had no idea how to react. After a while, Alex got impatient and started reprimanding them again.
“Are you all deaf? You all are worse than primary school kids! At least they know how to respond.“ He ranted furiously. Finally one of the part-timers named John couldn’t take the insults and started to rebuke Alex.
“It’s not true that we are skiving at work! The managers didn’t even assign any work for us to do. You have to blame the incompetence of the managers and if you continue insulting us, we will all quit this job!” John uttered. The rest of the part-timers then nodded in agreement.
Alex was really shocked and embarrassed. He reacted by postponing the meeting to the following day and walked out of the meeting room shamefully.
The main problem in this situation is that the part-timers are not efficient enough. However, I believe Alex over-reacted without getting his facts right and he should have built the right rapport with the part-timers first. I think Alex was too anxious to solve the problem and he should have exercised active listening instead of insulting the part-timers. Thus instead of focusing on a solution to the problem, Alex affixed the blame on the part-timers causing them to become defensive and start threatening to leave their job. However, John should have replied Alex in a more respectful way rather than threatening him.
I believe Alex could have better resolved the issue by using a win-win strategy. He should have first define the problem, try to hear what the part-timers have to say and empathise with them. Secondly, they should brainstorm for possible solutions and carefully weigh the costs and rewards that each solution entails. Next they can test out the solution mentally by evaluating it. In this case, the conflict could have been avoided.
How do you think Alex should have reacted to solve the problem?
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