According to Warren Buffett, “Your ability to convey your ideas to others will be an enormous determinant to your success". In my opinion, communication, as an act of exchanging information or instance of transmitting, is the key to a successful career and its wide implications made it crucial in our daily life.
Blogs, emails, phone calls, talks, classes…communication is everywhere in our society. The way I communicate with the others identifies who I am in this world. Rich communication skills could help me build a more accurate social status and to be better understood by the others. The effectiveness of communication is also a reflection of my interpersonal skills; this would help me build a stronger connection with my beloved ones, my respected ones and my idolized ones. Without a shadow of doubt, expertise in communication could make me optimist.
As a student with a major in engineering, although formulas and designs are my main tools to accomplish my workload, effective communication skills are considered more essential than either technical knowledge or computer skills. I obtained these new perspectives after several problems that occurred during my studies.
Conflicts during group meetings, especially while doing academic projects, seem to be unavoidable due to misleading communications between members. Ineffective communications may frequently cause discomfort after each meeting. The concept of win-win negotiation and the useful methods of communication are very poorly adapted. Most of our efforts have been wasted on solving interpersonal relationship problems rather than doing the real work. Therefore, at this point of time, I realized that adequate communication is the cornerstone of success, regardless the kind of work you are doing.
Therefore, whether in work, daily routine or personal life; the importance of communication skills should not be underestimated.
Thanks, Yitong, for this fine effort. I like the way you move from a general discussion of the value of effective comm skills to a focus on your own needs, stemming from your experience. You also demonstrate good fluency here. I do have a few suggestions for your language use though:
ReplyDelete1) its wide implications made it crucial... >>> its wide implications maKe it crucial...
2) ...expertise in communication could make me optimist. >>> ...expertise in communication could make me more optimistic (or "an optimist").
3) As a student with a major in engineering, although formulas and designs are my main tools to accomplish my workload.... >>> As a student with a major in engineering, I use formulas and designs for my main tools to accomplish my workload, but effective communication skills are ...
4) after several problems that occurred... >>> after several problems occurred....
5) whether in work, daily routine or personal life; the importance... >>> whether in work, daily routine or personal life, the importance...
These edits should not eclipse what you have done so well here. I look forward to reading future posts!
I am not proud to say that I have similarly encountered conflicts that ended up decapacitating the group. It is sad, when sometimes ideas, from different groupmates, that are converging seem to be conflicting instead all because of poor communication or expression.
ReplyDeleteLike yourself, I realise the need to have effective communication with people. Unfortunately, there exists no one-size-fits-all solution to conflicts and miscommunication. Hope we may soon develop our own style of effective communication, and no longer have to waste precious time meant for real work on resolving conflicts instead.
Cheers!
P.S. Formulae and models can be thought of as forms of communication, besides as means for accomplishing work.
Hi Yitong!
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the difficulties faced in doing group projects and from my experience, one big obstacle I often face is the many different styles of discussion. Some people like to go straight to the point and focus on the deliverables needed, but others prefer to take things slower and are not as work-oriented (Type A and type B). That often causes friction within the group. We all have different M.O., so I think the only way to get along with everyone is through patience, understanding and of course, effective communication.
Hi Yitong,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with what has been mentioned previously. There are so many factors that might affect our interaction as a group that it is constantly a struggle to build an ideal communicative environment.
Personally, I have always attributed conflicts in a group to a clash in members' personalities. Although it is easy to brush off such disagreement to such reasoning, I belive there are other underlying reasons that are not explored.
Often, the dislike towards certain individuals begins through an individual's first impression of someone. Upon forming such an impression, communication with that individual is conducted with 'filtered' lens, where the way we communicate is based on our initial judgement. This can prove to be detrimental, especially when we mis-interprete a person's intention due to our own form of bias-ness.
It is indeed difficult as individuals to not pass judgement over someone. Constantly, we are nurtured to critique. However, a challenge to us would be to give every individual a right to voice his/her opinion, and receive their ideas with equal receptiveness. I guess that's what most of us would termed as the value of respect.
Cheers!
hey yitong,
ReplyDeletei agree that communication is a vital tool when holding group discussions. Sometimes ideas may not be expressed clearly and the rest of the group may get the wrong impression. Never mind if they disagree with what they think you said, but if they actually agree that would cause serious problems. Many times while working in groups i have encountered this kind of situations so i know how important it is to correctly and accurately express yourself.
Cheers.. :)
@Brad:
ReplyDeleteHi I have edited my post and posted the edited one already~thank u very much for helping me correct all the grammer mistakes~haha sorry to bother u with the basic language mistakes.
@Wee BOON:
ReplyDeleteHaha, I guessed at this point of time we all feel like this could be much better and we gain experience to deal with this kind of conflict~
cheers
@May:
ReplyDeleteI have gained a lot of knowledge about the above three main points you mentioned inside the comment. I included the patience point inside my last post about what I have learnt from this class. While, dear May u did teach me how to be patient. The moment you helped me to correct the bold thing of my blog in class, I felt very very moved~~haha
Cheers
@Jtiong.
ReplyDeleteHope our project group did avoided such kind of conflict. :)
I agree that it is indeed difficult as individuals to not pass judgement over someone. We judge ppl from diffrent perspectives, appeareance, tone, voice, almost everything~in fact, this is unavoidable in the fast paced modern society~
Hi daniel,
ReplyDeleteI learnt through this module, not only the way to handle the effective communication, more importantly, i learnt also the way how they handled the confliction which I think I am not good at~