Blog Post Five: Final Reflection on Learning 

As this academic semester gradually draws to a close, I look back at the things I have learnt in the past 3 months. I can honestly say that ES2007S Professional Communication has been one of the most enriching modules I have taken thus far in NUS. While this module may appear on the face more relevant to some of my classmates who will be graduating soon and moving on to a working life, I feel that taking this module in Year 1 has given me an excellent head-start to the process of applying for jobs as well as in learning the skills for effective communication at the workplace. 

I believe I have truly benefitted from the presentation skills taught to us by Mdm Radhika in the course of this module as I prepared for the peer teaching presentation as well as the oral presentation for the team-based research project. Giving oral presentations would undoubtedly be an integral part of our professional careers and we will be required to present ideas and proposals to management committees and colleagues on several occasions. This module has taught me essential verbal and non-verbal presentation skills that would be indispensible as I move on to deliver presentations in my future career. 

One key takeaway for me was to first understand the purpose of a presentation. This would help the speaker in preparing himself well in advance about what he wants the audience to know by the end of the presentation. At the same time ,the speaker must be sensitive to and aware of the audience’s needs. Awareness of the likely reaction of an audience in terms of their receptivity or hostility towards the topic of presentation can allow one to assess what content and style would work best to persuade them. The receptiveness of the audience may be affected by a number of factors such as the composition of the group (referring to the diversity in backgrounds of audience members), as well as the attitude of the audience towards the speaker. In order to deal with a resistant audience for example, the speaker could find common beliefs or ideas with the audience, avoiding a direct attack on the audience’s viewpoint or state his proposal in a way that eventually achieves a win-win result. Humour may also be utilised to better connect with a negative audience. 

Another aspect where I feel I have improved most is in the aspect of non-verbal communication with the audience. Understanding the nuances of non-verbal delivery of a message can greatly improve audience receptivity of one’s presentation and boost impact of presentation and overall impression of the speaker. For instance, establishing and maintaining eye contact with all audience members is indicative of the confidence of the speaker and sincerity in his purpose as he delivers his message across to the audience. Having the right posture and using appropriate gestures can also display the confidence, energy and enthusiasm of the speaker.  

Listening to one another and then giving or receiving feedback from peers really helped me improve my delivery skills. The positive feedback I received from my peers boosted my confidence while speaking in front of an audience and the negative feedback inspired me to strive to improve my speaking skills. I hope to build on these communication skills and continue to hone them as I move on to do presentations outside of this module and later in the working world. 

To end off this final blog post, I want to thank my friends and group-mates Shu Wen, Samuel, Jia Jian and Jerry for being so amazing and making this module truly memorable. And to Charlotte, Nigel, Yee Sheng, Yumeng, Tony, Isabelle and Renfei, class would not have been the same without all of you! Wish you all the very best for all your future endeavours and hope to see you around campus! :)

Blog Post Four: Reflection on Team-Based Research Project Proposal

The past seven weeks of working on the research project proposal on the issue of ‘Employment of Ex-Offenders in Singapore’ with my team have been very enriching and enlightening. From the initial stage of selecting the research focus, to the final stages of writing and presenting the proposal, I have learned much from this project about team work and group dynamics. These takeaways would be useful as I move on to doing projects at the work place in future. 

Overall, I believe that our team dynamics was very positive. We ensured that team meetings were arranged such that all team members were present to discuss the project. In the initial meetings, we efficiently narrowed down the topic of research while agreeing to a reasonable division of tasks. Regular personal and online meetings (through collaborative platforms such as ‘Google Drive’ and ‘Dropbox’) were conducted on a weekly basis to share findings and discuss content of the written proposal. The agenda for each meeting was clearly defined in advance and thus our meeting time was utilised effectively.  We also set realistic deadlines so that we could complete our individual tasks on time. Good time management was possibly the greatest strength of our team and the importance of this in a team project was the biggest takeaway for me. With proper time management and planning, any project at the work place could be completed at a comfortable pace, leaving sufficient time for editing and review. 

One of the big challenges for our team was collection of primary data. Liaising with organisations for the interviews, as well as finding a large enough target audience to take our surveys was not easy. 

What might have made the collection of data easier for us is drawing a clearer vision of the purpose of the primary research, and by finding out gaps in information in the secondary research. Areas in the proposal that required backing up by primary evidence could have been more explicitly defined in the initial stages of research. The preparatory work would have enabled us to commence contacting the relevant people for our primary research earlier and to ease the liaising process. 

One thing I thought may not always be practical to achieve at the workplace is the presence of all team members at each meeting due to the difficulty in them having differing commitments and schedules. Some possibilities for conducting more successful meetings at the workplace may be as follows: 

• Setting the meeting agenda in advance and inviting only those who can influence fulfillment of meeting objectives. 
• Sending minutes of every meeting to all team members would ensure that everyone is aware of the progress of the project even if they were did not attend a particular meeting 
• A large team could be divided into smaller teams each with their own team leader. Team leaders could come together and discuss the findings of their teams in regular meetings.

Blog Post Three: Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

The cosmopolitan nature of the Singaporean society leads us to observing a multitude of intercultural exchanges and situations almost every other day.

I observed one such scenario a few years ago when I visited a friend at her HDB block to prepare for our upcoming examinations. When I arrived, she apologised for not informing me earlier that there would be a Malay wedding being held in the void deck that weekend. She told me that there would be considerable noise coming from the void deck which might cause some disturbance and hinder our study. We decided to instead head down to the community library. When we passed by the void deck, we observed a heated discussion going on between a Chinese family and the Malay family organising the wedding. The former was expressing discontent over excessive noise as their children could not take their afternoon naps or concentrate on schoolwork. The Malay family informed the Chinese family that they had permission to hold the wedding at the location and that the noise is a natural part of any cultural event. The Chinese family was not fully aware of the usual customs and rituals of a Malay wedding and insisted the noise level be brought down immediately. They added that they did not raise a complaint in the previous two days as they did not wish to be inconsiderate.

The importance of fostering effective intercultural communication can be in two words – ‘avoiding conflict’. Therefore to prevent conflicts such as the one above, it is essential to be aware of the differences among cultures. This will lead to better comprehension, fewer misunderstandings and greater mutual respect. This is especially important in Singapore where the variety of cultural practices and traditions means that customs of one ethnic group may seem inconsiderate or even unacceptable to another. 

In the above scenario, patience, open discussion and the willingness to seek greater clarification might have led to a happy compromise. Instead of adopting a confrontational approach, the Malay family could have apologised for the noise as well as assured the Chinese family that they will tone down the noise level and not continue their celebrations till late. This would allow the children to rest and study after that. The Malay family might have also reassured other residents who may be similarly disturbed by the noise, that the celebrations would end by a certain predetermined time. Awareness and understanding of cultures other than one's own can certainly lead to greater harmony and peaceful living in a multiracial society like Singapore. 

 

Blog Post Two: Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts 

Interpersonal conflict is a situation of disagreement among individuals that leads to tension and unhappiness. Interpersonal conflict occurs between a variety of groups of individuals including teenagers and parents, bullies and victims, customers and salespersons and employers and employees. 

I remember witnessing an employer-employee conflict at an institution I interned at. As part of a small department at the institution, each of us had very specific tasks such that the team objectives could be achieved by the end of the day. About a month into my internship, one of my department members left on temporary leave. This significantly increased the workload on the remaining members, and the supervisor decided to hire a new employee to share the workload.

Upon arrival of the new member, it was found that the nature of work between his previous and current job differed greatly, and he was thus unable to quickly adjust to the new working environment. To begin with, he was unfamiliar with the institution’s computer programs as well as the team’s role. However, the supervisor was preoccupied with other pressing activities and hence unable to set aside sufficient time to properly induct the new employee into the department. The lack of training eventually led to miscommunication and tension between them and it became difficult to complete daily tasks at work. As I did not have enough knowledge to assist in the training of the new employee, there was little I could do to ameliorate the situation. Two months passed and by the end of my internship, I observed the resentment among members of our team had worsened.

Such an employer-employee conflict is not an uncommon occurrence in many companies and should be resolved as soon as possible to avoid creating tension at the workplace. As an observer, I would suggest two possible measures for reconciliation.  

1. The members of the department would benefit from a team meeting to welcome the new employee and to furnish him with appropriate details of the workings of the department right in the beginning. This would establish a positive professional relationship among the members and allow them to understand the needs and viewpoints of the new employee. Empathy is an essential part of emotional intelligence that should be used to effectively communicate with others. 

2. One purpose of professional communication is to inform and instruct someone about a process or procedure. The supervisor or the team member proceeding on leave could prepare a set of instructions for the new employee to refer to until he has accustomed himself to the work. In this way, he would not feel the need to constantly request for reiteration of his responsibilities and would also be able to refresh his memory on the work he has been tasked to complete.