Post #4- Reflection on Meeting 1

My project group is C05B, with group members Anni and Anuj. We wanted to meet at 12pm to 2pm, but Anuj has a lesson before that so we held our meeting on Thursday 3pm to 4pm at PGP conference room 3B. Our agenda for this meeting was to decide what are the classes needed to complete our assignment for the module CG1102.

The meeting went quite smoothly but there were a few times during the meeting where there was miscommunication and we need to explain ourselves again to state our point. One such time is when we were deciding how many classes to implement altogether. Anuj was explaining that we do not need that many classes but I did not understand his explanation. Therefore I asked him to explain to me again. It was then that I understood what he was saying and I agreed with his above statement.

Although I think the meeting went rather smoothly, I think there was much room for improvement. We should have reserved a room in advance so as to avoid wasting time looking for rooms. Luckily, the room that we decided on was empty at that time. Besides that, reserving a room lets you know how well is it equipped for your purpose. When we went to the room, there was nothing high enough for us to put the camera such that it could film the three of us. Thus, we had to improvise and put a chair on the table. Another factor is proper equipment. Halfway through the meeting, my camera ran out of memory. That made us waste about five minutes of time as I had to transfer the video into my computer first and clear the memory to continue taking the video.

Finally, I must say that I have wonderful teammates as without them the meeting would not have gone so smoothly.

Post #3: Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

In the last two post, we discussed the importance of not just communication, but interpersonal and intercultural communication. What better way to learn this important skill then through an example? Thus, in this week’s post, we will look at an example which shows the lack of interpersonal communication. This will further prove the point that interpersonal communication is vital in our every day lives. Besides that, we will reflect what went wrong and come up with possible solutions.

This is an example which happened during my army life. I believe that everyone who went through NS (National Service) would have faced this problem before. In the army, instructors will randomly check the trainee’s room to ensure that it is tidy and clean. However, who cleans their room every day? I shared the same room with two other guys named A and B. On a particular day, the instructor suddenly said he wanted to inspect our room. As you all would have guessed, the room was in a total mess. We were given 15 minutes (which was barely enough) to get prepared.

It so happens that during that day B has duty and will not be around to help tidy the room for inspection. But his belongings are in the room and they have to be tidied too. We began tidying the room by sorting and cleaning our own personal belongings. After we are done with our area, we moved on to B’s belongings. Somehow we managed to tidy his area reasonably. However, we did not clean his cupboard as we assumed the other person had already done so. So when the instructor came to check, we were obviously punished L.

After being punished, A and I argued that the opposite party was at fault for not cleaning the cupboard and nobody wanted to apologize and take the blame. So who is the culprit here? Is it A, B, me, the instructor or every one? Is there a way to solve this problem?