Blog post #6 - A Reflection on Learning

In deference to a certain someone's presentation format, I have split my final official blog post for ES2007S in 3 parts. I hope everyone would be able to remember these 3 parts, as well as the important lessons we have learnt in the module.

Motivation to take the module

Ever since I have heard of ES2007S three semesters ago, I have been greatly interested in taking it. This is because I saw the need to improve on my resume and interview techniques, as well as the importance of learning about effective communications skills. Of course, reports that the module had a relatively light workload were another stimulating factor. That was how I came to bid for this module in the semester right after I returned from exchange in Australia.

Lessons learnt

Fast forward 13 weeks. Now, at the end of the semester, I am happy to say that I have truly enjoyed and learnt a great deal in this module. I would have liked to elaborate on the things I learnt through this module, but I am afraid that would be impossible, so to summarise, here are some of the key activities undertaken during ES2007S and a key learning point to take away from each:

Blogging: There are always things I can learn from others about. Therefore, it is important that I am willing to accept criticism and to work on improving on my weak points.

Resume writing: Recruiters receive lots of resumes, and tend to read verbose and boring resumes last. Hence, it is important to be clear about my relevant experience and to make sure to link it to job requirements. It is also definitely important to make my resume stand out (by using nice layout and colours).

Job application letter writing: The job application letter is an important letter which will convince recruiters to read my resume, and to invite me for interviews. Hence, I must not short-sell myself and should not be afraid to tell them how well I am suited for the job.

Mock interviews: It is important to be confident and relaxed during interviews, as most interviewers are not out to trip me up, but merely wish to assess my abilities.

Peer teaching: In a presentation, being able to present effectively and professionally is not the only key. It is also important to actively engage the audience, so as to capture their attention.

Proposal writing: In writing, it is important to be concise and clear as well as to make sure there is good flow, so as to improve readability.

Minutes writing: It is important to ensure clarity when taking minutes, so that important concepts discussed can be recalled easily at a later stage.

Survey and research interview writing: It is important to put the question across to the respondents clearly, and without using too many words, which could confuse them. This is because if respondents are not clear about the questions asked, it will directly affect the reliability of the survey and interview results.

Oral presentation: A minimalistic approach should be taken with slides. This is so that I, the presenter, am the star of the show, and not the slides.

And finally, the most important component in my opinion!

Everyday class interactions: Personally, I have picked up loads of interpersonal skills during class interactions. Moreover, I think the lively atmosphere in class created through such interactions makes the lessons truly worth looking forward to, and much more engaging for all of us!

Final concluding remarks

Having shared some of the key learning points for the module, I would like to end the final official post for ES2007S by thanking all my wonderful classmates and tutor, Brad, who have taught me many valuable skills and made Tuesdays and Fridays days for me to look forward to for the last 13 weeks. I have truly enjoyed the classes I had with everyone, and will really miss the interactions we had throughout the semester.

Blog Post #5 - Reflection on Oral Presentation

With our oral presentation last Tuesday, my team has finally marked an end to our involvement in the ES2007S research project. Naturally, my first reaction towards the end was that of elation, especially since my team was the first to present, and consequently, the first to finish. However, as I looked back at the progress my team has made over the past few weeks on the project, as well as our presentation, I realize that there is still much room for improvement. Let me just mention a few points I have noted myself:

Delivery
Firstly, I felt that my team’s slides were probably not at minimalist as they could have been, and thus, we, the presenters, were unable to fully capture the audience’s attention on ourselves. In line with the recommendations by Garr Reynolds, my team has aimed to use as few words on the slides as possible. However, my team (or at least I) is nevertheless not quite used to not having information written explicitly on the slides and felt that the audience might not be used to minimalist approach to slides as well. This proved to be a stumbling block for us in following Reynolds’ suggestions. However, having experienced the audience’s fixation with screen during our presentation, I know now that I should have followed Garr Reynolds’ advice more closely, and aim to do so in future presentations.

Secondly, I have been told (and know) that I referred to cue cards a little too much during my presentation. I think that this is because it was my first time presenting with only diagrams on the slides. As such, I realize that I could have done with a bit more practice, such that I can remember clearly what to say during each stage, rather than to have to refer.

Thirdly, I felt that (and as noted by Rohan) I could have infused a little more humour into my team’s presentation and made it a tad light-hearted. It has been, and will always remain my nature to aim to invoke some laughter during presentations. However, I suppose I lacked the confidence to do so during this presentation as my team was the first to go, and my preparations for the presentation were slightly lacking. As such, I aim to be better prepared in future presentations, and to try to always infuse a little intelligent humour.

The fourth, and I suppose the most important point, is that I felt that I could have done with more practice. My team had originally planned to have a rehearsal on the day before the presentation, but realized then that our slides had to be improved. As such, we spent much of our time working on the slides, and did not quite run through what we wanted to say. Granted that there was a limitation on time, I feel that I should have planned the rehearsal earlier, so that my team could have been prepared for contingencies such as this.

Content
In terms of the content, I felt that my team’s recommendations were not exactly well thought out. The main contributory factor was perhaps that there was a lack of time and proper resources. Although my team have tried to cover as much as ground as possible in support of our proposals, I would have been more comfortable with a feasibility study. This is because I felt that I could better convince the audience of the impact of our recommendations if such a study was done. In retrospect, I feel that I should have gotten the team to conduct a little bit of research into the feasibility of our proposal, even though it was not explicitly required in the project.

Conclusion
Having said my piece, I hope that those who had attended my presentation would be able to give me further comments, or simply express your opinion on whether you agree with my self-assessment.

And lastly, I would like to thank my team members Nicole and Godwin, with whom I have truly enjoyed working with. I feel each of you have contributed selflessly and meaningfully to the project, and that I could not have hoped for better team dynamics.

Proposal Peer Review: Introduction, Problem Statement & Purpose Statement draft v1

1.1 Introduction
A teaching career in junior college (JC) is one of the possibilities that National University of Singapore (NUS) engineering and science graduates would consider. However, the curriculum in NUS do not adequately prepare undergraduate to communicate effectively, especially in their future career as JC teachers. Hence, in the following proposal, various forms research will be proposed in details. Once equipped with the findings of the research, we could then further propose some recommendation to be implemented in NUS.

2.2 Problem Statement
From our experiences, we are cognizant of the lack of awareness of as well as access to modules in development of effective communication skills for engineering and science undergraduates. This implies that graduates from these faculties may not possess the optimal skills for a teaching career path, and also to career choices in the various sectors of the workforce. As it is unlikely that effective communication skills can be taught to graduates within the short amount of time before their deployment in the workforce, it seems definite that more must be done in this area in the NUS undergraduate engineering and science programmes.

2.3 Purpose Statement
This proposal aims to highlight the essential skills related to oral communications required in the workplace (and specifically in a teaching in junior colleges (JCs)), and the inadequacy of the current NUS curriculum in preparation of undergraduates in this area. The procedures the team would follow in gathering information, which will be used to support the above, will also be highlighted in this proposal.

Proposal Peer Review: Executive Summary draft v1

Executive Summary

A teaching career in junior college (JC) is one of the possibilities that NUS engineering and science graduates would consider. However, from our personal experiences, we are cognizant of the lack of awareness of as well as access to modules in development of effective communication skills, within a course of study at NUS. Although National Institute of Education (NIE) provides some training in communication skills, the duration of the training might be insufficient for student-teachers. Hence, NUS graduates might potentially face a problem of not being able to communicate effectively as a junior college teacher. In order to verify such claims, various forms of research will be proposed and carried out. Primary research, mainly via interviews and surveys, will be conducted for NIE professors, JC teachers and JC students. All these three groups of individuals will be able to provide different perspectives on communications skills relating to teaching. In addition, secondary research on NUS and NIE curriculum, in particular with respect to communication modules, as well as researching on relevant research papers will be conducted. Thus, potential areas which can be improved can be highlighted. Eventually, with all the research conducted, we could then propose some recommendations to be implemented within NUS, during the oral presentation. Thus, the training provided by the NIE would probably be more beneficial and meet greater success in producing effective teachers for junior colleges.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict - 2

The situation described below just happened to me today as I went to the pool for a swim, which made me think again about what I have learnt in ES2007S about interpersonal conflict.

It was a sunny and hot Sunday afternoon, and as to be expected, the pool was crowded. With the heat beating down on my skin, I was glad and excited to be at the pool, so I quickly slipped into the water, without much consideration to the traffic in the pool. As such, in what admittedly my mistake, I ended up very much in the path of a man swimming in the pool.

When I realised this, I quickly tried to get out of the way (regular swimmers should know how frustrating it is to have to keep avoiding obstacles in the pool), but I was roughly shoved aside by the man as he swam past. I was upset by this, and thought that the man was being unnecessarily rude, but was not very much bothered. I then proceeded to swim towards the other end of the pool, and as luck would have it, had to be in proximity to the afore-mentioned man due to the crowd. Nevertheless, I continued to swim and eventually overtook the man.

When I reached the other end of the pool, I waited for him to clear the lane before starting on a new lap. To my surprise, when the man reached the end, he approached me and shoved me again , and in a threatening tone, told me to watch where I was swimming (presumably because I was too close for his comfort). In my shock, I did not provide a reply, and he promptly started on a new lap.

In an effort to avoid trouble, I then switched lanes before starting on my new lap. Nothing further happened, until I had finished my swim and went to another pool with massaging jets. The afore-mentioned man was in that pool, and upon seeing me, started to comment (with expletives) to his spouse how I was an inconsiderate person for blocking his path and being too close for his comfort. Again, to avoid trouble, I feigned ignorance and went about my business. Apparently, this irked him, for he approached me again and started giving me threatening looks. Again, I ignored him (this was easy since I could not see him very well without my glasses anyway), and he subsequently went away, commenting that I must be "one of those China people". With this, the episode ended.

In reflection, I wonder what I could have done differently to avoid this conflict?
I could have apologised to the man while he first approached me at the end of the pool, but I felt that I had not willfully done any wrong, and he was in the wrong for shoving me. I could again have spoken to him in the massaging jet pool, but I feared that he was not in the reconciliatory mood given his tone and use of profanities. Was there anything I could have done anything differently at all?

In a separate thread of thought, I am also bemused by the man's association of China people with what he claims is inconsiderateness. Certainly, we have all had our fair share of unhappy experiences with people of different cultures, but to use the "China people" as a derogatory term is perhaps going too far...

Blog Post #4 - Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

A picture speaks a thousand words, and hence I believe a video speaks volumes more. As such, I have done my observation for this post based on a Youtube video I have found. Please follow the following link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUVSgcDWgsg

In the scenario depicted in the video, several Americans and two Indians (Gopi and Shobee) were sitting together over food and drinks as part of a teambuilding activity. However, it did not take long before several conflicts took place, which was a result both parties' lack of knowledge about each other’s culture .

Mike (an American) started off by mispronouncing Gopi’s name. Gopi was visibly disturbed by this, as he has apparently corrected the Americans repeatedly. The situation was then further exacerbated when Mike insisted that they order chicken despite Gopi’s objection. In doing so, Mike has failed to understand that Gopi cannot consume meat because of his religion, Hinduism. A third conflict then occurred when Gopi and Shobee were offered alcohol when they were not supposed to drink (presumably because of their religion).

In the post-event reflections that followed, it was clear that the event has driven a chasm between the Americans and Indians. Mike reflected that he was not comfortable with hanging out with his Indian colleagues, and remarked that he would not trust them. Shobee was also unhappy at the Americans' repeated mispronunciation of Gopi’s and her name, and that she was forced to take meat and alcohol. Gopi too commented that the Americans are weird, and were not trustworthy.

In my opinion, both the Indians and Americans would probably have done better to research a little about each other’s culture before the event, so as to avoid severely offending the other side. This was illustrated in the video when Mike insisted on ordering chicken, failing to realise that most Indians were Hindu, and hence were most likely vegetarian.

Both parties could also have been more understanding and accepting towards the other’s culture. In this scenario, Mike should have taken the hint and ordered something else, or made a compromise when he was reminded that Gopi was a vegetarian. The Indians could also have tried to understand that eating meat and consuming alcohol is not taboo for the Americans, and hence not be offended so much.

Therefore, I feel that the video clearly highlights the importance of understanding and resolving intercultural differences, so as to better facilitate communications and ties between people from different backgrounds.

P.S Here is another interesting video about outsourcing, which might not relate directly to intercultural behavior, but I guess pertains to it in a way: http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=bNCMep3wGMg&feature=related

Post #3 - Application Letter and Critique - 1st draft

Note: Please click here to see the post I am applying for.

Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs./Mdm. Human Resources Professional,

Internship for Computer/IT Students

I am enclosing my resume in response to your advertisement for the above post which appeared on JobStreet.com on 29 December 2009.

As you will see, I am currently pursuing an Honours degree in Computer Engineering with the National University of Singapore. I also have been previously employed in several customer service positions, and have a strong interest in interacting with others, as well as in understanding computer technologies. I am also highly organised, and am able to work well with others.

In the course of my study, and through my interest in computer technologies, I have picked up many technical skills relevant to computers and networking. I believe that these skills would undoubtedly be put to use in the set-up and management of desktop PCs and related peripherals as required in the position. In addition, I am confident that my experience in customer service, as well as my passion for interpersonal interaction would be invaluable in providing support to end-users. Thirdly, I believe that my highly organisational nature would ensure that I will log all incidents in the incident management tool, which I understand to be part of the job. Lastly, I am sure that my ability to work well with others would prove to be useful when teamwork is necessary.

If you agree that my skills and interests are relevant in the offered position, I would very much like to meet in person to learn more about the job requirements. Please feel free to call me at (contact number removed to protect privacy) or email at (email address removed to protect privacy).

Yours sincerely,

Clement Auo (Mr.)

Post #2b - Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

First and foremost, I would like to thank all who have provided feedback on my previous post.

From your comments, I have learnt that I would need to practice using a softer stance when dealing with people with strong opinions, in the resolution of future conflicts. I should also try to understand the reasons behind others' actions when encountering interpersonal conflicts, perhaps try to be more open towards accepting suggestions from others even if I believe that I may have the better approach in handling tasks.

Hence, hopefully I would be able to encounter less conflicts, and improve in terms of interpersonal relationships in the future.

Blog post #2 - Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

According to Wikipedia, there are 5 phases of conflict – prelude, trigger, initiation, differentiation and resolution. The prelude refers to the variables that make the conflict possible whereas trigger refers to the event that creates the conflict. Initiation is when the conflict is made known, and differentiation is when parties involved raise the conflict issues and pursues reasons for the varying positions. Resolution is then the stage where the solution is sought, and where every conflict should hopefully head towards.

Having just learnt of the above, I realised that these phases were undeniably present in a conflict I encountered during my National Service stint. The situation was as such: Eric (not his real name) and I were in the same section (this is a team of 10 guys), and hence, served our duties together at most times. Eric and I were also from the same Junior College, and hence got along quite well initially. However, as we went about our daily duties, the prelude phase of a conflict developed, as I gradually realised that I disagreed with Eric’s methods of accomplishing certain tasks as well as his rather brash manner of dealing with others. However, I did not bring the matter up with Eric or our superiors initially, for cohesion is highly valued in the army, and I felt that I might only be over-sensitive.

This, of course, proved to be imprudent as it led to the trigger phase of the conflict during a task that is to be shared between Eric and I. In this task, each of us was to perform subtasks separately, which is then combined to form the whole. Hence, I believed that I have the right to perform my subtasks in my own way, as long as it does not cause extra effort on Eric’s part. However, Eric insisted that I follow his approach in accomplishing my part of the task. Inadvertently, this led to an argument for I felt that Eric was being over-demanding, whereas Eric probably felt that I was causing a delay to the whole operation by being stubborn and refusing to accept his method, which in his opinion, was more efficient.

This argument subsequently reached the ears of our superior, who attempted to mediate the situation between Eric and me. However, it was not quite successful and I was offered a transfer to another section, which I accepted. This was because I felt that it would be difficult for me to remain in close contact with Eric, given my dislike of his methods and attitude. With time and the distanced relationship, the conflict gradually dissolved, with Eric and I getting back to being friends, albeit not close ones. However, I wonder if there were any actions I could have taken to avoid, or resolve this conflict better?

ES2007S Blog Post #1 - Effective Communication Skills

In the simplest terms, effective communication is about conveying messages to others in a succinct and unequivocal manner. As such, some may think that communications is all about speaking, listening and writing well. However, I have learnt this week in class that communications actually involves much knowledge about non-verbal cues, cross-cultural differences and interpersonal relations. Hence, I find that effective communications is important for me in the process of understanding others better and being understood well, in the improvement of productivity, as well as in building good interpersonal relationships.

As a student, I have come across several professors who are no doubt brilliant in their field, but rather dismal at making others understand the concepts involved. I think that this is quite the pity, for the value of their work is greatly diminished when only a select few may be able to understand it. Hence, I value the ability to understand others well, as well as being able to be understood.

It is also of my opinion that effective communications is invaluable at work, as it would more often than not, lead to expeditious work. In a project last term, I have had to build upon the work done by another team member. In the course of putting my work together, I found myself tied up in a seemingly endless exchange of emails with the said team mate. This is largely due to the fact that we were unclear about what is required of his portion of the work. In retrospect, I feel that the project could have been completed much faster had we discussed the scope clearly at an early stage.

Finally, I find that effective communications is also important as a bridge for fostering good relations with others, especially if they are from different cultures. During my exchange to Australia recently, I have had the opportunity to interact with several Australians. As is the norm for Singaporeans, I usually get directly to the point of our exchange (for example, to open a bank account) and expected swift action. However, I soon realized that most Australians tend to exchange pleasantries before getting down to business. Initially, I felt that it was a waste of time, but later came to realize that it is their culture to do so, and it was deemed not quite polite to do otherwise. Had I not realized that and carried on with the norm for me, it is possible that I would offend a fair number of the locals, and make life more difficult for myself. Hence, it is clear that understanding the local culture is important in communications and would lead to better relations with others.