Teamwork is essential for competing in today's global arena. For the teamwork to be effective, members in team should communicate effectively so as to express their plans, share their ideas, and understand each other’s viewpoints and should also show have high level of commitment to achieve the team’s goal. I think Effective communication plays a vital role for a team to achieve its goal.
Communication was different to me during different walks of my life. During my school life, me and my friends, we used to speak very fast and this habit of speaking fast haunted me even in my university life. For instance, when I attended my first chess training conducted by teamnus, I was asked to give a brief introduction about myself .I gave my introduction in haste and to my astonishment many of my team members were unable to follow me. I failed to communicate with them effectively. Then I realized the importance of effective communication and being in a foreign land I feel that communicating effectively becomes more important. I have experienced teamwork during my school life when I became a member of my school chess team. We were interdependent and we played as a team and even if we were unable to achieve the team’s goal, we equally shared the responsibility for the team’s failure and analyzed our mistakes. By having such an attitude within the team, our team was able to bring pride to our school thrice.
Effective communication and teamwork become more important to me especially from my second year onwards as students have to design projects which require teamwork and effective communication is a must for effective moving forward in our dealings. As effective communication does not come automatically, I hope through this module I am able to improve upon it and will try to build a positive energy within the project team.
Hi Santhosh,
ReplyDeleteNice post you have here, I like the way how you threw in some personal experience, and used them to bring the points out effectively in your post. It made me further appreciate the fact that I did not have to adjust my means of communication to suit my environment. However, I also envy you for being able to study abroad, as the experience is definitely useful and valuable.
As you had mentioned in your post, you had the habit of speaking very fast, which I found to be very true. While you were presenting during our tutorial, I did not catch most of the content you were saying initially, but I was able to understand most of it by the time you reached the end of your speech. What I’m trying to point out is that not only the speaker have to put in effort in establishing good communication, the listener would have to put an equal effort in trying to understand the content. (We are using Newton’s law here!) Communication is a 2-way thing. The next time someone is unable understand what you are saying, it may be because they are not paying attention. (It’s not entirely your fault!)
Cheers
Zhen Yong
Hi Santosh,
ReplyDeleteFirstly congratulations for bringing glory to your school and becoming a part of teamNUS.
The first thing that caught my attention in your post was the examples you had used from your real-life experiences to point out why team work and effective communication is important. Even I had a similar problem of speaking fast in my school days which the teachers brought to my notice when I auditioned for the debating society. It was the first time I realized the importance of effective communication and after finally making through the auditions, I got a taste of working in a team of complete strangers.
And the fact that some of your team members in NUS might not have been able to follow you, could also be due to the fact that people from different background have different accent.
Nice video by the way. Clearly shows how language can be a barrier to effective communication.
Like you even I am looking forward to this module as from now onwards we all will have to work as a team in all our future modules. Best of luck!
Regards,
Saurabh Arora
Hello Santosh,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I'd like to congratulate you and the chess team for bringing pride to the school! Well done!
As you mentioned in your blog post, I agree that I was unable to follow when you presented for the first time in class. I'm sorry for that. However, as time goes by, I am able to understand the points that you brought up. This shows that effective communication is not only the responsibility of the speaker but also it involves the listener.
I like how you explained effective communication and how it has benefited both yourself and teamNUS. It is essential in team bonding and also makes tasks easier to complete.
The video you linked was great as well! I hope that through CG1413, we are all able to improve our skills in effective communication which will greatly benefit us in the future!
Cheers,
Qinxian
Hi Santhosh,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your passion about chess. I bet that you are doing very well as a member of Team NUS Chess. I agree that in any team setting, communication plays a vital role to achieve success. I am sure that you had good and effective communication with your friends back in India that’s why you were able to bring pride to your school three times. Congratulations!
Truly, effective communication is an important factor when in a foreign land. In the multicultural and multilingual setting of Singapore, you meet different people whose native tongues are different from one another. It could be very difficult for people to have effective communication when language starts to become a barrier. Sadly, this is a truth that we experience once in a while.
By the way, the video is hilarious! Thanks for bringing smiles to our faces. I first saw this video when I was in high school when our teacher shared it to us. It was brilliant how the video-creators were able to come up with such an idea. They successfully conveyed to people the importance of effective communication using English in an entertaining way.
Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Paul