Our first meeting for the CG1102 project was held on Friday (12th February 2010) at the project room in PGP.I thought that the venue was a perfect choice as we didn’t face any obstacles. The meeting took place from 12pm to 1.15pm and after watching the video as a third person, I personally felt that I need to improve a lot.
Basically the meeting was held to discuss and hence implement the code for the cg1102 lab3.During the meeting I was fairly active and provided the team with quite a few ideas on how to go about the project.Each member had a different approach to the problem and after listening to all the team member’s ideas we choose the best one to solve the lab3.The team leader Khairul made sure that every team member took part in the discussion and made sure that we followed the agenda for the entire discussion.
It was nice to see all the team member’s contributing to the team and I personally feel that Siming’s approach to solve the lab3 helped me a lot and I made sure that I not only provide solutions but also made sure that I am receptive enough to solutions and ideas provided by my teammates.
Though the meeting went fine, I personally feel that the one thing which I could have avoided was that I shouldn’t have interrupted when other team members were sharing their ideas and quite a few times I got distracted from the topic which could also have been avoided.
Nevertheless, I hope that I rectify my mistakes and hope to have a fruitful meeting in the near future.
Hi Santhosh,
ReplyDeleteWow, each of you had different ideas! It’s great to hear that you all were able to discuss about it and settle with one design. I’m pretty sure that your meeting went well and that your leader did a wonderful job.
It’s quite normal to be distracted and interrupt someone during conversations and meetings. I also face this challenge. Most people do.
We listen. We think while the speaker is talking. We interrupt to share our thoughts.
Based on scientific findings, this is due to the speed of the brain versus the speed of a conversation. Our minds process words roughly four times faster than when we speak. Therefore, while listening, we only use about 25% of our mental capacity. You can probably tell what the remaining 75% does, right?
Because of this, we have to really pay attention to the speaker when we are in the middle of conversation. We have to be active listeners. If not, our minds will tend to wander around and think about and entertain other ideas.
I believe that we all could become a much better listener the next time, when we are personally aware of our own little weaknesses and try hard to overcome.
Good wishes with your lab 3!
Regards,
Paul
Hi Santhosh,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I was convinced that being distracted and having interruptions during the meeting is unavoidable.
I have read a couple of other blog posts, and I must say, in every single one of them, the author can’t help but be distracted by his/her own thoughts, and throughout the meeting, they interrupt other people while they speak.
Well, that is precisely why we have this course right? It is to ensure that whenever we have future meetings, we can turn all the subconscious behaviour into conscious behaviour.
By the end of this course, (hopefully) we can apply all of the skills that we learnt, and become truly professionals in every meeting we go.
Just learning stuff in theory isn’t enough; we need the help of this video to help us realize what problems we still have. Learning skills in theory doesn’t necessary mean that we will be able to apply it in real life situations immediately and flawlessly.
However, I also believe that it is impossible to completely remove all these subconscious behaviour from our systems. This course is to help us bring those negative behaviours to a minimum. Hence, it is alright to display such behaviour once in a while, and try not to blame ourselves too much for the inability to use the skills we learnt.
Cheers
Zhen Yong
Hi Santosh,
ReplyDeleteWish you a very Happy Chinese New Year. Hope you enjoyed the recess week!
Even our team had a problem with the camera. It automatically stopped recording after half an hour.
I am so surprised to know that everybody in your team had a different idea. That’s really commendable. This is exactly the opposite of what I felt while writing my blog post; Lack of ideas and maybe a not so effective brainstorming session.
It’s pleasing to know that watching the video helped you. When I heard about having to watch your own video and then comment on it, I believed it was a waste of time. But then when I myself watched the video, I noticed how helpful it was. Your team leader did a good job by closely sticking to the agenda and giving all the members time to speak.
Regarding your personal experiences, I feel it is quite natural for us to interrupt when other are putting their point across or to get lost in our own thoughts. But then this is where this module comes into play. To teach us active listening skills and bring out the true professional within us!
Cheers to your team and all the best for the programming project.
Cheers,
Saurabh Arora
Hello Santhosh,
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear that each of your group members have different ideas and all of you finally come to an agreement.
After reading a few other blog posts, mine included, I can't help but feel that most people get distracted during meetings. Sometimes, it brinks on unavoidable. At certain parts of a meeting, we may get a spark of thought or a moment of "genius". We tend to bring it up as soon as possible to avoid the thought to be forgotten soon after. This results in the current speaker to be interrupted. When this happens, we come across as rude and more often than not, break the flow of the meeting.
In order to prevent this, we need to try and pay full attention to the speaker and wait for our turn to speak. It may not be easy but the skills of being an active listener are taught in this very module, and I hope after it is over, we can all apply the very important skill of listening.
I agree with Zhen Yong that when our thoughts wander, it is somewhat subconscious and cannot be fully prevented. We can only try to listen to our utmost ability and constantly remind ourselves not to interrupt when another person is speaking.
Lastly, good luck for the programming project!
Cheers,
Qinxian