Overall Contribution to the Group Process - Coursework Example

Reflective Essay Name: Student Number: Tutor: Subject Code: Introduction Reflection on my communication experience during group work is in other words an expression of the kind of challenges I faced during the group work and also the good things I encountered at the same time. It will also show my involvement in the group work and the outcome. Reflective essay is all about stepping back from an experience and think about the meaning of the experience you had throughout the group work (Bilyk, 2010, p. 27). Throughout the reflective essay, some of the things I will observe the three major characteristics of a clear communication which will include: - The areas of experience as a receiver and sender of communication, the outcome I will get after an exchange of thoughts and whatever is the communication medium. Group process Communication is used as a major tool for transacting with people thus creating new relationships hence strengthening them. Through communication people are able to achieve common understanding of certain thing or the meaning of the thing. I like being social to people and this has created another character in me whereby I feel so good when meeting new people whereby I learn new things from them (Laura J. Gurak, 2002, p. 20). All I all, I have been having problems in group work because I have the mentality of doing better by myself than if I joined a group. However, this time round things turned out to be different from other times when I had group work since I had learned through internet on how to improve my skills in group work. Immediately after my instructor assigned us to do our presentation in groups, I joined my team with new attitude towards working as a group hence forming a prosperous team. As a group we agreed on the number of times to meet in a week and discuss how to resolve problems, review the work we did and see on what is already accomplished according to the plans we had (Vickers, 1987, p. 33). We also had to submit some of the essential things like phone numbers and email addresses which would enable me as a group member to remind them when to meat thus making things work out better. During the discussion I realized that things were going on well although sometimes I could loss my confidence in giving out my opinions. This is because I sometimes have a fear of giving out my ideas and then they turn out to be irrelevant to the group hence feel embarrassed and this made me to restrict myself very much in sharing my ideas with the other group members. Since communication is about exchange of information, opinion or even thoughts through signs, writing or speech, I came to realize that I created barrier successful communication (Laura J. Gurak, 2002, p. 23). In the group work I took part as a leader but with very little confidence since the entire group members were new to me. Although I was shy to the group members I could encourage myself and manage to express my opinions. Language became a major issue since we came from different backgrounds and we were of different races. Despite the differences we had, we gave humble time to each one of us for better understanding. We had to give enough support to each member of the group by being attentive to the things they wanted to say and we could analyse what he or she said for better understanding and then we could come into one agreement on what was suggested (Belanger, 2005, p. 55). As a leader, gave all the members an opportunity to express their thoughts so that we could come up with the best presentation in the class. Due to good cooperation with the group members there were no disappointments from them. We could motivate ourselves every time we met since as a group member I could award those who attended the discussion and at the same time I could fine those who did not come for the discussion and through this we were able to achieve what we had set as our group work goal. Through the great group work team, we were also able to create better friendship among us. I really felt good working with a team which was ready to work and get the best ever and also comfortably working with people whereby I had all the freedom to laugh and do other things freely of which to me it was fun (Guilherme, 2010, p. 93). Some of the mistakes I did during the group work were being of less confidence despite that I was the group leader, I was also not supposed to have a fear when giving out my opinions, I later realized that as a group leader I was supposed to involve all the members in decision making of how the group work process was supposed to do but I assumed that was not important to us (Bhardwaj, 2005, p. 134). However, all these mistakes can easily be corrected. In the case of lack of confidence and presence of shyness, I will work hard to ensure that next time during group work whatever I give out as the result of my research is true and I know with this I will be confident throughout the discussions and also I will not be shy. Courageousness is another good and important aspect for someone in discussion so next time I will also build up courage for asking where I don’t understand and also give out my opinions without fear. This is because if I keep the opinions to myself they might not help me the way I could benefit if I shared with the group members. The opinions I had could have also been wrong and if I don’t share it can lead me astray. As a group leader, I should always discuss with the group members on how to run the group hence I did not bother involving them in this and since I discovered it I will ensure I don’t repeat the same next time (Hamilton C. L., 2011, p. 87). My Contribution in the Group Work Through the group work I was able to control the attendance of the group members since I was the group leader. I was also able to learn new things from the group members because after a short while we were able to interact thus creating new friendship. The during the group discussions, I was also able to discover more of my strengths, weaknesses, personality and also the capabilities I have to the people surrounding me. As a group leader, I was able to make them understand that we are from different races and this would not be a burrier to us to make the best group ever. This was through encouraging them to listen to each other opinions and analyse it according to their understanding and think of whether it would work out or not. I also gave all the group members an opportunity to express their thoughts on what we were discussing and the entire group members could come up with their opinions about the problem being solved (Hamilton C. , 2008, p. 167). The other thing I did as a group leader is to recognize the good attendance to the group work whereby I awarded all those who attended the group discussions in the right way and fined those who failed attending the group work. This encouraged the group members and we were able to do the required successfully. Through all these responsibilities I had, I was able to communicate with each member of the group despite the differences we had of races as a group (Bhardwaj, 2005, p. 120). Overall contribution to the Group Process I contributed to the group work through organizing the group members and setting the specific date and time on which we were to meet. My position in the group also enabled me to ensure that as a group we were in good terms and this made us to remain in a very good relationship until the process of group work was over. I plaid a role of ensuring that each member was able to express his or her opinion since us as a group had come to an agreement that each one had the right of expressing their opinion. Anyone who had any objection towards some of the opinion was also free to do so and this made the group members to feel free while in the discussion (Assenmacher, 2011, p. 87). However, all this does not mean that my group has achieved completely the target we had set since I am planning for more improvement. Some of the parts to work on include; looking for group members who have the same language as mine. This will keep me free from the difficulties of straining to understand what other members who are having different languages. This will also assist in sparing much time we previously wasted while creating time for each member to express what he or she is trying to drive at to the other members who took time to understand the different languages used in the group (KUMAR, 2011, p. 190). This is very important since it can pull back the group especially if the group members do not understand the differences among themselves and are not in good terms. References Assenmacher, K. (2011). A Reflection Upon a Team Work Experience A Reflection Upon a Team Work Experience. Munich: GRIN Verlag,. Belanger, S. E. (2005). Business And Technical Communication. 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