Teamwork and communication are two important skills that we should have, as we will be using it for as long as we live. Communication is the process whereby we convey a message so that a shared understanding will be reached. It is an important skill, as we will be using it daily, from talking on the phone to sending a simple text message to publishing a blog post. Miscommunications, on the other hand, have much more adverse effects. It can lead to sending wrong information which will lead to misunderstandings which may in turn destroy friendships. Therefore, we should polish up our communication skills, so as to prevent miscommunication.
Teamwork is working together in a team, so that we can capitalize on each other’s strengths and cover each other’s weaknesses. Without teamwork, a team will achieve much lesser, compared to what they can achieve individually. Conversely, with teamwork, a team can achieve much better results, compared to what they can achieve individually. Therefore, teamwork is important and we should learn to be a better team player, as it is a skill that we would need for many more years, while we do other projects or when we start working outside.
To conclude, we need to know how to communicate effectively and to be a efficient team player. This will allow us to work more effectively, not only in school but when we are outside working as well. Therefore, we should learn as much as we can from this module, not just to get better grades, but to know ourselves better and become a better person.
Leonard Lim (C06)
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you clearly define teamwork and communication. You have also explained clearly what teamwork and communication is all about.
However, I felt that your blog entry is more focused on the principles and seems to have forgotten the second part of the topic which requires you to relate teamwork and communication to your experiences. My interpretation of the topic is to explain the principles of teamwork and communication is linked to our personal experiences. Correct me if I have misinterpreted the question. Thus, how does teamwork and communication related to you? What are some of the personal experiences in working as a team? You mentioned that we have been forming teams since primary school. Thus, I am sure that there is at least one experience which you can share to us.
You can also expand the discussion on miscommunication, which can also help to reinforce the importance of effective communication. You may try to explain the other consequences of miscommunication, such as leading to conflicts within a team which may in turn lead to biased decisions made.
Lastly, hope that you found my suggestions useful.
Li Hua
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should split my comment into its categories..
To start off, well done in the explanation of the concepts for this posting! My opinion is that you have thoroughly revised the concepts of both communication and teamwork, especially the depth in definition of teamwork in paragraph 3. The importance of communication and teamwork in our lives are repeatedly highlighted throughout the post, which further stresses the need for NUS students to be proficient in these areas in order to advance in our education routes.
On the areas for improvement, I do have the same concern as Lihua in her comments above. This posting do lack a personal touch of yours. For the marvelous explanations on the concepts, it is a pity that your personal experiences to add icings to the cake is missing. Although the last paragraph do contain your opinions, what I feel is that by illustrating situations of, say miscommunication, it serves to further highlight the importance of effective communication even more. Army experiences would be a great source of such examples for you to tap on. Same applies for teamwork too.
Overall, a nicely done post, remember to answer all the requirements of the question in the future.
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that teamwork and communication are two complex skills that are impossible to learn over night. It takes years to grasp and carry out the skills with ease. Hence, it is most appropriate to make full use out of this module to further cultivate our skills.
I feel that the main principles of teamwork and communication are very well explained. In addition, the effects of miscommunication and individuality further stress the importance of the two skills. However, as commented by our fellow two classmates, the post would have been more complete with some personal experiences and examples to enhance on the main concepts. As mentioned by Brandon, you might want to share your army experiences to illustrate miscommunication, as I believe miscommunication happens quite often in army.
On the whole, I feel that your post is very well structured. You started off with an introduction, followed by a main body, and ended off with a conclusion. This structure allows your reader to follow your chain of thoughts, hence improving the reader’s understanding. This is a nice start to your blog, and I hope my comments were useful to you.
Regards,
Hao Tan
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you explain your ideas clearly and simply, elaborating on how communication and teamwork affects us as a whole, in various circumstances.
Your post also provides a good summary of what we learnt in class about communication and teamwork. So though your post I can better see the link between our lessons and the modern context.
However I feel that this post might be overly generic and does not explore the more intricate part of communication and teamwork, and how these can really affect our lifestyle and how effectively things can be accomplished.
Also another suggestion you might want to consider is that your post deals with more of explanation of what communication and miscommunication means, rather than what is effective communication as opposed to just plain communication. How we can communicate more effectively could be touched on to improve your post.
Even so, I still feel that this is a great post as you give realistic motivations on why we should improve our communication skills, and teamwork. And how adverse effects can be if we are lacking in these two.
Indeed, we have been forming teams for project work for many years, as early as from primary school till our current academic level. However, one thing that I noticed is that till now, we have been learning teamwork and communication, but by experience. We had already experienced the positive and negative impacts brought by teamwork and communication. Through CG1413, we will be learning theories of good communications and teamwork and how to apply them. I believed that the combination of the experiences we had and theories we will be learning now, will greatly enhance our communications and teamwork.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I feel that you can write one paragraph with defines teamwork and communication as a whole and how they are important when put together while another paragraph on communication alone and one on teamwork. I believe that would make your post more coherent.
I am in favour of you saying that when working in a team, we capitalize on each other’s strengths and cover each other’s weakness because it is not definite that when working in a team, a more desirable result will be obtained as compared to individual work. Bad teamwork is very adverse to a team’s performance.
Overall the post is concise, correct and clear. It would be good if you can include some points relating your real life experience to this topic and provide some interesting insights to your experience.
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteYour post is concise and brought your point out easily, I could easily grasp the crux of the post. You had explained the concepts of communication and teamwork out so that your readers could have something tangible to relate to, which I felt was a good thing to do. You also emphasized that communication is not just for certain points in our lives but that it completely envelops all situations in it, this helps to drive home just how important it is to have communication skills.
Your point on teamwork covered just about how important it is. However, it would have been helpful if you provided how it would have benefited you directly. I also liked how you mentioned that these skills once learnt are for life, and thus are an invaluable concept to grasp while we are still (optimistically) young.
However, your word choice sometime tends to detract the impact you were trying to make. For example the phrase “ Without teamwork, a team will achieve much lesser”, was slightly confusing as a team would have good teamwork. Perhaps, using the word group can help to clarify the point better.
A pleasure to read, please continue to write more interesting posts.
Regards,
Kimberly