Thank you

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for your comments and blogs during this course. This course has taught me so much and I have learned through all of you as well. Thank you for sharing stories and experiences and your feedback. I wish you all the best of luck in your future courses!

Adjourning

This week you read about the five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Consider the adjourning phase for several of the groups in which you have been involved. Think about which aspects of the groups made for the hardest good-bye.

Are high-performing groups hardest to leave?

I think that high performing groups are hard to leave. However, when a project is complete and it is successful, you want to move on to the next task and be just as successful.

Which of the groups that you participated in was hardest to leave? Why?  

One group that I participated in was very hard to leave. The atmosphere was almost like a family. We knew that we could depend on each other and we all supported each other in every aspect of any project that we  were working on. Because of this, we were successful and it was hard to leave this environment.

What sorts of closing rituals have you experienced or wish you had experienced?

I have experienced going away parties/celebrations that were nice because they celebrated all the great things about me as an employee as well as all of the group contributions. It is nice to be recognized for working hard.

How do you imagine that you will adjourn from the group of colleagues you have formed while working on your master's degree in this program?

I think that we will write a blog post to thank our colleagues for sharing their stories and their wisdom and we will wish them well in their future courses with Walden.

Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork?

I think that adjourning is essential because it allows for time to reflect on projects. The team can see where they made progress or if any mistakes were made. They can discuss ways to do things better or differently the next time.

 

 

Managing Conflict

Lately, I have been facing conflict at work. I have tried numerous times to explain how I feel about it and why to my supervisor, but my efforts have not really been successful. Through course readings, I have found that one strategy that I started to use and will use more often, it is a challenging strategy. I think this strategy would work best for me because most times, I just try to avoid conflict altogether. Because avoidance was my usual managing technique, I never felt as though my issues were resolved, they were just suppressed. Along with the challenging strategy, I would like to use probing as well. I need to ask more questions if there is a misunderstanding. I believe that these two together will help me to manage this conflict more effectively. I believe this because at times, the atmosphere is one where I am supposed to do a task without question. Many times, this can cause conflict within myself because many times, I feel like an explanation would be okay. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions about how to deal with conflict in the work place?

Evaluating Communication

The thing that surprised me most about how others evaluated me is that I seemed to be harder on myself than they were when answering the questions. For the most part, I ended up in similar groups when evaluated by others and myself. I think that this surprised me because I tend to be harder on myself than others tend to be.

This week, I learned that we communicate by how we perceive things. In order to avoid a negative communication encounter, we must be aware of how we perceive things, ourselves and the people that we communicate with. In the early childhood field, it is important to be aware of these things in order to have effective communication.

Communicating

Do you find yourself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures?

            I do find that I communicate differently with people from different groups and cultures. I speak differently when I am surrounded by people of my own culture than when I am not. There are cultural ways of speaking that I tend to use more around people that belong to the same culture as I do. For example, it would be appropriate to use slang words if I wanted to.  If I am communicating with people that I am unfamiliar with, I tend to not speak very much. If I do need to speak, I do not use slang words. I tend to use a more proper English.

 I also communicate differently with people in professional setting versus a nonprofessional setting. There are terms and ways of communicating that each work setting uses to communicate among its employees. I have learned the ways that my current job uses to communicate among my colleagues.

Three strategies that I could use to communicate better:

·         I could get to know others and how they communicate

·         I could utilize the Platinum Rule to communicate more effectively with people of other groups and cultures.

·         I could also take more time and learn about my own communication styles to learn how to communicate more effectively with others.

Nonverbal communication

Watch the show with the sound turned off.

I watched a show that my husband chose for me that I have never seen before. Its called Gavin and Stacy. It’s a British show.

·         What do you think the characters' relationships are based on the ways in which they are communicating?

o   There is a guy and a girl on the phone together. They seem to know each other very well. They are laughing and seem to have a good relationship.

o   The girl gets off the bus and is greeted by an older woman. They seem to know each other. They may be neighbors.

o   Girl goes home to roommate/mom and has dinner. They have a regular dinner conversation.

·         What are they feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior you are observing?

o   I think that the girl is feeling happy and she seems to have people around her that support her and care for her.

Now, watch the show with the sound turned on.

·         What assumptions did you make about the characters and plot based on the ways in which you interpreted the communication you observed?

o   I assumed that the guy and girl on the phone were close friends and that they knew each other well. They have never met before. They only spoke on the phone and are going to meet for a blind date.

o   I assumed that the older woman was having normal neighborly conversation with the girl. I was right about them being neighbors, but the old woman had a bit of a foul mouth.

o   I also assumed that the girl went home to a roommate, but it was her mother and they do have a good relationship. The dinner conversation was a normal one that could have been between a mother and daughter. It was a very comedic conversation though.

·         Would your assumptions have been more correct if you had been watching a show you know well?

o   I do think that my assumptions would have been correct if it had been a show that I know well. I would have known the relationships between the characters and may have been able to guess what the conversations would have been about.

·         I found that reading body language/nonverbal communication is not very hard when the sound is off, it is easier to focus on facial expressions and gestures. When the sound is on, I found that I paid more attention to the dialogue.

Communication

For your blog this week, think of someone (e.g., family member, celebrity, politician, friend, or professor) who demonstrates competent communication within a particular context. What behaviors does this person exhibit that make him or her effective? Would you want to model some of your own communication behaviors after this person? Why or why not?

My dad is someone who demonstrates competent communication within a business setting. He is very smart and has a wealth of knowledge about the topics he discusses at work. He uses good communication skills and maintains eye contact and uses good body language. He is able to listen to others and work with them to come up with solutions to problems.

I would like to model some of my own communication behaviors after him because I feel that they are effective. He is able to communicate with many different people in many different settings. I think that this is a great quality to have.