How is your experience working in a small group progressing? What challenges are you facing-- or successes? How have you had to develop a strategy for accomplishing your task (the service learning grant), given the short timeframe in which you have to work together?
We watched an episode of "The Office" this week as an example of some of the common issues that occur with public speaking, both in giving advice and in actual presentation. What sorts of observations did you note? Furthermore, how did this episode show why we need to be effective communicators? How will communication skills aid you in the future? How are presentational speaking skills useful in any profession?
Further issues that you have noticed, either in the readings or in some of our experiences this week, are quite welcome.
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So far, my experience working in a small group has been smooth. All of us understand the goals of our project and everyone has been willing to do their part. Due to the nature of this grant proposal and the number of group members we have, I feel like we should have broken down into smaller groups. I say this because we had to delegate more than one person to work on a specific aspect of the project. Basically the tasks were accomplished quickly and some of us didn't have the opportunity to contribute a great deal. Other than that I have enjoyed working in my group.
ReplyDeleteThe office episode was entertaining because we felt bad for both Michael and Dwight. It was obvious that neither character had sufficiently prepared for the speech. In Micheal's improv speech he made crude comments that were not received well by the audience. In Dwight's speech we saw his passion and vocal variation which seemed to stimulate the audience despite the lack of preparation. Also, this episode introduced us to a situation where public speaking is important and in an environment where we might not have previously considered.
The service learning project is progressing very well and ahead of schedule. One of our main problems is getting "simultaneous permission" - getting permission to use the facility while also getting confirmation that our guests will actually attend so as to not make it seem like asking to use the facility is unnecessary. (We don't want to ask a facility to be available and then not need it at all). The strategy we have developed is to gather all necessary information we can, such as transportation and refreshment estimates, and time estimates, and have it all ready to give to the people we will need to contact.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really pay so much attention to the episode because it was difficult to do so due to the absurdity of the people giving the advice. I did take from it that to be an effective communicator, it is necessary to captivate your audience. I will use that idea in the future in giving a better presentation by helping people actually learn something from it rather than having them sit there being bored. Those types of skills are useful in any profession in that no profession can be done without human contact. Even if it is an informal presentation such as telling a supervisor what you accomplished during your shift, it is still necessary to know how to get their attention and give them the information they seek.
I have worked in a group environment at least once every semester here at Purdue. I am very familiar with how groups function and the different types of people that you meet. Our group for the service learning project has been excellent. We all pitched in to work on some aspect of the project and have all completed our work on time. Even though we were not given a lot of time to complete this project, the relatively small amount of work needed kept us on track.
ReplyDeleteThe office episode we watched was a comedic way of showing what can happen with poor communication and public speaking skills. Just like working in groups, every semester at Purdue I have had to give a presentation in front of a class. Over time my presentation skills have greatly improved. All this presenting will be a huge benefit once I enter my profession.
Working in the small group has been good. Everyone in our group is doing there part and everything has come together nicely. The only problem I have been having is that the contacts I have been trying to reach wont respond to any e mails I have sent so we are behind on that. Other than the contacts not responding to me, our group is ready to go.
ReplyDeleteI like how the episode of the office that we saw showed that when you have poor speaking skills you can lose an audience in an instant. Not being prepared or being overly excessive like dwight was can also put you in a hole. Of course, for the sake of the show everyone loved dwights speach, but in real life it would have flopped within the first few minutes.
These are some really interesting perspectives. I like that you're each picking out some different aspects. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of a small group, I think of around 3-4 people, not 7-8 so that was an adjustment that I had to make on the fly for this class. I find it somewhat difficult to work in a group with so many people because it can be hard for everyone to contribute and it's hard to please everybody. I think this project could easily have been done in groups of 2-4 people. The timeframe didn't seem to be an issue for most groups and I think it was an adequate amount of time. The only issue it sounds like is getting a response from the person the groups are trying to contact.
ReplyDeleteAs for The Office, it reiterates a big point that you talked about which is to be prepared and practice. Doing those two things will make you appear confident even if you're not, and it will make the audience believe you are a credible person.
I agree with Todd's statements about the size of the group and the challenges that come with it. I missed a day of class, the day groups were assigned, but at the next class, there was nothing to do upon arrival. An idea was in place, the steps to complete it were already in play, and the only thing in the air was the budget, where I managed to squeeze a few words in. With a project as such, if there was a lot to do, the size would be useful. For filling out a form, it's difficult to feel like you're making an impact.
ReplyDeleteThe Office is not my cup of tea, mainly due to the style of comedy, so it was difficult to pick up on any of the tips in the show other than the ones you called to our attention. Even so, it would be most unfortunate to be unable to speak in front of a group. It shows that you're lacking of confidence and preparation, and it's publicly embarrassing for yourself as well as whomever you're representing. Effective communication skills make you look better to whoever has to listen, which could aid you in the long run in terms of employment opportunites and promotions.
We can obviously take away a lot about Dwight's speech at the awards ceremony. Even though his speech wasn't the best example for how to properly present to the public, he did so with energy. That's one quality I want to attempt to incorporate into my speeches this semester. I feel that when a speaker puts forth the energy they feel a lot more confident about their material and the audience is more responsive.
ReplyDeleteTo touch a bit on how presentation skills will affect me in the future; in web design/programming I've been required to present or showcase my projects to my boss or peers. We use this typically to better understand the functionality and layout of a newly developed application. I find that these skills will greatly benefit these presentations.
I liked the Office episode, but mostly because I like the Office. Having read some of your posts about it, I can retroactively see the points from Dwight's mishaps that I can take and apply to my own speeches. However, those points are difficult to glean in their original context, mostly because the misinformation that Dwight gets is the focus of the episode.
ReplyDeleteAs Daniel noted, Dwight's energy carried his speech. Dwight's charisma, once he found it again, enabled him to inspire his audience by building them up, but the speech itself didn't have much preparation or value in and of itself. Of course, it's Dwight, and it's The Office, so I didn't expect anything else. I think there's more value in what Dwight didn't do than what he did. Research about your audience and preparation beforehand are key to giving an effective speech. Even if you don't say much in terms of content, you can still make a speech out of it by adding detail or clarification while presenting it with enthusiasm.
The group work experience seemed to work out well for me in the end. I think it was beneficial to me in that it made me more used to speaking my mind when I have ideas to contribute. The main challenges for me, I think, were both getting myself to put forward ideas that I was unsure about and struggling to think of ideas to contribute in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe strategy I ended up employing myself was, in essence, (1) to see what sort of plan the rest of my team seemed to agree upon, (2) to try to elaborate upon or add to that plan, and (3) to check the plan to make sure it fit the original requirements.
The main things I noticed about the episode of The Office were (1) that neither speaker was prepared at all, (2) that Michael failed to make his speech appropriate to his particular audience when he attempted to make that joke, (3) that Dwight's lack of preparation nearly made him fail at the beginning of his speech (where he paused for a long time), and (4) that Dwight somehow still connected to the audience, probably largely due to his intense energy in speaking, his use of gestures, and perhaps his quick study of techniques from old speeches. We can see from all this that we need to be effective communicators or else we may fail embarrassingly in connecting with our audiences.
In the future, communication skills may help me not only in giving speeches (which professionals of all sorts may do in many cases, such as at meetings concerning company direction, technical exhibitions, or any events which require addressing audiences formally), but also in team-based work or in explaining my creative ideas or any sort of useful information to others.
While working with a group I noticed several things. The first of which was that it was very easy to bounce ideas off of each other and get a good sense of where to take the project to. Each member had good ideas to bring to the table that made the overall project a success. Another thing I noticed was that the overall ending idea for the serice learning project for each group was very different and unique. Each group had something very different to propose that actually gave the project a successful outcome.
ReplyDeleteI think our group worked really well together. I like working in groups because you can brainstorm ideas together and get everyone's perspective. Sometimes when I work in groups, one person will take charge and do the whole project just because they want it done. I don't think that's good practice or an efficient way to do a project because then you don't get anyone else's ideas and I end up feeling like I didn't contribute or learn anything. We avoided that problem by brainstorming as a group and then delegating each person a task immediately. No one got stuck doing all the work and everyone got to contribute their ideas. Being able to brainstorm as a group will definitely help me in the future if I'm part of an IT office staff because we can work together to solve large problems.
ReplyDeleteThe Office episode showed how being unprepared can make someone more nervous, and then they do stupid things in front of a crowd. If Dwight had been more prepared, he wouldn't have been so nervous or looking to Michael for advice. I'd like to be more confident in my ability to explain things so that I can prepare better for impromptu presentations. In the office, I might not have time to prepare entire presentations and rehearse them well before I have to present.
I think the short timeframe for the project made the decision process easier. Since we didnt have a lot of time we came up with what we thought was a good idea and then ran with in and developed our plan for hopefully obtaining the grant money.
ReplyDeleteThe Office episode showed what I believe most people feel when they are preparing for a speech as well as when they are giving the speech. Being unprepared leads to being nervous and not giving your best speech. When you prepare and feel confident that you know what you are talking about then you will give a better speech and your audience will understand the subject. The audience in the episode didnt know what the speaker was trying to say which led to great applause, but no real information being transferred to the audience.
I found the group project to be rather easy. Our group found a topic and worked quickly without any bickering over details.
ReplyDeleteAs for the office episode, I'm going to agree with Nate. Dwight was not prepared for the speech he gave and as a result, was steered into giving something not exactly right for the situation.