Final Reflections

When I was deciding on what modules to take this semester, my friend told me about ES2007S Professional Communication and I thought to myself it was a module worth taking. I was thinking even if I could not score (like most other electives which I had taken), I might as well learn something which is useful, like how to communicate better with others. Although none of my friends could take the same tutorial slot, I am glad that I walked out of my comfort zone and met a bunch of wonderful classmates!

The manner the class is conducted is very beneficial for learning professional communication. We are encouraged to give comments and share their opinions. Such a system promotes learning as it is often through feedback from others, we will then reflect on ourselves and make changes. For my first presentation, I was reminded that group teamwork could be reflected from the slightest details of a presentation - the background of the slides. As Grace, Lara and I worked on our individual parts, we were too focused on our own contents and did not really pay much attention to the visuals of the presentation.

For the peer teaching, I exceeded the time limit - probably a taboo for professional presentations. While I was practising, I only focused on the contents. Therefore after the peer teaching, I made an effort to time myself when I was preparing for the other presentations of other modules. With the timer, I was constantly revising what contents to speak, where to make pauses, when to breathe etc. Unknowingly, I was refining my content and maximizing my "airtime" during the presentation. This helped me in many other presentations outside the ES2007S module too.

The numerous presentations in the ES2007S class prompted me be more conscious of pacing of my delivery and the non-verbal communication I projected to the audience. In addition, I realise the importance of catering the presentation to the audience and to feel comfortable and confident when presenting. This will grab the attention of the audience and reinforce my confidence in a positive feedback loop. Lastly, the class's feedback were very useful, making me to be more aware of my shortcomings. Furthermore, from listening to other presenters and the feedback they received, I was introduced to different styles of presentation. I am glad I can learn from my friends' strengths and avoid making the same common mistakes too.

Apart from improving my presentation skills, this module enriched me in many other ways. With the application letter peer teaching and assignment, I am more aware of how to write professionally - not with bombastic, fanciful language but clear and concise. I still have much room for improvement, especially for the concise portion, but generally I am more confident with writing now. I become more aware of how to be assertive too in the last lesson, and how to reject people politely. 

It was a wonderful learning experience and good luck with exams everyone!

p.s. I am a rather passive submissive person when it comes to my friends' requests (I bet some of you disagree), therefore I will be more assertive in future!

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Looking back at our group's presentation, I feel that we have done a pretty good job from preparation to the question and answer session. It was really enjoyable to work with Hui Ping, Isabel and Ming Yan and I will remember the night how we rehearsed the presentation while strangers walk past us with their surprised expression! Preparation had never been so enjoyable.

The preparation of the slides was never easy, especially with so much content to cover. We spent a lot of time restructuring and fine tuning the slides to ensure that there were no overlaps in content for each speaker. The effort put in was worthwhile as the transition between each speaker for the final presentation was smooth. The smooth flow also enabled us to retain the interest of the audience.

During our rehearsal, we gave comments to each other and I found it extremely helpful, especially with certain pronunciation of words. As for individual preparation, I was inspired by Ming Yan, who practised her parts non stop for many times! Practice makes perfect - I rehearsed several times too. However, from my own rehearsals, I felt that my best rehearsal was during my shower! There were no hiccups and everything seems to be in place as compared to rehearsing in my room. I think for a good presentation, we have to feel relax and definitely put in enough effort during preparation.

For the presentation proper, I felt I was rather steady initially and while my part was ending, I seem to lose focus and start to forget things. Thankfully, I prepared sufficiently to pull it off. Eye contact during presentation was always emphasized during our lessons. It is not only a way to engage the audience but also give yourself confidence. As I was presenting, I could see that my audience were very interested in what I am presenting, this provided me with positive feedback and I became less nervous.

As for the Question and Answer session, I found it really interactive and I was able to put to what I had learnt to practise (like rephrasing the question to buy more time to formulate the answer). I believe that preparing for the Question and Answer had helped us anticipated many questions. We were also very clear what our Essential Life Skills proposal wants to deliver, it allowed us to answer the questions with a uniform stand.

I feel that one challenge of this presentation is to incorporate creativity into the presentation. As the purpose of this presentation was to convince the Provost of our proposal, it was very restrictive to be innovative as the slides had to be somewhat formal. I guess we could have improved on the creativity portion probably with a bit more animation or perhaps more significant and powerful pictures to complement our points.

Once again I would like to thank my wonderful group mates! I think I wrote too much again!

Intercultural Behaviours

I used to think that intercultural differences and behaviours can be classified according to the race, whereby, Chinese, Malays and Indians tend to behave and think in a certain way. In actual fact, even within races, behaviours may vary. I shall share some experiences dealing with people from a different culture.

When I was serving in the army, there were many unpleasant incidents which involved intercultural communication. In my section, there was an Indian called Dinesh (name was changed). Dinesh was an Indian national who received his Singapore Permanent Residence status after graduation from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU). Therefore, he had to serve National Service (NS) too.

I had Singaporean Indians in my previous sections and everyone got along well. To pass time, we often joked among ourselves and made fun of each other. However, with Dinesh, it was very different, he seemed to be offended easily when we made fun of him and often commented that we were racist. We found it hard to comprehend since there are other Indians around, why was it only Dinesh who got so agitated. After all, the teasing was mutual and no one targeted a certain race or group.

There was an outfield exercise and after a long day of training, we finally set up our tents and could change out of the sweaty uniforms. My other friend and I removed our uniforms and laid them on the tents to dry with the inner side facing downwards. Dinesh came along and placed his uniform, similarly with the inner side facing downwards, on top of our uniforms. The interesting thing was my friend and I simultaneously said, "No Dinesh, flip it." Dinesh took offence and removed his uniform. During the debrief of the exercise, Dinesh complained to the superiors that we were discriminating against him by not allowing him to air his uniform with ours.

On hindsight, I feel that this incident was a major case of intercultural miscommunication. My friend (Chinese) and I said no to Dinesh because he was placing the inner side on top of our dirty uniforms. Probably it is a Chinese culture that even dirty clothing have an inner and outer side. The inner being the side which will come into contact with one's skin and the outer being the side which is exposed to the environment. We did not want the inner side of Dinesh's uniform to be dirtied by the "dirtier" outer side of our uniforms. Our intentions were grossly misinterpreted to the extent that they were seen as racist and discriminatory.

From this experience, I realized when communicating with people of different cultural backgrounds, it is necessary to pay extra attention to the details. Having a similar culture and way of thought, my friend and I could understand what we meant by "No. Flip it." and would find that comment as a nice gesture. However, coming from a different cultural background, Dinesh was offended by the "No" and did not understand the subtle message behind "Flip it". Once again, I would like to remind everyone to be more tactful with the choice of words when conversing with people of different cultural backgrounds.

Application Letter Writing. Draft 1

Here is Draft 1! I thought the lesson on Friday was really helpful in drafting out this letter.

The company I am writing to is Cellworks Research and here is the link to their website. By the way, I could not find the Contact Name, so I addressed to the Chairman and Managing Director of the Cellworks Research directly. 

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Qu Kui

Blk 146 Gangsa Road

#11-293

Singapore 670146

10 February 2012

Anand Anandkumar

Chairman and Managing Director

Cellworks Research India Limited
R&D Center
3rd floor, West Wing, "Neil - Rao Tower"118,
Road # 3, EPIP, Whitefield,
Bangalore - 560 066

Dear Dr. Anandkumar

Cellworks Research Internship

I am writing to apply for the internship under the NUS Overseas College Short Programme. I am eager to embark on the projects offered by CellWorks Research, especially the therapies for oncology. Currently a Year 3 Bioengineering student in the National University of Singapore (NUS), I hope to apply my knowledge to contribute to the medical science industry.

With the biochemistry knowledge from life science modules; experience from design modules and analytical skills developed from my engineering curriculum, I believe that I will play a useful role in the Cellworks team. In addition, my short experience in the Tissue Modulation Laboratory (TML) improved my technical dexterity in research work.

During my National Service in the Singapore Armed Forces, I was awarded the Best Specialist of the Month twice in recognition of my diligence and competence. I was then nominated to attend the Platoon Sergeant Course for my meticulous planning and responsible attitude.

To experience something different, I joined the Great Eastern Internship Program (Insurance). Competing against other groups, my team was disciplined and worked closely together, eventually receiving the Best Group Award. I also enjoy team sports at my leisure time. With a group of friends, we participated in the beach soccer tournament organized by the faculty and we emerged as second runner-up.

As a project manager in InnoClub, I proposed to collaborate with the professors of the design module to enhance the quality of the module via a sharing session with the juniors. I formulated and conducted a lesson to a class of 50 juniors and received positive feedback from the audience and professors. At short notice, I took up the role of camp director to plan and directed the first Bioengineering Freshmen Camp. Eventually, my team and I managed to overcome the constraints of limited resources and conducted the camp successfully with 70% of the freshmen attending.

I volunteered to serve as the class representative to convey my course mates’ intentions, provide suggestions to the professors and I managed to resolve the time-table clashes issues of my course mates. For my active involvement in student activities, I am appointed the FOE Class Ambassador to connect undergraduates and the alumni.

In review of Cellworks Research’s mission and vision, I believe my relevant skillsets will make me a competent individual and a supportive team player for the research internship. Moreover, a proactive communicator enhances team projects and is more adaptable to problems or even cultural differences.

I have enclosed my resume and should you have any other enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact me at the number provided in the resume. Thank you and I look forward to your positive reply.

Sincerely yours

Qu Kui

Enclosure

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By the way, can anyone teach me how to upload the pdf file of the resume? I tried Insert Image but it does not seem to work. Thanks :)

Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts

Interpersonal conflicts are inevitable since people have to interact with one another when they communicate. However, they may not necessarily be a bad thing. When managed appropriately, these conflicts could strengthen relationships, leading to deeper understanding and mutual respect between the parties involved. In the workplace context, productivity could even increase when the working relationships are positive and healthy.

The interpersonal conflict I am going to share, like many others, is caused by lack of communication. Eddie, a graduate student and Stella, a laboratory assistant worked in a tissue engineering laboratory. Stella was in charge of the administrative matters in the laboratory and had to help Eddie in conducting of the experiments for his project.

One morning, Eddie informed Stella that she had to help him to perform some experiment procedures at 10am and 1pm as he had a meeting during that time. He emphasized that those were the best timings to get the optimal readings from the experiment. However, at 10am, Stella was away on some administrative matters. Not knowing where Stella was, Eddie performed the experiment and missed his meeting. When Stella returned, he approached her.

   Eddie: I've done the experiment, where were you just now? I can't find you.

   Stella: Collecting the kits John had ordered. (It was part of Stella's administrative work)

   Eddie (in a stern tone): You could have informed me. The experiment was really important, you know?

   Stella (seems annoyed): Ok.
 

Eddie noticed Stella's change in her non-verbal expression decided to leave her alone and left.

This was a conflict I witnessed in the laboratory and it jeopardized their work since the project required them to work closely together.

The conflict was caused by the untimely arrival of John’s kit which Stella was obliged to handle as it was part of her job scope. She could have forgotten to inform Eddie about it or she might have felt that she would have sufficient time to get back to perform the experiment at 10. I feel that this conflict could have been resolved or even avoided if both Eddie and Stella could show more empathy to each other. Although Eddie’s work was important, he could have said with a smile, “Could you please inform me next time if you have last minute urgent matters to attend to? It’s so tough on you to have so much work to handle.” This may give Stella the feeling that Eddie was not blaming her but trying to work out a better way to avoid such situations in future. Similarly, Stella could have told Eddie in an apologetic tone that she was sorry but the delivery of the kit came unexpectedly.

When Eddie noticed Stella’s annoyance, he was right to avoid an escalated conflict by walking away. However, this might not be the best solution to resolve this conflict since they always have to work hand-in-hand. What would you propose to resolve such a situation at work?

Different Channels in Effective Communications

When Radhika concluded the class by sharing with us the things to take note in effective communication – purpose, audience, context and channel, I felt the point on channel was interesting, so I shall share my thoughts on this.

Nowadays, less people engage in face-to-face communications as alternative forms such as Emailing, texting via Short Message Service (SMS) provide  much more convenient channels and are able to reach out to more people at one go. However, I feel that these convenient channels of communication may hinder effective communication, and should be used with care.

1.       Speed of communication

Effective communication is the key to successful planning and decision making. Effective communication involves a constant feedback and exchange of information. In planning, every question will lead to a reply which may generate more questions and replies. Sound decisions are made using information obtained from the process of questioning and replying. Decisions can be made faster if the communication process is spontaneous and continuous. However, with email and texting, information takes a longer time to travel especially when the recipient fails to check their mail.

When I was planning for the Freshmen Welcome Camp for Bioengineering last June, I communicated with the Bioengineering Club President by email. As all the planning only started 1 month before the actual camp, everything was in a rush. Planning was hindered by the slow email response from the President, and I felt frustrated with the lack of support provided. It resulted in a poor working relationship and developed into a vicious cycle of not wanting to communicate with each other at all. Thankfully, the camp went well in the end. On hindsight, I felt that we could have used an alternative channel at the start e.g. telephone calls which allow faster exchange of information. A better working relationship would definitely make the camp experience more enjoyable for me.

2.       Lack of emotions

Another problem of emailing and texting is their limitations in expressing emotions. I believe that effective communication stems from emotions. For example, the recipient can relate to the thankyou message more if he is able to feel the sender's sincerity. However via emails, the recipient of the message can only interpret how the sender is feeling through the contents of the text. If the recipient misinterpreted the sender's emotions to be negative, misunderstanding may arise and working relationships could be strained.

I emailed my logistics member to check on the collection of keys for the rooms we booked for the camp. She replied me in the mail “Please read your previous mail.” When I saw the mail, I interpreted that she was annoyed with me for constantly checking the details and I felt slightly offended by her reply. However, after clarifications, the message was meant in a cheeky way. If it was through voice conservation over the phone, I would not develop the unpleasant feeling as her tone would hint that she was simply joking with me. This shows that emotions are part and parcel of effective communications to show our intentions. Probably that’s why we have emoticons such as :P to show mischief, :D to indicate happiness and :( for sadness/unhappiness.

3.       Do we need rules for certain channels of commnications?

Many of us may have planned meetings before and texted message to a group of people informing them about a gathering. Here’s an example:

“Hi friends, meeting in NUS on Friday 4pm”

After one day of waiting, no one replied to indicate their attendance and you texted them individually again for confirmation. Then you receive different replies like

“I cannot come, so I never reply the message.”   and

“I got the notice, so I never reply the message.”

There is no fixed rule on what does “no reply” indicates. This would defeat the purpose of using texting as a convenient channel for communication (information dissemination) as the sender has to check with each person again for the reply. 

On the other hand, texting to big groups is very useful to disseminate information which doesnt not require replies. E.g. There is no ES2007S class on Tuesday.

I feel that having a protocol or guidelines on how to use certain communication channels is exaggerated. In a group, certain rules may be established along the way as setting rules at the start can be too intimidating. My friend once shared with me that her project leader sent an email requesting them to email in a certain format. Although it was a good initiative by the leader to create an organised system, it was not well received by the members of the team.

In all, I feel that 4 points of effective communication - Purpose, Audience, Context and Channel are interrelated. For each purpose, audience and context, we can choose different channels to get the best out of the communications. 

The channels are simply tools for us to utilize. If we can use them to our advantage, it will help us communicate effectively with others regardless of workplace environment or simply with our friends and family, and avoid unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings.

Testing

Hi everyone,

The blog is up and running.

Qu Kui