Post#4:reflection on meeting 1

Our group meeting was planned to be at 6:00 pm, Wednesday, February 10th 20010 and Prince Geogre Park Residences was chosen as the place. Jeisern had been appointed as team leader and he would chair the meeting while Geetika would be the secretary and would take down the minute.

Before the meeting, Jeisern wrote the agenda and emailed it to the others two members and the teacher. Be mindful and responsible as Jeisern is, he sent us messages via mobile as a gentle reminder. He also prepared a camera.

The meeting was conducted at the meeting room 3A which was unused and air-conned as well. It would have been better if we had had a pen to use the broad in the room. We were very grateful to my friend, Le Vi Thanh, for being our last-minute cameraman. He did quite well but the sound seemed to be not as good as when we first tested it. We should have been more careful when preparing for this meeting.

During the meeting, everyone had chances to talk freely but constructively to the project. Everyone agreed with Jeisern’s design and discussed more about it. After that, we began assigning tasks. Although being the team leader, Jeisern asked me and Geetika first for our preferred tasks in the project and decided to take care of the last. The report is Geetika’s task while mine is the UI (user interface) and Jeisern’s is the API ( application programming interface). We also set the deadline for them to be Monday the following week (Feb 15th 2010) because we wanted the second meeting to be held on Friday that week.

My contribution in the meeting was not as good as I supposed. The camera often distracted me and made me feel uncomfortable. However, I think the meeting was successful since it is the first them our team gathered. After that meeting, I understand out teammates better. I feel so lucky to be in a team with two talented and friendly people.

Post#3: Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts

Conflict arises from differences which are inevitable. When conflicts cannot be managed, they can lead to resentment and harm your relationships. However, conflicts are not all bad since after they are solved, mutual understanding will grow stronger. On one hand, we need to avoid unnecessary and negative conflicts; on the other hand, we need to learn how to deal with conflicts in a healthy way.

A and B work in a project team. In a team meeting, A presents his design which seems to be a good solution. However, B thinks that the design, though good, is hard to put into practice since it costs lots of resources. Dispute arises as both A and B does not want to listen but to defense their idea. Both lost temper and A says that B is stupid, and in return, B say that only an idiot can think of such an impractical solution. Other members war unable to stop them and as a result, the meeting ends in a big quarrel. In that project, the best score is given for another team with the design quite similar to that of A but with some modifications.

When it comes to conflict resolving, it is curial to manage stress and remain calm. You can never solve any conflict without controlling your own emotions, which is also the first step in conflict resolving. In this step, EQ plays a vital role. In the above example of A and B, if they stay calm, they can accurately analysis the problem, discuss freely but positively instead of quarreling. Once they fully understand the pros can cons of A’s design, they can come up with the best solution and gain better result.

Humor is also important in conflict resolving. Sometime, it happens that your opponent cannot control his emotions, thus, whatever you say is useless. It is also possible that even though you have carefully handed with the dispute, it still comes out of your control. In those cases, a joke may wide away or at least reduce tension and anger. But you should keep in mind that humor does not mean to make fund of your opponent, it only give negative respond.

I want to end my post with a quote of William James (1842-1910), an America Philosopher and Psychologist: “Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.”