My Reflection on Chapters 3, 9, and 10
Jose Escobedo
As our society is moving towards a more globalized world, proper communication is more important than ever. In my opinion, being able to deal with people from all cultures and backgrounds has become important, and this means being able to communicate effectively across different cultures as well as cooperate in groups and problem solve together.
It is for these reasons why I hope to learn as much as I can from my introduction to speech and communication class, where it can help teach me a lot about how to properly express my view points to other people and to be effective as part of a larger group towards reaching our goals together. Three groups in our class created some excellent presentations and I really feel that I learned a lot from it.
Chapter 3 - Intercultural Communication
Different cultures may have different languages which may present barriers.
The chapter 3 presentation dealt with inter-cultural communication, an important part of our ever-increasingly globalized world. Our world is made of a number of different cultures and over many generations, the world has developed many different language, religions, and values. Ever since the explosion of technology, people now more than ever are able to talk to each other regardless of country of origin, whether it involves flying across the world or instant communication via the internet. Therefore, it is has become increasingly important to learn how to relate to other people from all around the world.
Culture is naturally developed within a group of people in a society and it is the set of all beliefs, values, standards, and morals shared amongst the group of people. Communication itself is important in passing information between people, whether it's your feelings or your points of view on a particular subject. However, there can be difficulties when it comes to communication between different cultures, especially if they differ in aspects such as language, customs, religion, etc. There may also be differences when it comes to the expectations in how different sexes, genders, and socioeconomic classes communicate and perform their roles in society. A co-culture may also develop when a group of people share an identity with their experiences living with a disability.
When it comes to different cultures, potential barriers can present themselves in the form of ethnocentrism, stereotypes, anxiety, assumed similarities, and incompatible communication codes, norms, and values. Despite these difficulties, it is important to have an open mind and educate yourself on what different cultures are like to be better respectful and expressive.
In my opinion, the group presenters did a very good job explaining the importance of communication across many different cultures. They explained the different kinds of cultures that exist from individualistic and collectivism cultures to the differences that can exist with time perception. The variety of different images made it easier to follow along each point they were making as they were explaining it. Additionally, I thought the video they had about inter-generational communication was a nice touch to really explain the differences that can exist even within the same society between different generations - in this case, between generation Z and millennials.
Chapter 9 - Communication in Groups
Communication is an important aspect when working with groups.
A group is any collection of people who could either feel a sense of belonging or work together to achieve a common goal. Within a group, communication - verbal and nonverbal - is key. According to the Ringelmann Effect, I learned that five people is the most ideal size for a group. I also learned that heterogeneous groups are ideal as well as team members all having a specific goal in mind. Healthy groups tend to be independent and cohesive as well as develop productive norms.
Families, whether related or not, is an example of a group; one example was given from a scene from the television series The Walking Dead. Social groups is a group of people who enjoy each other's company and have concerns about each other's welfare. Support groups are a safe environment for encouragement and feedback. Interest groups are people that share a common interest. Service groups are people that come together for providing charity, raising money, and helping other organizations. Work groups are people that come together to complete a task together. Finally, virtual groups - thanks to the internet - have become increasingly popular; virtual groups use technology to communicate regardless of physical locations.
It's important that proper and effective communication within a group involves active listening and engagement as well as challenging group think in a healthy way. It is also important to handle arguments, disagreements, and confrontations in a healthy manner. Conflicts can arise for any number of reasons within a group from poor communication to a power struggle. In these cases, it's essential to properly communicate and disengage any conflicts in order to grow together as a group and achieve common goals together. In some issue related conflicts, however, it can bring synergy and diversity of thought if handled properly.
Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation and thought there was a nice balance between text, images, and videos. The videos themselves were enjoyable, with each video illustrating an example of a group and the communication between each members. Everyone in my group properly explained our points towards each section in the chapter and I feel we all did a good job in creating the entire presentation together.
Chapter 10 - Leadership and Problem Solving
Finally, we'll be talking about the chapter the deals with leadership and problem solving. Leadership describes an individual that influences other people to achieve a goal together. For many situations throughout life, a leader is needed to direct their group, whether they are chosen by the other members or whether they emerge naturally. I believe that having a proper leader is key to working together in harmony. Just as important as proper leadership is proper problem solving skills, which is needed to properly work through any issues that may inevitably arise.
With this chapter, I learned about a lot of different leadership roles and the presenter did a good job at explaining in depth about how each role relates to a real life situation. They explained the roles and responsibilities within procedural and shared leaderships. Another presenter used a video from the television series The Office to illustrate conflict resolution, a common responsibility when it comes to being a leader. Another leadership responsibility has to do with meetings; a leader must be effective within meetings, prepare an agenda, and maintain synergy between the leader and his team members. During a meeting, a leader must listen, ask, take notes, and stay focused, but afterwards, a leader must review, communicate, and evaluate.
When it comes to problem solving, a six-step model can be used: identify the problem, determine the root causes, develops solutions, select and implement a solution, and evaluate the outcome. It's important to take each step along the way seriously in order to pick the best solution that is best applicable to the situation. Once a solution has been decided, there are numerous ways to deliver a solution to other members in the group such as in writing, in oral, and in virtual format. Of course, group effectiveness can be improved upon over time with practice, reflective assessment, and revision. Group dynamics are also important when it comes to group effectiveness. The video that was used in the presentation helped to illustrate how important group effectiveness is.
Overall, the presentation was very well done. I learned that in a group presentation, dividing and sharing responsibilities, understanding the goal, and building the presentation together is important. You could say that we learned first-hand what creating a presentation by working together a group is like. There was a nice use of good videos that explained the point of each section in a concise manner along with clear pictures and text and each presenter talked about each point in a good amount of detail.
Conclusion
To conclude the three presentations, the group leaders also made a presentation of their own as an overview of the chapters. The overview for chapter 3 dealt with the relationship between dominant and co cultures, the various aspects that culture can differ from one another, and the methods that one can use to improve their intercultural communication skills. Chapter 9 was about the different types of groups, the characteristics of healthy groups, the stages of group development, and the various types of conflicts. Lastly, the information we learned from chapter 10 was about how leadership functions in teams, how effective meetings are run, and how to problem solve.
In my opinion, all three presentations were well done and were well put together, with the presenters expressing their points in a clear manner and the slides complimenting the presentation. The images and the videos were fitting to the subject matter and I feel like I learned a lot about communicating with groups and teams, a very important part of our society that deals with cooperating together in projects and workloads. In addition to the main chapter presentations, I feel that the overview presentation done at the end was short, sweet, and simple and it was a great overview of all the information we learned.
My final thoughts are that I'm certain we will use this valuable information for a long time, long after we finish the class and even as society adapts to an ever-changing world of technology and intercommunication.
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