Final Blog for Communication and Collaborating in theECF Week 8

Hello Colleagues,

For the last eight weeks, I admit that I have finally found a common ground with all of you---Communication, which seems to be an on-going challenge for each one of us. I greatly appreciated each one of you and your willingness to share your experiences and opinions.

One thing I learned that communication comes in different form, sensation, and meaning for each one of us. This makes our lives more interesting and challenging in positive ways. To encourage the up keeping with communication skill, I encourage you to connect me through facebook.

I enjoyed working with you and am looking forward to continue.

Sharon

Team Building Week 6

            Not all groups make the adjourning process difficult to do.  However, I remember one in particular that made me very sad when it ended and that was the planning of my 5^th year class reunion.  I can recall at the end of reunion everyone sharing stories of planning the reunion and how everyone began to laugh at the various hurdles we endured throughout the planning process.  Although they were not funny at the time, we were able to look back over them and laugh.  The entire process took about a year to plan and during that time we  created new memories that I had not realized until the last night of the reunion.  We had begun to connect not only with each other but with each other's families as well.  It was very difficult to tell my friends good-bye and watch them go back to their individual worlds after staying on the phone until early mornings, attending long planning sessions as we drank numerous cappuccinos,  and   hours and hours of licking envelopes, making phone calls and searching the web trying to contact over 300 hundred classmates. 

            I feel that high-performing groups are hardest to leave because they represent unity.  Everyone on the team was dedicated and motivated; thus, striving for a common goals.  We had an awesome leader who promoted mutual trust and respect.  She shared her vision for the reunion and was open to suggestions from all the team members.  Everyone respected what the others had to say and in the end we voted on any and all major decisions before they were implemented.  

            At the end of the reunion everyone exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses so that they could stay in touch.  Some of us hugged, cried, and vowed to stay in touch as well as visit if we were ever in each other's area. We also took photos to remind us of our time together. 

            I imagine my adjournment from my colleagues will be very emotional for me, because we have encouraged each other, shared our experiences and knowledge and supported each other’s ability to learn, grow and develop both personally and professionally.  It is one thing to express our inner thoughts on the discussion board or through our blog, but it will be another to finally meet face-to-face at graduation.  I look forward to meeting each and every one of my colleagues so that I am finally be able to put a face with the personality behind the words of articulation.  I think that adjourning is essential because of the need of closure.  The adjourning process gives the members a chance to conduct an after action report so that they can discuss what was effective and what was ineffective for future projects.  This also gives them the opportunity to say good-bye and wish each other well in their endeavors (Abudi, 2010).

Reference

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from             http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Conflict Resolution Week 5

           My conflict was with the center's director who had been running the center for some time.  I came aboard because of a merger that took place between the two centers.  The director was still in charge but I was asked to train her on some of our practices at the old center.  She was not too acceptable to my ideas and our practices and became a bit upset that I had to train her.  I explained to her that I was not there to take over and I thought that it would be in the best interest of the center if we put our ideas and goals together to reach our goals.  Although she was still very short and she was not at all an effective listener she eventually came around. 

            She had developed an inaccurate perception that I was there to take her job.  After some time she saw that her perception was incorrect and that her unproductive conflict between the two of us was making a negative impact on our relationship (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).  She then decided that a productive conflict where both of us agreed and worked together would be the best approach.  In the mean time I did everything that I could not to provoke her by aggression, a lack of fairness of any kind, or by being incompetent on purpose. I did everything in my power to avoid conflict with her and when there was a conflict I chose not to show an attitude.  When I avoid conflict according to the authors this is known as escapist strategies (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). 

            The director gave up challenging me and became very cooperative so that we both could assist the center in reaching its ultimate goal which is to provide quality childcare to all of our students.  According to the authors of our course book these strategies used were challenging strategies and cooperative strategies.  I feel that I communicated effectively with the director and used several strategies that I have learned in this lesson that I was not aware of at the time to reduce and resolve conflict between the two of us.

Reference

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M.O. (2012).  Real communication: An introduction. Boston:    Bedford/St. Martin's.