Team analysis

I can honestly say that this has been the most awful paper that I've ever had the privilege of paying for. When I first saw the title "Communication in the sciences" I assumed it would be rather enjoyable because;  1. I'm a science major and 2. I love and understand everything to do with science and nature. What I wasn't prepared for was a rollercoaster ride consisting of emotions running high, stressful deadlines, team members quitting and a lack of communication from important parties.

It all commenced with finding and placing yourself in a suitable team. For most students, this was quite a trial because the whole point of "distance learning" in my opinion, is that you study and do assignments in your own time and at your own pace. Having to work in a team means having to adjust your schedule to fit in with others. This is more suited to internal learning methods and not what I had signed up for.

However, that being said, I can thankfully say that I was fortunate enough to find myself involved in a team of three that worked exceedingly well together. Everyone was considerate of each other's schedules and maintained their roles within the team exceptionally well. 10/10 girls for effort on this one.

Using the Belbin model, I think between the three of us, we each represented the three different general role types; cerebral, action orientated and people orientated and therefore worked well together because of being so different. We were each able to complement each other's work and work as a unified unit. Although we all had weaknesses, we focused on our strengths and built on these, enabling us to complete our tasks in a timely manner and professionally. If not for these two, I probably would have quit this paper.

Public speaking

This is a photo of my dad, taken 18 years ago, doing the "father-of-the-bride" speech at my wedding. My dad is my role model when it comes to public speaking because he is just not comfortable speaking in public, but you would never be able to tell that he wasn't. When he's on stage or in front of a crowd, he holds their attention as well as any regular public speaker would by doing one small thing....he tells jokes. By being a stand-up comedian, he not only gets people laughing but the audience's laughter seems to settle his nerves. Once he get's going, there's no stopping him after that. He's able to subtly put his point across as well as entertain the audience.

I too am definitely not a born public speaker. Having observed friends and family members as well as pastors in church and politicians, I often wonder how it is that some people just seem to be able to walk up to the front of a crowd and speak clearly, confidently and without making any mistakes. I seem to take on my dad's example, using humour to get things going. Although that works a majority of the time, there's that awkward moment when I say something that I think is funny and no-one laughs. Trying to figure out why, whilst continuing with the presentation is always the worst feeling in the world and often I stumble over my next few words, trying to still appear in control.

For this university communication paper that I've been working on, one of the assessments is to present to a politician, my team's views on an aspect of current organ donation legislation. Fortunately, we were offered a variety of methods to do this, so we opted for a powerpoint presentation with a voice-over. I find that I'm quite comfortable communicating behind a screen, like emailing or now blogging, because I cannot see or do not have to physically speak to my audience. Doing the voice-over bit was the worst experience though because I realised that I really don't like the sound of my own voice. To me, it sounded nothing like me. Isn't that bizarre? Anyway, I've learned over time that I am not and will never be a confident public speaker. I hesitantly do my share when needed e.g for a tuition session at work or sometimes when called on for church presentations or seminars, but that's it. I personally am happy with that as it was never my dream to speak in public. To those that do and those that comfortably can, you do an amazing job and I salute you.