May 8-14 Question #3

The concept I enjoyed reading the most about this semester would have to be the guidelines for observer feedback. As a refresher, here are the ten guidelines to follow when providing feedback:

1. avoid generalizations such as phrases like “well done”
2. focus on behaviors that can be changed perhaps instead of other non important factors that there is no control over
3. do no debate or argue with the group
4. do not micromanage the group process
5. remember your role as the observer
6. accentuate the positive
7. end with specific suggestions for improvement rather than broad and general suggestions
8. be clear and concise 
9. complement in public and criticize in private
10. develop positive relationships

I chose this topic because I find these guidelines to be true and very useful not only in the workplace, but other areas such as school and personal relationships. I enjoyed learning about this topic because it was something I felt I can actually put to good use and perhaps enlighten other people with. I would really like to share these ideas with my manager because I believe our team could truly benefit from these guidelines which would make us a successful small group J. I also found this useful when observing my group for the observation project. I wrote these down and kept them by my side as a reminder to be an effective observer. Overall, I had a pleasure learning about all the concepts discussed in class, and I am very pleased I took this class!

May 8-14 question #2

I have learned so much in this class, it's hard to pick just a few. What I liked about this class is that every topic discussed had some if not complete relevance to my own life. I liked that in every weekly discussion, people had the opportunity to use their own personal examples and apply them to the concepts. My favorite thing about the class would have to be the movie analysis because not only was it fun, but it was an interesting way to look at the movies we already saw and liked! For instance, I did my paper on the movie Mean Girls, and although I had seen the movie plenty of times before, I never took the time to sit down and analyze it the way I did for the paper. It was really interesting to break it down and see the concepts from the book applied in media. My least favorite thing about the class would have to be the strict rules on posting our blogs. I found it difficult to try and post 12 hours apart every week, especially being a full time student and working at the same time. Other than that, I really enjoyed the class and would recommend to all students here at SJSU :)

May 8-14 question #1

I found the group observation project to be very useful and insightful. Because I observed another department from work, it was nice to have the opportunity to really observe and see the group in a different light. I learned a lot about my own organization as well as how groups function in the working world. Another reason I found it useful was because I was able to understand why the specific group functions as it does. For instance, after observing the group for hours, I was able to truly understand what they go through on a daily basis. I liked being able to see this because it gave me a different perspective on their situation. Also, it allowed me to justify their actions and be able to have a more diplomatic approach if and when conflicts arise in this group. What I liked about the project was that we were instructed to observe a group outside of our own. This allowed for a better understanding because if we had been allowed to observe our own group, we would probably have predispositions and that would influence our thoughts. One thing that could be improved is to maybe incorporate more of the weekly discussions in our group observation. For instance, have one of the topics for the week be about our observations prior to us finishing the assignment, that way we can get some feedback and ideas going.

Chapter 11& 12 Question #2

An example that I can think of when I used the collaborative approach to conflict resolution is at work. Because a lot of my co-workers are full-time students like me, we have certain work schedules. For instance, I go to class Tuesdays and Thursdays so I work Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. And there's three other girls who have the opposite schedule. However, last semester, my finals ended up being on Monday/ Wednesday which caused a conflict because there was no one to cover for me. As soon as I told my supervisor of the situation, I saw a look of panic on her face. In this instance, I decided to try and talk to my professors to let me take the finals on different days so I could still be able to work. This ended up working in both our favors because it spared my manager stress over coverage as well as gave me an extra day to study (Win-win situation) :).
On a related note, I had a situation where instead of using a collaborative method, I used a competitive conflict resolution. Around January of this year, we had one person quit which freed up some hours. Instead of having my manager split the hours between the other 3 girls, I approached my manager telling him I thought I deserved more hours based on my recent performance and great work ethic. Apparently I was really convincing because I ended up getting promoted to more hours than I initially wanted! Overall, it was my competitiveness and self-interest which landed me the promotion. There were other girls who also wanted more hours but ultimately lost due to their lackluster performance.

Chapter 11& 12 Question #3

The concept I found useful in this week's reading was in chapter 11 regarding creative decision making techniques. One of the techniques listed in the reading is the concept of role playing. This is something I have plenty of experience with in my work place. Although I agree with the idea behind role playing, I feel silly doing it. At my work, we constantly have to role play and participate in scenarios where we try to sell customers certain products. For instance, my manager always pulls every associate away and has us role play a “real life” situation with a disgruntled customer. The purpose of our type of role playing is to try to convert non-customers to get one of our products whether it be a checking account, savings account, credit card, or even a simple financial review with a personal banker. Although our role playing can be helpful, I find some flaws in our method because at the end of every role play scenario, the “customer” always ends up getting the product and leaving happy. In reality, this does not always happen so it is not as helpful as it should be. However, I think that if done correctly, role playing can be an important tool in problem solving and decision making. For instance, recently, when I play the role of the customer, I ask more questions and make it harder for my manager to try and sell me the product. This causes him to come up with a different approach and try harder to please the customer. Overall, role playing is useful because it allows for people to come up with alternative methods of approaching difficult situations.

Chapter 10 Question #2

As mentioned in the text, the five cultural barriers to creativity include: requirement for conformity, expectation of practicality and efficiency,particular arenas for competition or cooperation, an expectation of politeness and following the rules of social order, and reliance on expert knowledge. I believe there are various reasons that these barriers keep groups from being creative however, the one that stands out the most to me is the requirement for conformity. I have experienced many situations that have kept groups I've been apart of from being creative. In all honesty, I have been one of the group members who chose to conform instead of taking the creative route. I believe a big part in me not going the extra mile to be creative is simply because I did not think the rest of the group would appreciate or like my ideas as much as I did. Unfortunately, many people tend to not pay attention to anyone else's ideas besides their own so sometimes that makes the other people in the group just go along with whatever the rest of the group thinks to make things easier Also, in a recent experience, I had to do a group presentation involving a powerpoint. One person in my group had the idea to show a video within the powerpoint and I didn't really agree because I thought it was too much, and would probably be complicated to set up within our 8 minute presentation. Although I voiced my opinion, the group still decided to go along with the video. And as I predicted, when attempting to show the video, we had technical difficulties and did not end up playing it. This can tie into the expectation of practicality and efficiency because instead of being creative (using a video instead of just talking to the class) I wanted to be practical and efficient. 

Chapter 10 Question #3

This week I liked learning about guidelines for creative problem solving on page 164. The text states that these guidelines include keeping an open mind; withholding premature judgements; looking at problems in new ways as opportunities, rather than obstacles; accepting different opinions; avoiding too heavy reliance on logic; allowing for ambiguity; being willing to break the rules; and asking “what if?”. I found these very fascinating and useful to anyone who wants to be a successful problem solver (everyone!). I find that a lot of times, people are stuck in their ways and refuse to change their method of thinking and so they are not as successful as they could be. For instance, my father has had his own construction business for over 20 years. Yet, at times he finds it hard to maintain business and increase his profit. My dad is very “old school” and is not open to change even though my siblings and I try to convince him he will be much more successful if he changes his practices a bit. For instance, my brother, who has a degree in finance, constantly tries to get my dad to revise his bookkeeping/accounting strategies to increase his profits. However, my dad thinks that because he has been in the business for so long, he knows what is best, and my brother who has zero knowledge about construction does not know how to run the business. What I gained from this reading is that although you may think you know what is best and how things work, there is always room for improvement if you just switch up your creativity every once in awhile.

Chapter 10 Question #1

One example I can think of that relates to being creative is a recent tutoring session I had with my younger cousin. As noted in the text, creativity is looking at things in a new way, a lot of times to solve problems. As I was helping my cousin with his math homework, I was having trouble trying to get him to understand the material and how I was presenting it. Instead of enforcing the only way I knew how to do the type of math he was learning (absolute values) I took a different approach. I came up with the idea that related to something he completely understood and liked. I decided to compare absolute values to football. I instructed my cousin to think of the absolute value as a football field and how far away the number was from the “touchdown”. After doing a few examples, my cousin completely understood the process and was able to do the problems on his own! I thought this was creative because I took a less “academic” approach to doing math. I believe it's extremely hard to try to get young students to like any subject in school (especially math!) so teachers need to be especially creative to cater to the different needs of all types of students.

Chapter 15 Question #1

There are many ways in which computer-mediated communication differs from face to face communication starting by the obvious use of technology. There are many mediums of CMC such as e-mail, text, instant message, and video/audio conferencing. One reason I like (and most of the time prefer) CMC is because it gives me more time to prepare my thoughts/messages rather than just blurting out anything that is on my mind. For instance, If I need to speak with a professor, co-worker, etc about a serious issue, I would rather do it through e-mail first so I can clearly get my message across. I say this because a lot of times (more often than not) I get interrupted when I am speaking and it drives me crazy. I hate not being able to say exactly what I need to without someone barging in during the mid of the sentence. Also, using CMC documents everything each person said so there is no issue regarding who said what. On the other hand, for some things it is much easier to use f2f communication to get the point across. For example, I have friends who will send me really long and complicated texts such as what happened to them at work, school, and explaining their emotions. However, it is really hard to detect how someone is feeling via text so in this instance I would rather have face to face interactions to better understand where they are coming from. Aside from the emotional aspect of these forms of communication, CMC also differs from f2f because it allows people to connect in different time zones, across the world. As previously mentioned, my brother recently went to Barcelona and I was able to use CMC to track exactly where he was and how he was doing. Such cmc mediums as Facebook and Youtube allowed him to upload photos, videos, and certain events within minutes! It was truly amazing to see and I felt as if I was also on vacation in Spain! :)

Chapter 15 Question #2

I find it quite fascinating how certain factors such as anonymity, number of people and proximity between people influence participation in computer-mediated communication. For instance, this class is an excellent example of a CMC because our whole course is taught completely online and we do not have any physical contact with the professor and/or classmates. I believe that CMC classes such as this one promote and almost always require more participation than the standard face to face classrooms. For example, I've noticed that in my FTF classrooms, there is always two or three people who always participate or answer questions that the professors ask the whole class. A lot of students (sometimes including myself) will hardly ever speak up unless called upon. Some reasons could be due to communication apprehension or simply lack of interest in the subject matter. On the other hand, the use of the Internet gives us a little more freedom of expression in the sense that we can say pretty much whatever we want without facing the confrontation in person. The anonymity element is that we are solely known as our user name such as "jprado" and not a physical being. Our participation is also influenced by our freedom to post whenever we have the time (whether it be 3 in th afternoon or 3 A.M.). Finally, our proximity to the group plays a role in the fact that we can all be enrolled in the same course but can live several miles apart. For instance, I live in Hollister which is about 45 miles from SJSU. This makes it difficult for me to attend school during the week so I try to find as many online classes as possible. Another example, my brother lives in Folsom and works 40 hours a week but is currently working on his MBA at Sacramento State through online courses. So because many students live far from campus and other students, many of us feel the need to participate more than we would in FTF settings because it is our only connection to peers.

Chapter 15 Question #3

The concept I found most interesting in this week's reading was the section about Facebook on page 264. In the text, the authors write that social networking sites such as Facebook maintain both the social and task aspects of their relationships. They also write that the use of Facebook positively influences individual's social-psychological well-being, self-esteem, and sense of satisfaction with life. This was an interesting point the authors made because for the most part I would have to agree. I know that the reason I have a profile is to keep in touch with people I don't see on a regular basis as well as people who I always see. I think it is really nice to see how well my friends and family are doing even if we are miles apart. Example, my brother is in Barcelona, Spain this week and I have been able to see everywhere he has been from his Facebook posts as well as keep in contact with him without having to wait for certain times to use the phone, etc. On the other hand, I do have a few friends that are pretty annoying and post irrelevant content such as, “I'm cold” or “I'm eating chips”. Sometimes I get the urge to comment “who cares?” or something sarcastic like “wow, that is really intriguing!” So although Facebook has it's many positive aspects, there are also plenty of down sides such as knowing a little too much about people and their every day lives. These types of social networking sites can also cause harm by people who post information about work and forget they have their co-workers/ boss as friends. It can make for some really uncomfortable situations. Overall, I believe people just need to monitor who and what they post on social networking sites.

Chapter 7 question #1

Sadly I have plenty situations where I have found listening difficult. Most of these situations are based from my workplace. At work, we often have meetings on Saturday mornings to go over our numbers, our individual performance, and overall performance as a group. However, it seems as if every meeting is the exact same and there is not a whole lot of new information being presented. During the week, the associates are constantly being reminded to perform at the highest level and we even sign a paper (at least twice a week) stating that we will improve at least 2 things by a certain time frame. In all honesty, it's incredibly redundant and almost no one takes it seriously. So when it comes time for our Saturday meetings, a lot of us just sit there enjoying our free coffee and donuts. The only time we really feel the need to listen is when we have the district manager present. I think the most difficult phase for me in this situation would have to be the first one which is “Sensing (hearing the message)”because during these meetings I have selective attention. I only choose to listen to things that I think I might have to answer out loud. I have trouble focusing on the meeting because just like everyone else at the meeting, I've heard it many times before. I think the only way this could have been overcome is by having my manager present the information in a different way. It seems as if every meeting is the exact same as the one before and it gets tiresome trying to act as if it is new and enlightening information. 

Chapter 7 question #2

An example where I had selective attention was last semester in a couple of my classes. I would go to class, sit and listen to the lectures. After about 20 minutes of lecturing I would zone out and start doodling or daydreaming. Throughout the semester I found it difficult trying to pay attention the entire class period and I would often not even want to go to class because I felt I would just end up sitting there. It got to a point where I would only go to class once a week, if that. I think the reason behind my selective attention was because I felt I already understood the material enough to be tested on it. In one specific class I felt a lot of the material was repetitive and not as important. As stated in the book, understanding can decrease other viewpoints, so in this sense I felt I did not need to hear anyone else's ideas on the subject. Although I had selective attention in class, I did manage to overcome it be engaging in the lecture. For instance, when the professor would lecture, I would ask questions or make comments. I found that by doing this, it not only made me focus on the material but made the time go by a lot quicker.

Chapter 7 question #3

A concept from the reading this week that I really enjoyed reading was the section on page 114 about “Listening as a critical leadership skill”. I was fascinated by this topic because it is something that I believe almost everyone can relate to. In my case, I found this relevant in my work life. I think a lot of times, people have trouble respecting others because of the fact that they believe they are not being heard. I know that throughout my career, I've had plenty of experiences where employees including myself, have not felt a lot of respect or security towards the supervisors and/or managers. One quote that I really stood out to me in the chapter stated, “seek first to understand, then to be understood”(page 114). This is something I believe everyone, not just leaders, should consider when working with others. I think it is incredibly annoying when people have ideas or opinions that they want to share with everyone, but when it comes down to listening to other people, they find a way to ignore it and continue talking about their own opinions. A lot of times it seems as if people just want to shove information down other people's throats without considering anyone else's perspectives. Just as the book mentions, one cannot succeed until they fully understand the other side. Another example that can be tied to the listening concept is when people cut others off while they're speaking. This is one of my pet peeves, yet almost every single person I speak to has done this to me in the past. If there's one thing I learned from being a communication major, it is to always let the person you're speaking to finish what they are saying. I believe that is people practice this habit, they will become much more effective listeners which will lead to great leaders. 

Chapter 6 question #1

I really enjoyed reading the section on the eight principles of nonverbal communication. I thought it was incredibly fascinating and I intend on sharing them with a few of my co-workers. One principle I liked was the very first one which states, “ our nonverbal communication affects the quality of our relationships”. Aside from the examples in the text, I did a little research and found an interesting website that has a lot of information about body language. For example, the website mentions that some signs of someone being interested in what you have to say will usually lean toward you, tilt their head slightly, keep eye contact, stay still, and ignore distractions such as cell phones, i-pods, etc. On the other hand, one sign of someone who is being deceptive is usually distracted during the conversation and will often times drift off or pause/hesitate to keep the conversation going.

Here is the website where I found this information: http://changingminds.org/techniques/body/body_language.htm

The fourth principle states that “nonverbal behaviors are guided by the context and power of relationships”. Another example that I can think of for the fourth principle is one I can use from my own personal experience. For instance, I am extremely close to many of my current co-workers and we often times hang out outside of work. When we hang out, we like to joke around a lot and make funny gestures. However, whenever we are at work or around our managers (team dinners, meetings, etc.) we do not tend to act the same as if we were just hanging out. Also, I am close to one of the supervisors at work and we also like to joke around. But we both know that when we are in the professional setting (especially in my field), there is no room to joke around as if we were just friends messing around at the bar. I think the main point in the fourth principle is to know the boundaries and when is is appropriate to behave certain ways.

Chapter 6 question #2

As mentioned in the text, proxemics is the study of how we use space to communicate. The textbook also states that our proximity to another is an important aspect of our communication. I found this interesting because I have had multiple experiences with issues of proxemics just as Professor Perez described in her experiences. For instance, in the past I had a co-worker who was very “touchy” with every co-worker. For instance, when she would give me a high five, she would hold on to my hand and lock her fingers between mine as if we were holding hands. She would also walk by me and touch my shoulder or play with my hair. When I first met her, I felt she was invading my personal space and I was a little concerned and thought maybe it was just me she would get really close to. Later I found out that she was like that with everyone. After getting to know her, I realized that it was just her way of communicating. After reading this chapter, I realized that maybe one reason she was so touchy was the fact that she was from another country. Although I cannot confirm this ( I would not want to generalize that everyone from that country is the same way) it may in fact be a reason why she would get extremely close to everyone.

Chronemics is the study of the use of time. Like stated in the text, here in the United States we have the mentality that “time is money”. We see this everywhere we go from walking down the street to crazy drivers on the road. It seems that many people in the United States are in a hurry to be somewhere or complete a task. On the other hand, places like Europe do not put so much emphasis on time. For instance, in Spain many of the people there participate in “siestas” which are short naps taken during the day. It is common for businesses to shut down for a few hours and open back up in time for dinner. Although I have never been to Spain, I have heard many stories from my brother and cousins who have traveled there on more than one occasion. For example, when my brother first went to Spain, he said he tried looking for some where to eat in the afternoon but everywhere he went was closed. At first he did not understand why they would completely shut down restaurants in the middle of the day. After learning the ways of the Europeans, he realized that time was not an important factor in every day life. In another example, I had a professor who studied abroad in Latin America. She told out class that the first day of class her professor at the time showed up to class 45 minutes late. When asked why he was late, the professor said that he was a bar with an old friend watching a soccer match. My professor said this was not uncommon in Latin America and that both students and professors were often “late” to class. I don't think there are any universal roles for all cultures because as I mentioned before, all cultures differ. Arriving promptly to class is expected of all students and teachers here in the United States, however in places like Costa Rica, arriving late is not an issue. The rules of proxemics and chronemics apply to the specific cultures and their way of life.

Chapter 6 question #3

One concept I that I found useful and relevant to my own life was the section on powerless stereotypes. Specifically, I enjoyed the section which mentioned the sex-role stereotypes. The book mentioned that these types of sex role stereotypes foster the expectations that men will act like leaders and women will act like subordinates. This is often portrayed in mainstream media which is why I believe it is still an issue in today's society. I liked reading about this concept because I have seen these types of stereotypes in my own life. For instance, in the past, I had supervisors both male and female. Working in the retail industry, most customers had the notion that the male supervisors were superior and knew a lot more than the women supervisors. However, this was often not the case. In fact, a lot of the time, my female supervisors did a better job at managing the entire team and getting effective results for our team. I had one case when an angry customer insisted on speaking with my manager and when I told him I would go get her, the customer refused and wanted to speak to the male manager because they thought he'd more power (this was not the case). It was interesting to read about the different stereotypes towards males and females but also sad to learn it is still an issue today.

Chapter 14 Question #2

The book does a great job of giving advice on how to provide observer feedback. In the text, the authors give 10 guidelines for obtaining individual feedback which can be either written or oral. The first guideline is to avoid generalizations such as phrases like “well done”. I touched on this in a previous post because it does not seem as genuine when someone says “good job team”. I think most people prefer to be individually recognized because they feel their efforts and ideas are actually appreciated instead of overlooked. Second, it states to focus on behaviors that can be changed perhaps instead of other non important factors that there is no control over. Third, is listed as do no debate or argue with the group. Here it is important not to try and enforce your own ideas and opinions on the group. Instead, try to mediate the situation and provide a neutral stance. The fourth guideline is to not micromanage the group process. Meaning, do not try to be the leader of the group and , instead, be an observer that will provide constructive criticism that can help the group improve in a few areas rather than a lot of different ones. The fifth guideline is to remember your role as the observer. This can be helpful because sometimes people may get caught up in the role and start telling the group members what is wrong without a good explanation. It is important to explain WHY the observer does not like something instead of just stating it. Next, the 6^th guideline is to accentuate the positive. This is an important guideline because starting off with the positive sends good vibes to the group and gives them a great sense of unity. Seventh is to end with specific suggestions for improvement rather than broad and general suggestions. Next is to be clear and concise. By being clear from the beginning, there is less chance of confusion and more chance of getting positive results from the group. Do not “beat around the bush” because that will just lead to unnecessary obstacles. The ninth guideline is my personal favorite which states, complement in public and criticize in private. This is important because no one likes to be told what is wrong with them in front of others. We are all self-conscious to some degree and it is best to provide criticism with a one-on-one approach. On the other hand, it is nice to feel like we are doing a good job and to let others know how well we are doing. This could also be a way to get others to mirror what you are doing to receive the same type of praise which will ultimately lead to a successful group. The last guideline is to develop positive relationships . One should always do this because being positive will always pay off and make people actually want to work with you again. As an observer, group members should not be intimidated by you but instead see you as someone willing to help instead of pointing out what is wrong.

Chapter 14 Question #3

One concept I found interesting in this week's reading was the section on “ethical reflection”. In this chapter, the authors discussed the importance of observing small groups as well as tips to lead a successful group. This section talks about keeping a journal to document the group process because often times group members will forget important milestones they reached. I thought it was really interesting to be able to go back and reflect on what the group did right as well as areas where they could use some improvement. Although I do not necessarily agree with the idea of keeping an actual “journal” of the group process, I can understand the idea and what the goal behind it is. The reason I do not completely agree with keeping a physical journal is because it seems a little too controlling and if I were in a group that did that I would probably feel micro-managed because they would be documenting EVERY single thing the group did. However, I do like the idea of writing down the positives and negatives the group had during their process. For instance, when I was in high school I was part of the Rally Club that was in charge of putting on events during school such as the freshmen welcome ceremony as well as the final senior ceremony. At the end of each event, we would have a meeting and discuss what we did right and what we could have done better. By the time the next event came around, we would pull out the list and review once more just to get on the right track. In my opinion it was very effective and also allowed us to give recognition to specific people instead of just saying “good job everyone”.

Chapter 14 question #1

Having an observer or consultant is an essential part of a successful group because it allows the members in the group to see multiple perspectives without any bias. As stated in the book, having an outside consultant or observer is an important source of growth and development because it allows the group to think back and reflect and what they did correctly as other areas where they can improve. Aside from the observer giving neutral feedback, this observer can also point out any areas that they think certain group members are participating more than others or where one person is taking too much control of the group. Also, at times when a group is stuck or has an obstacle, they often tend to look at things the same way and can't find a solution. An example of this can be used in my own life. For instance, I work at a bank and at the end of the day when I have to balance my money I will sometimes be over or short. This can be very frustrating because I end up counting my money about 3 or 4 times. If I don't find the outage, I have a co-worker (the observer) come and count my money because they have absolutely no idea how much I have and it is easier for them to catch the mistake because otherwise I'm counting the same way and not finding the problem. Overall, having a consultant or observer provides outside knowledge and neutral opinions towards how the members function as a group.