Team Meeting 1 : The good and the bad

The first meeting for our CG1102 project was held on the 11th of February 2010. Thankfully, we managed to get a conducive place with very little interferences. The meeting went quite well in general but not as well as we would have liked.

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Firstly, In all honesty, none of us liked the idea of being filmed. We were unnatural at certain segments of the meeting and at times felt self-conscious. However we got on with it and as the meeting wore on, we slowly started to settle down and feel comfortable.

Prior to this meeting, we did not appoint a team leader but Tuan Vu took charge and led the discussion quite well. My team has to appoint a leader before we have our next meeting.

We had some confusion during the course of the meeting and had an awkward moment of silence. All three of us had different interpretations of certain things and could not understand each other. Maybe each of us should have explained explicitly what our thoughts and interpretations were.

The plus point was that we clarified each others’ viewpoints and respected it. We also covered most items on the agenda and on most occasions, waited for each other to finish speaking before responding.

On a personal note, I feel I could have contributed more to the meeting. At times, I kept my thoughts to myself as I did not want to disrupt the flow of the meeting and I was afraid my opinions would cause confusion and would be of no use. I also realized that I gesture quite a bit and maybe sometimes need to keep my hands to myself.

In summary, there is plenty of room for improvement for my team and I am hoping for a near perfect meeting the next time.

What would your next move be?

The NUS Business Entrepreneurs Society conducts meetings on every alternate Saturday from 9am-3pm. There is also a lunch break from 12-1pm. As the chairman of the NUS Business Entrepreneurs Society, you are conducting the yearly evaluations/performance reviews for your club. The evaluations are sent to the head, Prof Andrew Tan. Students who stand out will be given more opportunities to achieve their Entrepreneurship goals and receive recognition.

You are meeting with one committee member, namely Soniya and you express that she is doing good work, and is professional and courteous to fellow members and clients. However, you also indicate that there are some areas of improvement needed including: taking too much time at lunch (more than allotted time), coming to meetings late and leaving early. Soniya is astounded and says that because you didn’t address these issues way before so why are you doing it now. She also tells you that she stays back and gets any work that has to be finished urgently done if she is late for meetings.


You explain that these issues have been discussed with the entire committee in past meetings – the topics of being punctual, and not abusing flexible scheduling in this society , and thought your message was clear. Soniya storms out of the performance review saying how unfair you are, and she is going to report you to Prof Andrew Tan and NUSSU. As the chairman, you are pressured not to let the issue get blown out of proportion as it will reflect badly on the society’s image.
What would your next move be? How do you resolve this?