Monday, February 15, 2010

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.

Click here to view video

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.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ganesh,

I believe that everyone had a hard time trying to film ourselves during the first meeting. (Where to put the camera? when do we start recording? where should we hold the meeting, etc). We tend to feel awkward and unnatural since most of us are not actors (Haha).

I believe that the purpose of filming ourselves is to allow us to look at the overall view of the meeting. Whether the meeting was carried out smoothly; how do we react during the meeting, etc. We all began to see ourselves in a new light. This led us to our mistakes and thus, be able to improve on them for future meetings.

The fact that you could recognise your own mistakes means that the video was very useful. All of us would make mistakes. The important part is to learn from it.

The lack of appointing a leader before the meeting may have led to the confusion. Try to decide one between the team asap. Anyway, keep up the good work. I believed that with the necessary improvements made, the cohesion between the team would get better and better.

Regards,
Kevin Lin

RaX said...

Being filmed is certainly unnatural for most of us. But I felt that you all weren't affected that much in the video and seemed to be fairly normal.

During meetings, I think it's normal for moments of silence or pauses. I don't think it's possible to keep a meeting constantly going all the time since it would get kind of tiring after awhile.

Also, I believe it would be better if you had voiced out your opinions instead of keeping them to yourself since it may have been a point that the others had missed. However, wait until they had finished saying everything since interrupting them might make them lose track of what they were saying before.

Overall, I think that your meeting seemed to be fairly efficient. Also it is nice that your members all wait their turn to speak, instead of interrupting each other.

nitika said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nitika said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nitika said...

Hi Ganesh,
I think your team’s next task should be to choose a team leader and as a piece of suggestion I think Tuan Vu is responsible enough to take the charge. He led the meeting very efficiently.

After watching the video, I feel that you were very conscious and hesitant before giving your opinion. Due to that your contribution to the meeting was bit lesser than others. I know that when you are recording a video you get self conscious. I also felt the same. But then you need to overcome it and feel free to give suggestions. By the end of the meeting I think you are more involved in the discussion. It is very necessary that every team member contributes his best towards the meetings.

Your team meeting seems to be quite successful as you welcomed each other’s suggestions and gave constructive criticism whenever you didn’t agree with some idea. Your team also tried to discuss the pro and con of the idea before concluding anything.

I think your team did a good job. Try to improve on your flaws and you will have better meetings in future.
:):)

Best Regards,
Nitika

meenu said...

Hi Ganesh,
I think you should try to be less self-conscious during the next meeting.And always try to voice your opinions even if you feel that they are not good(you can get feedback from your team mates).I personally feel that some silence during the meeting is not that awkward as we all need some time to think ,though you can try avoiding such a situation the next time.On the whole,I feel that your meeting went off quite well after watching the video.Hope you can correct the mistakes you had this time and have a more improved meeting the next time!
Cheers,
Meenu

Junius said...

I have a similar experience in my meeting too, I felt out of place with the camera filming us. I think this may not be a bad thing after all. The presence of the camera somehow makes us say only the most important and relevant points and this contributes to an effective meeting.

You mentioned about your gestures being a bad habit during the meeting. I feel you should not see it so negatively. Using gestures can bring your message across much more efficiently and effectively. You were certainly able to do so with your gestures. You should not try to remove this habit. Instead, you should improve on it to make it more useful for future meetings.


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