Chapters 3,9 and 10 reflection by Angela Acevedo

 

     After watching the presentations, I can honestly say that I have a better understanding of what I am going to be learning from this class. At first glance, the things in these chapters seemed basic and common knowledge but I was wrong. Chapter 3 talked about intercultural communication and went into depth on how to not only interact with people who share different values, but how to effectively work and communicate with people who are basically from a different world. I am sure that we would all like to believe that we are being as open and welcoming as possible to everyone but that may not come as easily for people who have never been around anyone different from themselves in their lives. We not only learned about people’s religion, disability, and identity, but we got a better understanding of it. And by properly defining these differences, we can define our similarities. 

     In chapter 3 we learned the differences in people individually, but in chapter 9 we learned how different people can fall into groups. We learned about different groups such as support groups, social groups, service groups and work groups. We even discussed virtual groups and how to communicate within them, which is extremely relevant given the pandemic that we have all had to endure. After learning about the different types of groups, we went over how to maintain a healthy group and how to get the most out of a group by placing rules that will allow everyone involved benefit from it. We even discussed how to resolve any sort of conflict that may arise within these groups such as personality differences or belief differences. 

     Finally, in chapter 10 we went more into depth about each person’s role within a group such as the importance of assigning a leader, maintenance roles, procedural roles, and task roles. This chapter has given us a GPS on how to delegate work into roles to complete a goal. I thought that learning this was ironic considering that we would soon be split into groups again to do another project. But by going over this together as a class, I can see now how my group, like many others, could have worked better and how we could improve on any future projects we may have again. I have learned that even though an assignment may seem easy, when you are forced to depend on other people’s work to complete your project, it becomes more difficult. Not because anyone is purposely not contributing but just like we learned from these chapters, everyone in my group is a different person. We live different lives, have our own separate responsibilities apart from this class and each have our own way of working.  But being able to effectively finish a project together can add diversity and a range of perspectives to a project. Things that one may find difficult, may come easy for someone else. Completing a task as a group is like an orchestra. We each play our own instrument, but with direction and determination, we can make some beautiful music.      🎷🎸🎹🎺🎻