Learning Experience #3

As the semester is coming to a close, I have been able to reflect on some of the key takeaways that I have gained from the past few months as far as academics goes. I think the biggest of these lessons have come from my group projects in my Foundations in Business and Business Information Systems classes. What I learned from these projects was not necessarily just the content that the project covered, but also how to work with others that communicate differently than myself. These lessons will be taken beyond the classroom and I hope will provide useful in my working career.

In my Foundations in Business group project, we were performing the simulation that I described in one of my earlier blogs. This was just a part of the project, however. Two other sub-projects included a Business Plan and an Annual Report. These were the times that the group aspect of the project came in to play. We had to collaborate to create a document that described what we planned to do with our make-believe business, and then create a report that recapped  all of the decisions we made for that year as well as our success in relation to our competitors. Since the business was make-believe, I won't be able to take much away from the content of the business or what they sold. But I do believe that the decision making part of the project will help because it accentuated the interdependence of different sectors of a business. The Business Plan and Annual Report revealed some of the tasks that would be required of a business for their stockholders. These reports are written to explain to any people who are interested or invested in the company, and are typically directed to the stockholders. They must be explanatory, but not too cryptic to where the stockholders wouldn't be able to understand the diction. They must exude confidence, even if the business is experiencing a hard time. My group members were very capable for this group, which made the daunting reports easier. However, the project still required a large dedication of time prior to the reports due dates. We spent long periods of time in the library each time. This tested my communication skills and our overall group cohesiveness. Hopefully I can carry these time management and group communication experiences over to other projects.

My Business Information Systems group project was a different experience for me when compared to the aforementioned projects. I was in a group with three other girls, and we were supposed to "consult" with an established company. This required us to research the company's IT department and see how we can improve it. This project was extensive, and required a hefty workload throughout the entire semester. For whatever reason, I found myself taking on a lot of the work for this project despite having three other group members. I was okay with this, but it did cause a considerable amount of stress for me. My inability to effectively communicate with these girls enhanced the stress and hurt the overall group experience. My messages that were seemingly harmless were interpreted as being too direct and bossy. I realized that this was common while communicating with the opposite gender. I grew up with three older brothers, so I was never really exposed to girls enough to try to decipher how they communicate. During one of our final rehearsals before our presentations, one of the girls began crying and walked away. I couldn't help but laugh, not at her, but at my complete lack of understanding of the emotions that she was expressing. This experience could yield one of the biggest lessons for me throughout the whole semester. I learned to be careful with all forms of my verbal and nonverbal communications while having a serious discussion. This will help my future group projects that include those of the opposite gender.