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Tuesday 25 March 2014

The awkward thing about group discussions

Sorry to one/ two of my devoted fans out there. I have neglected this blog somewhat due to my epic laziness and well, the never-ending commitments from school. Just today, I met up with my IT group mates to discuss what we could do for our IT project. We had to come up with ways to use social media to market for BreadTalk. It inspired this post.

1. There's always this awkward pause where we don't know what to do

"Err. so... what are we doing?"
"We are supposed to brainstorm our marketing ideas. Any ideas anyone?"
"...." -silence-
" What about this.." Someone share an idea, we critique on it for awhile. Finally the awkward silence dissipates. Then, when we finally decide to use the idea, we are back to the silence.
" Now what do we do?"
" Think of another idea. Something more powerful"

This well on for quite awhile. Somehow when my IT group meets to discuss, we don't really get anything concrete done. We only decide on rough ideas, rough plans for each person to develop on it later. Separately.

Most of the time people just meet for the sake of meeting, without any agenda in mind. Then, we find ourselves exchanging eyeballs at each other, looking for each other for the cue to "start" the ball rolling.

2. The frustrating process of idea creation
 So to break the silence, I would share some random and unpolished idea right off my head for us to refine it together. Somehow, instead of refining it, most of the time the idea just get shoot down immediately... OTL To think I squeezed my tiny little brain for the idea... and it got tossed out into the chute JUST LIKE THAT. Sad moments.

Otherwise, the idea gets accepted immediately (most of the time). Then I would feel somewhat paiseh. Really? We are going to use my idea wholesale? Just like that? I would have preferred adding on to the idea to polish it further just like the idea creation process we use in Enactus. Maybe I'm just too use to the culture in Enactus...

Another annoying thing is how people question you about your idea, expecting you to have an answer for it. I JUST THOUGHT OF THE IDEA, I don't have a clear idea as well! Aren't we supposed to discuss about it and refine the details together?!

3. Kenna Diao-ed moments
I don't know is it the questions I ask or the suggestions I make, but I always seem to get diao-ed. It happened more than once. In my head, I'll be thinking "okay... was it something I said? I guess I'll pretend I never said it ._." The problems of not being charismatic...

4. People who don't bring their laptops for discussion
I don't understand why. Why won't you bring a laptop for discussion?! With a laptop, you can search for ideas quickly, help to edit on Google docs for a more efficient discussion process etc. If I want to refer you to a document, you would need a laptop to access dropbox to view it right?! It's totally annoying how people don't bring laptops to discussion when you spend the effort to lug a heavy laptop to school just for it.

What makes successful discussion 
Somehow the most effective and efficient discussion I had so far in University was offline on Google Docs. Everyone does their part separately, have something to share, then meet up one time to cross check answers and edit each other parts. It always seemed more effective than meeting up face-to-face. During face-to-face discussion, most of the time there will be people who are unprepared. Then the discussion will be one-sided, where one shares the research while the others listen without much to add on to. Otherwise, the listener will be confused and just nodding away. How annoying >(

One day I will master the art of leading a good discussion HMPH!
Jojo

P.S. You know you are truly socially awkward when you just found out ur IT project mate is from RVHS too even though you have been in the same group for about 3 months already. I'm really referring to myself OTL #fail moments

P.P.S. This video is so catchy! I totally thought of my aunt when I hear this song. Please stop barging into my room aunt >( It's my room so I do whatever I want with it, stop nagging!



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