Benjamin Mendez

I can’t think of a better way to start the semester than this, I was not sure of what to expect about this Speech 1017 class, but this project was definitely a learning experience and I believe it has made us understand this class better. With these presentations we have all learned about teamwork leadership, and to communicate with others; each presentation had its unique style, but I think both presentations were great, each group worked professionally and put the effort to have neat documents, accurate information, and overall, a great presentation. To begin with, I think Group 1 was awesome; the first thing I noticed about the presentation was how colorful it was, it also used a good number of images, videos, and GIFs which made it more interactive and appealing, the topic of the presentation was about “communicating in groups” and I think each member gathered very good and reliable information. Each member of the group did a great job presenting, I feel they were ready and that they were confident of what they were talking about, they all had great and valuable information made the presentation very easygoing and interesting, I think all member really cared about this presentation which resulted in a great job. Group 2’s presentation was amazing as well, even though it was not as colorful as Group 1’s presentation, it had a minimalist style which was very appealing as well. In this group the topic was about “intercultural communication”, and just like group 1, the information used in this presentation was very detailed and organized, with each member of the group doing a great job explaining the topic and subtopic, all members presented very professionally, also trying to make that all listeners were paying attention to what was being said. I think the main topic of this project is about teamwork, and I think all 3 groups and all members understood this very well; group 1 and 2 are great examples on why teamwork is so important Teamwork teaches essential communication and social skills, such as active listening and effective speaking, when working as a team, students learn how to listen to their leaders and coaches in order to perform their individual roles. Students learn how to listen to one another in order to function as a cohesive unit. Teamwork teaches students how to respectfully and confidently express their ideas and opinions effectively in a group setting. It’s important for students to recognize that speaking is not the same as talking. Speaking is about understanding how to communicate with an audience. The way in which a student speaks to other group members demonstrates her level of understanding and respect for others. In my experience with this project, I have never really liked to work in group projects because sometimes one member is not professional and does not want to do his or her part and ends up making a huge problem for the rest of the group, but this time was completely the opposite. I feel like everybody in my group was professional and really cared about our grade, and everybody wanted to do a good job; all my teammates were very caring and they always wanted to help out, everybody were working towards a common goal which was to succeed and get a good grade, which is all what teamwork is about. Our presentation’s topic was about “group leadership and problem solving”, we learned about leaders and how leaders with creative problem-solving skills have the ability to stimulate, challenge and inspire others to continually pursue prominent problems and devise creative solutions to feed future organizational growth and success. Problem-solving is the process of observing what is going on in your environment; identifying things that could be changed or improved; diagnosing why the current state is the way it is and the factors and forces that influence it; developing approaches and alternatives to influence change; making decisions about which alternative to select; taking action to implement the changes; and observing impact of those actions in the environment.Each step in the problem-solving process employs skills and methods that contribute to the overall effectiveness of influencing change and determine the level of problem complexity that can be addressed. Humans learn how to solve simple problems from a very early age (learning to eat, make coordinated movements and communicate) – and as a person goes through life problem-solving skills are refined, matured, and become more sophisticated (enabling them to solve more difficult problems). Problem-solving is important both to individuals and organizations because it enables us to exert control over our environment. My part of the project was about leadership and Maintenance Roles, maintenance group roles and behaviors function to create and maintain social cohesion and fulfill the interpersonal needs of the group members. To perform these role behaviors, a person needs strong and sensitive interpersonal skills. These roles include social-emotional leader, supporter, tension releaser, harmonizer, and interpreter. I wanted to make sure that all the information that I had was as accurate and reliable as possible. During the presentation I was a little bit nervous, but I was confident and I felt ready, after I finished I honestly thought that I had done a great job and when I listened what the other members of our group said I thought they all did amazing. With this presentation I definitely learned the importance of working in a group project, Properly structured, group projects can reinforce skills that are relevant to both group and individual work, including the ability to: Break complex tasks into parts and steps, plan and manage time refine understanding through discussion and explanation give and receive feedback on performance challenge assumptions develop stronger communication skills. To conclude, I had a great time doing this project, it game the chance to develop my skills and learn from others, I’m very exited to keep doing projects like this, keep learning new things in this class and keep working with my classmates and succeed.