Favorite Concept

My favorite concept we have covered in this class was the different funtions of communication and how there are six different functions on nonverbal communication that affect the overall flow of the communication in a small group. For example one of the functions of nonverbal communication is contradiction and this means when we make the nonverbal and verbal messages congruent according to page 101 in Chapter 6 in verbal and nonverbal communication. For example as the text states, a colleague's facial expression can mean something else in comparison to their verbal communcation. When I lived with seven other girls and we wre trying to solve a problem occuring amongst our group, one or some of the girls would say something and their facial expression and gestures said another. That would always make it harder on those around them because their body language and what they were saying were or seemed different. I chose this topic and I like it because I feel nonverbal communication is more vital in a group than we think. Being able to see someone's facial expression,gesture, or body language in general gives us sometimes a better meaning of how that person is feeling and what is on their mind. I am now more aware of and more observant when someone seems unsatisfied about something, I look at their facial expression and also listen to what they have to say and see if they go hand in hand.

What I've learned, Favorite/Least Favorite Thing

What I have learned throughout this class is that how we conduct ourselves through verbal and nonverbal communication, through virtual communication all goes hand in hand and contributes to how a group operates overall as a whole. The diversity of a group is also important because diversity is needed in small to large groups because if we all were alike and though alike, the end results and the process of things would not be as interesting and cohesive. I have relearned that "two heads are better than one." My favorite thing about this class was all the chapters because I thought they were all fascinating to read and gave me a better picture and more clear standing on how vital different forms of communication are in small groups or groups in genera. I don't really have a least favorite thing about this class because all the chapter readings to making blog posts and reading and commenting on our my classmates' blogs helped me to have a better understanding on the readings and concepts. I also found the two assignments on the movie analysis and small group observation project to be very helpful and beneficial because they helped me to realize how and why people interact and act in groups and how in the movie I analyzed "Mean Girls" why the main character changed herself to fit in a small group because she wanted to be accepted. In the end, she realized what she was communiating, the message she was sending to everyone, only hurt herself and learning to be her was what mattered most.

Group Observation Project

For my Group Observation Project I observed our school's baseball team because I know of the leader(the coach) and have helped out at a few of the events over the past few years I have been at state and I have attended their games throughout the past few years. Since I am also a big baseball fan, I love the game, when we were assigned this project, I immediately thought of the baseball team because I have always wondered what it is like in a college athletic team when the coach is in a meeting with the players and what goes on and how it is conducted. I found it to be a very useful exercise because as we have been discussing throughout the semester in our class how small group communication is affected in different ways and how different forms of communication are utilized in a group interaction. What I learned from this project is that how a leader carries themself is very vital because it affects the overall vibe of the room. When I observed the coach he had a nice tone, and he did a well job on communicating to the team what had gone well and didn't in past games and how players did a well job and what can be improved. What I thought was good about this project was that we got to observe at least two team meetings because sometimes seeing something for just one time may not be able to give us a clear vision of how something is and the second time may give us a more better sense of it. For me, I thought both meetings complimented each other and both were very helpful to observe. I am not sure what can be improved. I though overall this was a great project.

Avoidance in Conflict Management

I felt Avoidance in Producing Conflict Management was quite fascinating and very helpful to be aware of in this chapter and in general because I am guilty of avoiding confrontation with individuals by just letting it go. However as even the text mentioned how avoiding a conflict within a small group can be destructive especially to the productivity of the outcome of the group's roles and responsibilities because we can't avoid an issue forever, it needs to be resolved. Avoidance can take some tension off and leave some ease if a group is coming to its' boiling point, however it all depends how much tension there is and to be aware of that avoiding something will not always be able to be the resolution. I found this section in the paper to be interesting and good to be aware of.
After reading this part of the chapter, I became more aware of how I can handle avoidance better when in a small group or evento large group.

CH.12: Collaborative Conflict Resolution

An example of a collaborative conflict resolution I have engaged in was when I was when a small group of about five to six of us were in a team meeting and two of the group members were not in a agreement with each other just because they were both two different people, the rest of us had to decide how to resolve the current conflict in both the individuals. So myself and a fellow group member of mine started changing the subject to get the girls attention away from arguing with each other and to focus on something they both could agree on. Our technique on chaning the subject kind of worked then, it made one of the individuals leave the room. How the conflict was solved was by giving both the group members time and within a few days, and they were okay with each other. Competitive conflict has more to do with making decisions straight on the subject while avoiding personal tasks at hand. Using competition to assign leadership roles is the most efficient way to assess which individual is able to hand each responsibility at hand. I prefer collaborative conflict resolution because I am not a competitive person in general, I like to work with others as a team, "there is no I in team" which is what I strongly believe in, so to be able to work together in a group and be creative on solving the conflict is how I like and eould go about resolving a conflict in a small group.

CH.11: The Forum

If I had to choose one specific format for group presentations, I would choose and prefer the "forum" because the whole idea about a small or to even large group, is that people in the group get to be heard, and through the forum format and technique, there is a moderator who choose who gets to speak however the fact that people do get to voice their opinions and comments and have their voices heard. The speakers get to present and support arguments as the text mentioned and they get to ask questions based on what was stated by the other speaker. There are time limits however I believe it is important that people get to be heard in a group discussion because not everyone gets to speak in other formats such as a panel or in the colloquium or the symposium. With the panel, speakers get to make claims and arguments that others part of the group also may agree with and to be able to have that time to speak for others who are unable to speak for themselves and take a position in what was being stated is imperative in communication in a small group to a large group.

Solving Problems Creatively

A concept from the reading I found interesting that we have not discussed this week is solving problems creatively which is on page 174 in our text. This topic discusses five suggestions when we are unable to think of a creative idea. The five suggestions are: trigger your unconscious which means to take a break from what we are currently thinking about on trying to solve a problem. What can help during that break is taking a walk, or some form of exercise, something that will help clear our head. The second suggestion is to loosen your mind which means to let our mind wander a little, that way we will be able to come back to the task at hand and feel more refreshed. The third is break down the problem into a series of doable tasks which means the problem can be broken down into sections such as questions or a series of problems broken down so we can solve them one at a time. The fourth is to do some research which can help show us some examples in the same type of problem that is occurring somewhere else. The fifth one is ask yourself questions such as what are the different parts to the problems? Can I apply knowledge from other situations to this one? (Harris & Sherblom, 2011, 174). I found these five suggestions to be interesting and helpful because I never really thought of being able to solve problems creatively by these five different suggestions that I read in the text.