Final Reflection; SIE 2016 Effective Communications

At the start of the trimester, I wrote a descriptive reflection on my blog to Professor Blackstone. Within it, I had also set 3 goals for this module, which are: stress management, better articulation of ideas and reduce the habit of speaking too fast. This module had many deliverables on a weekly basis. That coupled with ongoing studies, timely tests and other personal commitments, had enabled me to work my time effectively and managed expectations well.

After the recess week, we were tasked to do a project that solves an engineering problem. The project spanned across the remaining six weeks of the trimester, which challenged us on our time and stress management skills. There were times where the teams had to come together to discuss the details of the project but often there were always other individual commitments limiting our discussion time. As such our meetings and discussion had to be extremely time-efficient. Through the experience of multiple discussions, we had managed to optimise the meetings to be time and content efficient. 

The project itself consists of 2 parts: a technical report and a presentation of our projects. In the process of doing the report, I realised that a person’s writing is limited by their own perspectives and experiences, or at least mine is. When drafting the report, often I found that my teammates' perspectives and way of writing are more suited contextually. As a result, the combination of perspectives had enabled my team to create better writing for the report.

Having a presentation was very different from the report writing as we were tasked to sell our idea. As such, we had to change the way we approach the same topic of reducing plastic usage. Although my team originally rejected the opportunity to present in the showcase, we eventually represented the class after some convincing. It was a great learning experience as personally, I had another chance to upgrade my skills in presenting. As there was more time, I had dedicated efforts into reviewing and fine-tuning the content and the method of articulating my ideas. I believe (to some end) that it had translated into the results of the presentation showcase.

One of SIT’s slogans is “We do from day one” and I feel that this first trimester in SIT had made me practise that, starting things early and manage my time well, especially in this module, SIE2016 Effective Communications, as we did many things in this short thirteen weeks. Looking back at this module, I feel that all these experiences will help me be a better and efficient person during my time in SIT and professionally in the future, on top of helping me communicate better professionally.