Final reflections for the module

Looking back, the beauty of this module is the opportunity to practice what we have learnt. One of the most important aspects of effective communication is to be aware of the feedback from the receiver when communicating. Both the peer teaching exercise and the oral presentation provided a platform for me to practice this aspect as I am “forced” to maintain eye contact with the audience while presenting. (I tend to read off my slides during previous presentations) It is fascinating to discover how by observing the audience’s body language/facial expression, I am able to know if my message has been brought across effectively. Similarly, it is equally amazing how a simple nod from the audience has the ability to boost my confidence during a presentation.  

The crafting of the questionnaire for our proposal was another platform which had allowed me to practice various aspects of effective communication. We had to craft the questionnaire by thinking from the receiver’s perspective in order to predict the respondent’s answers and craft further branching questions to illicit more information. The process was tough but I enjoyed the frank and candid discussions the team had where all criticisms of ideas were taken in good faith. This concept of “candour” (which I mentioned in the 1st blog post) in action is one strong factor for the good working relationship among the team. 

Lastly, special thanks to Mdm Fazilah for being such an effective tutor and for sharing her personal anecdotes on effective communications. In addition, thank you Will, Leo and Val for being such awesome teammates. I have enjoyed the group dynamics of working with all of you. 

To conclude this blog post, I have included a video featuring Adam Savage from the Mythbusters. The final minute of the speech from Adam Savage reflects what I feel about this module. 

“Achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with” – Adam Savage

Review of presentation

Whew, with the conclusion of the presentation and the submission of the proposal, this module is 98% completed! It is therefore appropriate to start my second last blog post with a review of the presentation.

Preparation for presentation

In hindsight, using the ideas of Ethos, Pathos and Logos to formulate the presentation would have made it more convincing. Instead, while crafting my speech, I was thinking from two perspectives.

1. Looking at the proposal from the audience’s point of view which meant addressing their areas of concern in order to convince them.
2. Looking at the presentation from the team’s perspective where our main message was that the proposal was meant for a bike-share pilot test which seeks to complement the existing shuttle bus system.

Therefore, our presentation ended up being more technical (Logos) and lacked the emotional touch (Pathos) to connect with the audience. For improvements, I think it may have been possible to beef up the emotional aspect by including a video clip showing the congestion problem during peak hours or to include interview clips with students expressing their frustrations with the shuttle bus services.   

The Q&A was my biggest worry. Looking back, the team had unwittingly been preparing for the Q&A session right from the start of this project. Along the way, we had so many arguments over the details of the project that many of the questions raised had already been discussed. In addition, the survey had been a very useful platform to gather feedback. Many of the concerns brought up by the respondents were similarly raised during the Q&A session.

Slide wares

Initially, I had my apprehension of using a pure white background for the slides. However, it seems that sometimes, simplicity does indeed prove to be elegant.

Actual presentation

As always, Murphy’s Law applies to everything. The sound system which had been working perfectly well beforehand failed on us. This proved once again the importance of testing out the technical system of the venue before the commencement of the actual presentation.

Reviewing the presentation, using a clicker for slide transitions would have allowed us to move around more freely during the presentation instead of being constrained to being beside the laptop.

In terms of delivery, my perpetual worry has always been the speed of my speech which I deem to be too fast. Luckily, there has been no negative feedback thus far for this presentation. Hopefully, I did not use too many erms as utterances at the end of my sentences. In my opinion, usage of such utterances is annoying.  Overall, I think my performance was pretty normal but I think I could have tried to enunciate my words more clearly as I tend to slur my words at times when I cannot recall my script

In conclusion, I am thankful for having Val, WP and KS as my team mates and kudos to them for being able to tolerate the excessive amount of nonsense I contribute during the project discussions.  

Intercultural Difference on the MRT

Try and spot the different cultures in this photo.

The MRT is one of the best places to observe intercultural difference since almost two-fifth of our population consists of non-citizen¹ and our citizen population is made up of people with various religious and racial backgrounds. In some cultures, it is normal to squeeze in the train to the extent where one is in skin to skin contact with the next person. Unfortunately, others are not so comfortable with such close contact. The recent incident involving the PRC scholar from NUS seem to suggest this divergence in each culture’s view of the concept of personal space. In addition, it is observed that some people of certain culture tend to speak excessively loudly on their phones which cause much disturbance to others. This may have arisen due to different cultural interpretation of the concept of voice volume.  On occasions, some commuters will directly request the person to tone down his/her volume. However, most commuters either give displeasing looks to the culprit or simply bear with it. Therefore, to bridge such intercultural difference, should the minority party assimilate or should the majority party accommodate?    

In my opinion, to resolve any potential conflicts arising from intercultural differences, both parties should first to be acutely aware of each other cultural difference before seeking to bridge the gap. For example, I have a friend who lives in the far western side of Singapore who joins the rest of us in the east for gatherings. We on our part also recognize his dietary restrictions and choose to meet at eateries which cater to his dietary requirements. We are able to resolve our difference because we have a shared goal of wanting to maintain our friendship. I like to call this concept of being aware of differences and seeking to accommodate as the concept of “give and take”.  Personally I think this is best style of conflict management.

1)  Data obtained from Department of Statistics Singapore:

    http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/popinbrief2011.pdf

The Job Ad

Engineer / Senior Engineer , Biomedical Engineering

The Challenges

·         Develop, direct and make improvements to various programs to ensure minimal disruption to operations and ensure medical equipment is safe for use at all times.

·         Negotiate contract agreements with vendors for the servicing and preventive maintenance of medical equipment.

·         Prepare medical equipment specifications for tender; evaluate tender submissions and recommends tender awards.

·         Provide technical assistance to hospital personnel in defining and evaluating medical equipment requirements.

·         Conducts training in the operation and user maintenance of medical equipment.

·         Plan, supervise and coordinate the various program for Senior Engineering Assistants / Engineering Assistants in the commissioning, breakdown and preventive maintenance, updates inventory and de-commissioning of medical equipment.

·         Prepare the monthly report, annual capital and operating budgets for Biomedical Engineering Department.

·         Conformance to standards and work practices that the hospital subscribes to (ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, JCI, etc).

·         Updates inventory listing and history records of medical equipment.

·         Support and Assist Head of Department and/or Manager (Biomedical Engineering) in coordinating services and development projects with consultants, vendors, contractors and appropriate authorities.

·         Attend and participate in relevant coordination and hospital developmental projects meeting.

·         Perform any other duties as assigned by HOD and/or Manager.

The Requirements

• Qualification: A Degree in Biomedical Engineering, Electronic or Electro-mechanical Engineering is preferred.  In the absence of a Degree, a minimum of five (5) years of engineering experience is required. 

• Experience:  Relevant Technical training in medical equipment by specialist vendors or previous experience in hospital BioMedical Engineering department will be advantageous

To apply for this position, please click here. Please indicate the subject title as: "Applying for position of Engineer/Senior Engineer"

Please indicate the following in your resume:

·         Last drawn salary

·         Expected salary

·         Reason for leaving previous employment

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Cover Letter

Ch@n Jun_Yuan

BlK *** XXXX St 11 #01-01

Singapore 123456

Handphone number: 9787 XXXX

12345abc@gmail.com

12^th February 2012

Clara Wong

Human Resource Department

National University Health System

1E, Kent Ridge Road

Singapore 119228

Dear Ms. Wong

I am currently a NUS third year student earning my Bachelor of Engineering (Bioengineering) degree. Being in bioengineering has stirred my interest in medical care. Therefore, I will like to further my interest by pursuing a career with NUHS as an Engineer/Senior Engineer (BioMedical Engineering).

Being a NUHS engineer involves evaluation of the technical aspects of various medical instruments. My years as a Bioengineering undergraduate have equipped me with the basic knowledge which I believe will allow me to succeed in the job. In addition, having been involved in various CCAs since JC, I truly enjoy working with people to produce desired results and being an engineer in NUHS will allow me to continue my strive for excellence through teamwork.

Thank you for taking time to consider me for the position. Please contact me at on my handphone at 9787 XXXX or through email at12345abc@gmail.com if you have any questions for me. I look forward to joining NUHS.

Sincerely

Ch@n Jun_Yuan (Shouldn't I add "Mr." before my name? Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the employer to know which gender to address me when they contact me?)

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

People involved: Director, Scriptwriter, Props Manager

Context: Chatterbox theatre is staging a production in three weeks’ time at the University Cultural Center.  However, the props and script are not finalized at this present moment. 

Points of view:

Props Manager: He thinks that the Director is overbearing and demands too much from the backstage crew. The Props Manager also does not like the director’s habit of shouting his orders to the crew.

Scriptwriter: She thinks that the Director is stifling her creativity by changing the script at his whims and fancies. She feels that as a scriptwriter, it is her right to express her freedom of creativity.

Director: He feels that shouting out his orders instills discipline among the crew. In addition, he is shortening the script in order to fit into the two hour production. He feels that both the props manager and the scriptwriter are not being cooperative.

Main problem:  Everyone is unhappy as he/she thinks that the other party is trying to obstruct his/her line of work. Personally, I think these misunderstandings occur mainly due to the lack of candour within the organization (refer to my previous post about candour). However, in addition, all parties are lacking in Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Explicitly, all parties lack self-awareness and empathy. For example, the director should see from his crew’s perspective (empathy) that being shouted at creates unnecessary pressure.  At the same time, the director may also need to be more self-aware and recognize that his unilateral action of changing the script may be disrespectful to the scriptwriter.

Therefore, envision yourself in the director’s shoes; you are pressed for time and unable to discuss every changes to the script with the scriptwriter. What will you do to ensure that the scriptwriter will still feel respected?

Why is Effective Communication Important to me?

"Jacked Up" by Bill Lane (Jack Welch's speechwriter)

Jack Welch's autobiography

My interest in effective communication was generated some years back after reading two books. One, the autobiography by Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric and two, a book by Bill Lane, speechwriter for Jack Welch at General Electric. The two biggest lessons about communications which I learnt from these two books were

1)   The concept of “candour” in the workplace where ideas and thoughts are exchanged honestly and candidly between employees and superiors.

2)     An effective presentation should be crafted with the audience in mind. The presentation slides should be kept simple as the focus of the presentation is how the presenter communicates his/her ideas and not the slides.

These two concepts are simple in theory but difficult to achieve. Looking back at the numerous projects/presentations I have done over the years, there are times where these two concepts were able to be put into practice and these were the few occasions where the project concluded with good results. Through my experience, effective communication in a group yields three desirable effects.

1)      Reduces misunderstanding between team members

2)      Boost morale

3)      Enables all to complete assigned tasks more efficiently

However, there is also countless times where the end result of a project work leaves much to be desired. Upon reflections, the main reason is usually attributed to poor communication within team members. The desire to eliminate such disappointments is what compels me to join this course.

Therefore, at the end of the course, I hope that I will emerge as a better all-round communicator which will aid in me being a better team player. 

Last of all, Happy Lunar New Year to all and I shall take my leave to enjoy my reunion dinner!