One of the strengths of our meeting is that in content wise, I felt that it went quite smoothly because we followed the agenda closely as Brandon has opened a document on our meeting agenda on his laptop for easy reference. At the beginning, we touched on the most important aspect of our 1102 project, which is to identify the real problem, and what are the areas that need to be focused and done. This, I believe sets a basis for discussion later.
There were occasions where the meeting turned rather quiet because everyone was not so sure in that aspect and we were reluctant to share our ideas and opinions. Perhaps one of the teammate can take the initiative, maybe the leader, to start a discussion and prompt teammates to share what they have in mind and more ideas and opinions maybe created because of this.
During the middle segment of the meeting, we were discussing on the allocation of tasks of the project and this segment is quite hard because the project itself is quite ambiguous and it is not easy to split the task. When a team is working on a project, task allocation is unavoidable and there must be fair allocation within group members.
Next,allocation of tasks was not done so well since nobody volunteered to take up the various parts and it was not easy to just distribute the work. In this scenario, the leader will have to take the initiative to distribute the tasks himself, making a fair and good decision in consideration of each group member’s strengths and weakness at the topic.
6 comments:
Hi Jason,
I think everyone felt awkward in front of the video cam, which was unavoidable. Thankfully the meeting went well after everyone got through the awkwardness, maybe it was the topic of the discussion that had forcibly drawn all of our attention to it.
Wait, we were in the same meeting right? I guess the meeting went well largely because every group member followed the agenda and did his/her own homework before coming for the meeting. Nevertheless, the complexity of the topic still resulted in our discussion going in circles and not finding a solution. Hence the moment of silence. In my opinion, though that situation is undesirable I believe it is necessary for us to reassemble our thoughts and find out exactly where we make a mistake in our concepts.
As the group leader, I do regret the poor allocation of task during the meeting. Unfortunately at that point of time, I was still struggling with the concepts and did not dare to allocate the tasks just yet, in fear of overloading any members of the team. Credit to you for initiating the allocation.
Overall it was a good reflection, well-balanced in both anlaysing the strengths and weaknesses of the meeting, as well as highlighting the areas for improvement.
Hi Jason,
Since it is the first time that we are been recorded in the video during our meetings, it is natural for us to feel uneasy at first. You aren’t the only one feeling that way. It seems that most people started their blog entry by commenting about their uneasiness too.
I am glad that all your teammates have prepared for the meeting. It is always more efficient to have a discussion where all the teammates know exactly what is the agenda about. That is the main purpose of the agenda-to inform teammates what to prepare for the meeting.
However, since you mentioned that the project is quite ambiguous, how will each teammate have the confidence to handle the task well? What if the teammate fails to complete the assigned task at the last moment, what will your team do? For my team although we spilt the tasks accordingly, we did most of the coding together and helped each other test the functions we coded. When there are bugs in the functions, we also helped each other debug before moving on to test other functions. Although this can be rather time-consuming, I find that all my teammates has learned something new and are aware of how each part of the system works.
Li Hua
Hi Jason,
I am sure every went through the process of being uneasy at the start. What matters is that when the meeting progressed on most of us are able to be engaged in the topic and express ourselves relatively naturally.
I find your group's way of conducting meetings effective as you did not jump into the question like many would and instead focused on the problem. I am sure having the agenda by your side also help to draw the focus to how your meeting should progress.
I feel in the first meeting, there are bound to be issues like hiccups, and long bouts of silence when no one knows what to say. What can be a learning experience here is learning how to bring along a meeting or a discussion, to question certain issues that can extend the meeting contents such that there is no lapse in discussion. Because I feel lapse in discussion not only makes the situation awkard for everybody, it limits the ideas that can be produced.
Generally, your post described well what are the strengths and weaknesses, and what can be done better. Good job. (:
Regards,
Cherlia
Hi Jason,
In your post, you mentioned that the agenda is being used for reference quite often. I would have to agree with you that this is a good practice, as the agenda is mainly what the meeting is about. Keeping to it would ensure that the objectives of the meeting are met. To improve on it, the leader could give a summary of what is discussed before moving on to another topic of the agenda. Firstly, this will refresh everyone on what is discussed. Secondly, it will clear any misunderstandings on issues discussed as the summary could be used as the final decision of the discussion. Thirdly, it will let the members know that each part is done and that you are moving on, it will let them have a chance to add on before the team moves on.
As for the allocation of tasks, since everyone is still unclear of what is required and the difficulty of the task, it would be good to set up “checkpoints” before the planned date of completion. These checkpoints are dates to meet up and update the team on what has been done and the difficulties faced. This will put the team in a better position by allowing the workload to be distributed more equally. For example, someone who finds their allocated task relatively easy can help other members during one of these meetings. It will also allow the team to solve bigger problems that requires the attention of more members.
I hoped that you find my suggestions useful and that it will help you to have more productive meetings.
Leonard (C06)
Hi Jason,
I feel that it’s good that you were uneasy in front of the camera; it makes you more aware of how to properly act to convey your actions properly as you will be under the stress to perform.
You mentioned that there were several good segments from your meeting, and that implies to me that it had been fruitful. There’s really nothing wrong with following the agenda closely, it ensures that the meeting will be short but effective. My own meeting was slightly messed up as we did not follow the agenda closely but moved from related point to related point which made it more interesting but harder to catch what was being discussed. For more important meetings, it would help to follow the agenda closely.
However, I felt that your post did not mention individual anecdotes of the meeting and it made it hard to visualize the problems and highlights that you mentioned. Other than that, it is a great post.
Kimberly
Hi Jason,
Since I was in the same group as you, I was impressed by your programming logic and knowledge. As you said, I believed we were able to cover everything on the agenda because we had easy reference to it. There were indeed some quite awkward moments because none of us were sure how to approach certain questions.
But I think it was great that all of us managed to voice our opinions. I agree that allocation of tasks did not proceed as well as expected either, because again, we were on unfamiliar territory and having just met, the team leader might not be sure of his team members’ weaknesses and strengths.
But it was good that you took the initiative and assigned tasks to everyone, including yourself. I also think that your idea to summarize the main points in a meeting would be very efficient, as this would prevent any kind of miscommunication from occurring.
You have honestly been a great team-mate and I appreciate the ability of both of you to complete tasks way before the deadline. It really made me improve my own time-management skills.
I wish you all the best in the near future!
Regards,
Gulabi
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