Self-reflection of the learning journal of collaboration

Self-reflection of the learning journal of collaboration

by Samantha Lau (52982086)

My Learning Journey

First of all, I need to say this is no an easy project. It is difficult because we are dealing with the people that we do not know, people that have different background with different stand. I would say this project is composed of negotiation and compromise. I cannot say this is a very pleasant experience but to be honest through this project, I realize something new and important. Besides, it also reaffirms some of my thought.

The final project of the class High Performance Collaboration is about creating a virtual collaboration between two virtual teams. When I first hear about the topic, it sounds so vague and it is somehow over my head. Moreover, the project demands some creative ideas. That really is not my strength. I am to have two teammates to have my back.

The cooperation in Three Legged Race

Our team, three-legged-race, is from the evening session. I do think our team cooperates well in this project. I have not worked together with my other two teammates before but it is a pleasure to work with them. Samuel often brings up with some interesting as well as out of the box ideas and Miranda is having a good sense of artwork. These are something that I am lack of. We have different strengths and respect each other. I know well that creativity is not my strength but I tried to input my ideas by suggesting what can be added or what changes that can be made to the ideas they have so to get a what I think is a better outcome.

1. The traditional face-to-face meeting cannot be replaced

We teammates all engaged to our daytime job and cannot meet all the time to discuss the project. We only meet base on needs but I do consider that we work quite effectively. Our communication means are face-to-face discussion, emails, Whatsapp and Skype. When we worked on the fundamentals like brainstorming ideas and positioning our stand in the project, we did it in a face-to-face conversation. After this project, I realized that a direct dialogue could never be replaced by other form of meeting. If the time and environment allow, it is the best form of communication means. You can get instant responses, you can observe the other’s reaction and changes of emotion. With that information, you would know what your next step would be. It is best for clarifying complicated issues. When we encounter some difficulties or came across issues that need to talk about, we would arrange a meeting time in Whatsapp and held a conference call in Skype. This kind of collaboration really works for us.

2. In a collaboration, it is trust and respect that matters

As mentioned, we are not meeting a lot. Our process can be breakdown into several steps: brainstorming for ideas, defining responsibilities, getting your own part done, reviewing the output together and refining the project. We trust the other teammates can play their role fairly and complete the tasks assigned in a timely manner. And we did not fail each other. We give feedback promptly to teammates. The communication and working process between us are very smooth and productive. This gives a strong feeling that we work as a team.

The cooperation with Morning Session

We have trust between evening session team members but I need to admit that the collaboration with the morning session is a total different story. Not only trust has not been with the morning group, I somehow still having doubt that if they fully understand the role of different stakeholders in the project.

Importance to choose the right means of communication

In this virtual collaboration project, we use Skype, Whatsapp and email to communicate with the morning session. We decided to communicate with the morning group through Skype. That really is a good choice of communicating tool. Though you have never met the people, you can hear the voice of the one that you are dealing with and can get immediate responses. That is curial because with the voice and responses, you can sketch the character and personality of the team members from the other group and get acquainted. Voices have temperature, you can tell if the other side are convinced or disapproved. It helps to get knowing whom you are working with.

I have always noticed that a face-to-face discussion and telephone conversation are more effective way for communication especially when the topic of concern involving many different aspects. My thought is strengthened after this project.

Using email and Whatsapp to exchange ideas is convenient but they also have shortcomings. I would say it is time-consuming to put all your ideas into words. Plus you may get a delayed reaction. In this sense, I think Whatsapp is good for the situation that you want to say or ask something simple, less important and low priority. Team members are free to response when available. On the other hand, Email is good for exchanges documents. We use email to send the PowerPoint and project plan details to teammates and the morning group. That is why I truly think that it is important to pick the correct means for communication and do it the right way. Thanks to the technology, we can use Skype to communicate with each other.

Though we have a good means of communication, we still face some difficulties in cooperating with the morning session and have conflicts over the event subject along with the name of the bank.

1. Conceptual differences

There are difficulties in cooperating with someone that you barely know. Not to mention collaborate with someone with different cultures and background.

As this project needs us to come up with a creative project plan, brainstorming is a vital part to start with. Aiming to be more effective, our side has scheduled meetings to brainstorm the project ideas so to get a creative yet workable idea and sell that idea to the morning group.

Making the morning group to understand our project plan and persuading them to take it is one of the hardest parts of the project. Since they did not carry any idea when we first chatted, we let them study our idea and raised questions towards it. See if they will have a go with our project plan. In order to communicate more effectively, one of our teammates was chatting in Skype with them to answer to their queries and help them to have a better understanding to our project.

Conflict 1 – Reshape the project plan

The morning group students are come from mainland and they have no working experience. Sometimes they came up with ideas over my comprehension. We truly have different value on the subjects in project. This leads to the main problem that we come across – conceptual differences. They have difficulties in understanding the role of the bank in the project and the environment in Hong Kong for such event so they try to reshape the plan with their comprehension.

2. Negotiation & Compromise

Conflict 2 –Marathon VS Cycling

I would say we had a negotiation here. We first suggested having a marathon for charity and having the event be hold in Hong Kong so the sporting company can increase its brand recognition and sponsor the clothing and sports products for the event. The morning group that representing the sport company requested to change the subject of the event from marathon to cycling and advise to move the venue of the event to China. It took tremendous effort to align our differences and the virtual communication makes things even harder. Through the hardship of negotiation, we finally found our common ground and reached an agreement – a cycling event first held in Hong Kong and relocates the event into China if it is successful. We both had a step back and compromise.

Conflict 3 - Bank of Warmhearted VS Warmhearted Bank

The interesting thing in this project is even we get on the same project, we see the event and interpret the collaboration in a quite a different way and that can be illustrated by our PowerPoint for the presentation. They care about the details of the cycling route and something that we evening session think is less important like the use of word walkathon and the name of the bank (details as attached).

3. How well do they comprehend our project idea?

“How well do they comprehend our project idea?” is the question I often cross my head. If they really comprehend the idea, they would realize that the bank could not easily be replaced by any other commercial companies since it has a large network and client basis. Furthermore, the bank’s well-established payment system would also be an asset to the project. But right after their presentation, they claimed our bank is substitutable. 

Conclusion

Although I do not think the virtual means of communication works well between the two teams, the virtual collaboration with morning session is a valuable experience. Virtual communication is not something new but to work out a project with virtual collaboration is a whole new thing. It make me realize that the importance of knowing your counterparty and the limitation in virtual communications. Trust is hard to be built up in these situations. I believe we have trust with the morning session, the whole thing could be smoother. After all, the fundamental problem – differences in valuation is not easy to work out.