Conflict Resolution & TGIF

Craig’s mom

This week went by so fast and I couldn’t have been happier for the weekend to arrive. During our morning lecture, we watched an entertaining documentary on the history of Rock & Roll. On a personal note, it was very interesting for me to watch the video because I have actually visited and lived in some of the places mentioned in the video e.g. New Orleans and Chicago. The main lesson I learned is that you don’t have to invent the wheel in order to be successful. Sometimes all that is required is your ability to take something that already works, make it much better and make it your own. This is a good lesson for my group and I to keep in mind when thinking of our “new” product.

During lunch break, we had a group meeting in the Bridge from 1-3pm. The agenda for the meeting was to finalize our memorandum of understanding, figure out the way forward for the group, confirm our holiday schedules, plan creativity sessions, talk about our prototype and discuss cake sale2.  After looking at some of the MOU’s from previous years, we realized that our document was lacking in a few areas so we made some necessary adjustments. We also realized from looking at our calendars that we have less than 2 weeks to get everything confirmed for cake sale 2. The shocking reality of all our upcoming deadlines reminded us how important it is to plan ahead and manage time effectively. So far, the general consensus in the group seems to be that we are not operating as efficiently as we should be. Sometimes we have meetings for hours yet at the end of the day, it seems as though we have not accomplished much. One way of solving this problem is to set SMART goals with deadlines (specific, measurable, attainable, and timed).

After the meeting, we agreed to schedule 3 team creativity sessions away from campus. With all the conflict that went on this week, the group also decided that we NEED to have a relaxing/non-academic bonding session.  So next Wednesday, we are all going to do something fun for a change. I’m really looking forward to that. I hope it will help us understand each other better and bring us closer as a team.