Being an engineer requires people to be able to work in teams. In the Engineering world when dealing with issues or problems, most often a team is assigned to fix the problem at hand not just one engineer. Team work requires a lot of communication and effort from each team member to make it a successful functioning group. When team members act up it can have an effect on the other team members' work ethic. Communication is key to making the group work, however communication can be counterproductive at times. For example, groups have to meet and sit down to discuss the problem at hand and figure out how they will fix it. The problem with meetings is that the conversation can get off task easily, that's why a meeting agenda is necessary for the team to be effective and stay on task. In my experience working on teams in school, I have found that if the team has set goals for that meeting, the flow of the meeting is better and the team is more effective in getting the tasks complete. Good communication amongst the group is the key to completing the project. With these set meeting agendas and good communication, the group has a much higher chance of completing the project on time.

What Makes The Best Group?

Through out life people need to interact with one another. When humans work together people can do many wonderful things, for example putting a man on the moon. Prior to that event the idea of putting someone on the moon would be ludicrous idea. This came from great team work and a collaboration of great minds. This brings up the idea of what makes a good team? Is the ideal team based on smarts, personality, work ethic, or is it something else? There are several things that go into what makes a good team but I’m going to talk about two things that I think make a team successful.

            The First, to me, is time management and using time wisely. Time management is something that most people struggle with on a daily basis. The importance of meeting a deadline and accounting for ones actions is hard. Through effectively using the time allocated and not wasting it is important. Most people complain about time wasted in meetings during a project. Some groups talk about how they meet all the time and never get anything done. It might be a matter of quality not quantity. Through having quality meetings with the best people from a team you could save time wasted. Through having a large quantity you may just waste time as many people tend to complain about.  I know I constantly go to meetings where things are not organized and there is no agenda that happens and then my time and the time of my fellow team mates is wasted. I found that people tend to think that we need to meet all the time and that will solve the problem. That might not always be the case it is more about what you do during the meetings and what you as a group get out of the meetings planed. This is a time management thing that is important to gain quality in every action when meeting a deadline.

            The second is having motivation to do the job right. In most groups people may not have all the right skills needed to do the job. The important part is that your group members have the right attitude and also that they do the job right the first time.  In some groups people just do the job to complete it and not put quality in their work. In a case study that was conducted the personnel that you have can have an effect the group as a whole.  If someone seems to be depressed, apathetic, or argumentative all the time this can have a huge effect on the entire team. It could cause the team to not do as well of a job as they could have done with everyone motivated to do the job right the first time. The members in the team can have a great effect on one whether or not a team will be successful. It isn’t just about having the right people for the job but also having the right attitude for the job.  

            In conclusion there are many factors that can be defined in having a successful team. Through time management you optimize the time that is allotted to you to complete the project. It also will minimize the amount of wasted time that happens in so many groups. Secondly the attitude of our members is important. The importance of having the right attitude for the job can make or break a team. Especially in engineering where quality of work is so important having the right members is very important to success. If there is one “bad apple” this could hurt the team and in effect cause the project to go off as planned.
-M.G.

Effective Communication

Communication is something that has been innate to our human nature since birth.  As babies, we cried when we were hungry, needed changing, or just to get attention.  As we get older, our styles of communication get much broader.  As we learned to speak and write, our communication skills increased exponentially, into what they are today.  In a competitive market such as todays, effective communication is a must in any work setting.  It doesn’t matter what our majors were, what our GPA was, or what our job title is, communication between co-workers can’t happen often enough.  It is important to not only relay messages, but convey thoughts and ideas to our peers and superiors.  This in turn keeps everyone on the same page. 

It seems far too often that just talking about things isn’t enough. Email and notes are becoming huge due to their physical aspect, which makes things easier to remember.  Being a part of a few internships, and having just gotten a job offer, I can say that companies are always evaluating our communication skills, and don’t forget nonverbal ones too.  The companies and employers want to know that they are hiring on someone that can get the message across all barriers and to all employees affected. 

In closing, we all know that communication is important, but actually doing it is a completely different thing.  Staying on top of assignments and projects through may make the difference between a raise or bonus. 

-OE

3 Techniques for running an effective meeting

3 Techniques for Running an Effective Meeting

1.      The meeting needs an objective. An effective meeting serves a useful purpose. You need to achieve a desired outcome. At the end of the meeting the leader should close with “I want the group to…” with a end result clearly defined.

2.      Meetings need to use the time wisely. No one wants their time wasted. Starting with your team objective everything that happens in the meeting itself should further that objective. To ensure you cover only what is on the agenda you need to stick to relevant activities. Stick to talking about these 7 factors:

a.       Priorities

b.      Results

c.       Participants

d.      Sequence

e.       Timing

f.       Date and Time

g.      Place

A important aspect of running an effective meeting is to respect the allotted time. Start the meeting on time and do not spend time recapping for latecomers and finish on time.

3.      Get everyone to participate. Make a point of asking others for their ideas. At the end of each agenda item quickly summarize what was said and ask people to confirm that that’s a fair summary. Watch for body language and make adjustments if necessary. Ensure that the meeting stays on topic. At the close of the meeting quickly go over next tasks and inform everyone that you will be sending out a meeting summary.

CD

http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/RunningMeetings.htm

3 Reasons Meetings Go Bad

I read an article about the three major occurrences that make meetings bad and tips to overcome a bad meeting. Many of these points coincide with discussions in class.

The first of these is not understanding the importance of the “who”. It is very common that a meeting will include people that don’t need to be there, are pretending to listen or aren’t really part of the meeting at all. Instead of wasting employees’ time and productivity, invite only those that have a head role in the topics being discussed. If everyone in the meeting is connected to the topics being covered more will be accomplished and everyone will participate and have an interest in being there. Along side that, it is suggested that the person that is the owner of a specific topic lead that portion of the meeting. This makes a lot of sense because that person will be the best leader of the conversation and can make whatever is decided upon happen.

The second cause of bad meetings is not understanding the importance of why. If the people in attendance don’t understand why they are there they won’t make any effort to offer ideas and thoughts. This is why it is important to have an agenda and try to send it to all invited members so they can understand what will be covered, who is responsible for the topic and be prepared to speak about the topics being covered.

Last is not understanding the importance of what’s next. Meetings might be very productive but if there are no executables that come from it then it was pointless to have the meeting. Meetings should end with a discussion about what happens next and what everyone’s next step is. The article mentions figuring out a way to check in with the primary lead to make sure everything is being done correctly and on time. If steps are taken to complete the tasks and topics discussed in the meetings, meetings will be seen as useful and valuable.

Meeting should be viewed as something valuable to a company. As the article states, it should be treated as an investment on which you want to get a great return. Therefore, time and effort needs to be put in to them to get that return.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/07/02/3-ways-to-make-meetings-much-less-boring-and-much-more-useful/

JC

Effective Communication in Groups

Jim Rohn has stated that "Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know". Jim Rohn is an American Entrepreneur and and author.

Although this is an interesting quote, based on the past class lectures and discussions I can honestly say that this quote is not a true depiction of effective communication within group settings. The quote itself may be a useful tool to spark a discussion or to produce some emotions from a group but it does not state facts. Effective communication, especially that in project or group settings should all be based on an agenda or schedule and should be easy for all to understand. If basic rules are set from the beginning when communicating in the forms of meetings and group work, there will not be a gap of what the audience knows and does not know due to the fact that everyone has been informed. When facts are used instead of emotions more clear non-judgmental decisions can be made leaving all emotions out of the equation. This may be hard for some individuals like myself who tend to "wear their emotions on their sleeves", however once this sense of emotional need is left at the door, the group can continue to grow and communicate effectively. 

In conclusion I believe that in order for a group to demonstrate effective communication there is a need for a firm set of guidelines or an agenda that is able to place everyone on the same page and takes all emotion off the table. Effective communication may be 20% of what you know but 80% of the other team members thoughts and knowledge.
SW

What MAKES a Meeting?

     There are many factors that go into meetings that drive how effective they are or not; I'm going to give my two biggest factors and state why I think each is important, but if you have one I missed, add it in the comments with some support for that item being important...

     The first, and to me, one of the most important parts of a meeting is background.  By this I mean a couple of different things such as preparation, understanding of the concepts and goals, and understanding the true purpose of the meeting.  They all go hand in hand for the most part, in that you need to understand the purpose of the meeting to prepare and part of preparation is understanding the concepts and goals.

   Without background, time is wasted in the meeting trying to get everyone on the same page, people don't understand the context of the issue at hand, or they may not even know what the issue is at all.  I've been in all too many meetings where more time was spent catching people up and explaining issues than the actual solving of the issue(s).

     A second important item is time management and specificity.  Whether it is allowing enough time or making sure not to take too much time on every detail, the timing must be right or you start to lose peoples' attention.  It's obvious that you would want to leave enough time to go through all of the issues. However, what I see as being more important is keeping everyone's attention, and this is only done when everyone is involved in the issues at hand AND to the same degree of depth.  If everyone is involved as the discussion progresses but then discussion turns down a specific path and some cannot contribute, then that is a waste of their time.  So what do you do? You allow that item to become a sidebar for another meeting where you aren't wasting the other peoples' time so that your meeting can return to its schedule and its proper focus.

     Like I said in the beginning, there are many important factors... What are the most important ones in your opinion? Do you agree with mine or have other thoughts?

S.H.