To start off, I would like to share my motivation for taking this module. Well, just some inside info about myself. I play golf=) I think it is a damn challenging activity but that is not what I want to say. Playing golf has allowed me to have interactions with many much older and much more experienced people many of whom have already done their part for society and has retired. And being such a “young” chap relatively, I always end up listening to them talk about their past experiences. There are quite a few things that I manage to take away from them even before this module and I would like to share some of them with you’ll in this blog. Though all of it may not be new but well, no harm sharing them again right? Anyway they are,
1. One MUST learn to ask the right questions
2. To climb up, EQ >IQ is a MUST
3. No use having a good idea if you can’t CONVEY it to others
4. First impression counts… A LOT! But please back it up with substance
Sounds familiar? Of course they do after all the research we have gone through to write our reports and presentations. The things that ES2007S impart us are something that has been proven to be an essential ingredient in order to be successful and this is the very reason why I chose to take this module. I was hoping that after taking this module I can improve on my communicative skills and I am glad to say that I was not disappointed though it might just be a small improvement.
Notice that all aspects of ES2007S cover all these area.
1. Asking the right questions—never ending Q&A sessions, commenting on blog posts of others, peer review etc.
2. EQ>IQ – understanding culture, building interpersonal communication, understanding non verbal communication, effective listening etc
3. No use having a good idea if you can’t CONVEY it to others – Presentation skills, proposal writing skills, peer teaching, etc
4. First impression counts… A LOT! But please back it up with substance – Resume writing, non verbal communication, interview techniques, researching on information (for the latter) etc.
This module is indeed trying it’s very best to squeeze as much information into us as possible not to mention allowing us to have as much practice as possible as well. Saying all that much actually made me guilty because, honestly speaking due to my other commitments I couldn’t put in as much effort as I would have like to. However I did try my best for some of the more immediate needs like resume writing etc. And I am proud to say that my resume now looks so much better than that piece of trash that I wrote a few months back.
Some of the more interesting experience I had was to do the peer teaching using a “show and tell” method and also the in-tray assessment a few day back. For the “show and tell”, I guess all of you’ll have done a straight forward “stand in front of audience” presentation before right? The “show and tell” is a TOTALLY different thing and I think without ample practice, it’ll be very hard to pull it off, which was what happened to me. I realize that is was actually not easy to engage an audience while trying to demonstrate something at the same time. I ended up staring and talking to the computer screen more than trying to speak to the audience. This is something which needed careful planning as well as a lot of team coordination and practice. If you ever have to do such a presentation, please do not belittle it! Do run through it a few times before the actual.
As for the in-tray assessment, it was my first ever experience and I did made an effort. Basically one has to think very quickly on the spot and I think this comes with experience and I would like to thank Ms Lim for giving me this chance to experience what this is like. =)
Well last but not least, I guess this is something that which I find is the most important thing I have learnt during this 1 semester. I think most of you’ll do notice Ms Lim’s extremely keen observation for details, which to me is rather scary. Just to share, during my in-tray assessment debrief, she mentioned that I was the one sitting in the middle of weixi and madhu. Does anyone see anything wrong with this? If not, do take note especially for guys! Since madhu was the only girl, as a gentleman I should have offered her the “centre stage”. Interviewers WILL notice and note this as a lack of people skills!! WOW! That really slapped me. All I can say is… Ms Lim, Thank you. Your attention to detail REALLY awakened me. I will bring that away with me when I step into the work force!
Oh one more thing, this module should be barred from year 4 final sem students doing their FYPs unless they have only 1 module to clear because the load is too much! (if you have 4 mods like me please stay clear!) And I would recommend anyone to be at most 2 sems away from graduating to take this module if not that person would just find this course a hassle and rather pointless as they would not be able to fully appreciate it =)
Just a personal thought.
Thank you for reading!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Oral presentation reflection
Well, I think our group’s presentation wasn’t so bad. However as compared to the other two teams that presented on the same day, all I can say is they did an excellent job!!
As a team, we discussed and rehearsed the presentation a day before and we did try to make our presentation short sweet. I am definitely sure that more work can be done to improve on. First of all I would think that our slides are still to wordy despite our attempts to shorten everything. I have forgot who the person was but someone once told me that if you can replace you words with pictures or figures, than DO IT! Studies have shown that meaningful picture and figure have a more lasting impression on audiences than words itself (with reference to presentation slide). With that said, to come up with a really powerful power point slide is really not that easy. Just to share a presentation experience that I have last year. It was an engineering module however the emphasis was on conceptualization, marketing and presentation. Our team of 8 did very well for the presentation eventually earning ourselves an A+ for the module. But what I want to emphasize is the amount of effort we put into the presentation. Our team took 1 month to prepare for it. Even though there were only 2 speakers (we felt the changing of speakers would disrupt the flow) all of us would sit down together to run over the slides and presentation again and again and again, constantly making changes to every sentence being said. We had a very clear goal – TO PRESENT AND SELL OUR IDEAS AS CLEARLY AS POSSIBLE. And I think this is what all presentation should be about.
Well having said that, i think with the amount of time we had and considering our group has 2 final year student I think our presentation was good enough as we did manage to present what we wanted our audience to know. =) Probably I should take this opportunity to thank Gerard for being such an understanding and wonderful team-mate. Without him I think our presentation would be disastrous as both Weixi and I have FYP CA4 presentation the following day. Phew!! Thank god it’s over!
On a personal level, I did felt nervous at the start and I attribute that to the lack of preparation. Lack of preparation can be devastating to a presentation as it will bring about nervousness and along with it will come a lack of confidence. My insurance agent once told me (haha yes I have insurance) “one can never be persuasive without confidence! To sell something you HAVE to believe in your product as well as yourself.” Personally I think that would be the best case scenario however, it is not all the time that you can be confident in your product as such; you have to portray that image and to do so… PRACTICE!
Well just to sum up, I think I think our team did a good job considering the time and workload! However,
1. More research can be done to “make” ourselves have more “faith” in our product.
2. Confidence is the key to being a persuasive speaker.
3. All there is to a good presentation is to be AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE with whatever means you can think of.
4. Lastly, if Steve Jobs and so many other fantastic presentation speakers out there say that practice is must, then all the more we, the less experienced, should do it.
Thank you for reading!
As a team, we discussed and rehearsed the presentation a day before and we did try to make our presentation short sweet. I am definitely sure that more work can be done to improve on. First of all I would think that our slides are still to wordy despite our attempts to shorten everything. I have forgot who the person was but someone once told me that if you can replace you words with pictures or figures, than DO IT! Studies have shown that meaningful picture and figure have a more lasting impression on audiences than words itself (with reference to presentation slide). With that said, to come up with a really powerful power point slide is really not that easy. Just to share a presentation experience that I have last year. It was an engineering module however the emphasis was on conceptualization, marketing and presentation. Our team of 8 did very well for the presentation eventually earning ourselves an A+ for the module. But what I want to emphasize is the amount of effort we put into the presentation. Our team took 1 month to prepare for it. Even though there were only 2 speakers (we felt the changing of speakers would disrupt the flow) all of us would sit down together to run over the slides and presentation again and again and again, constantly making changes to every sentence being said. We had a very clear goal – TO PRESENT AND SELL OUR IDEAS AS CLEARLY AS POSSIBLE. And I think this is what all presentation should be about.
Well having said that, i think with the amount of time we had and considering our group has 2 final year student I think our presentation was good enough as we did manage to present what we wanted our audience to know. =) Probably I should take this opportunity to thank Gerard for being such an understanding and wonderful team-mate. Without him I think our presentation would be disastrous as both Weixi and I have FYP CA4 presentation the following day. Phew!! Thank god it’s over!
On a personal level, I did felt nervous at the start and I attribute that to the lack of preparation. Lack of preparation can be devastating to a presentation as it will bring about nervousness and along with it will come a lack of confidence. My insurance agent once told me (haha yes I have insurance) “one can never be persuasive without confidence! To sell something you HAVE to believe in your product as well as yourself.” Personally I think that would be the best case scenario however, it is not all the time that you can be confident in your product as such; you have to portray that image and to do so… PRACTICE!
Well just to sum up, I think I think our team did a good job considering the time and workload! However,
1. More research can be done to “make” ourselves have more “faith” in our product.
2. Confidence is the key to being a persuasive speaker.
3. All there is to a good presentation is to be AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE with whatever means you can think of.
4. Lastly, if Steve Jobs and so many other fantastic presentation speakers out there say that practice is must, then all the more we, the less experienced, should do it.
Thank you for reading!
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