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Proposal: Improving Group Communication Submitted by Daniel Cox Salt Lake Community College Communication 1010-029 October 15, 2013

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Contents

Table of Contents
OVERVIEW

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

PROJECT DESCRIPTION GROUP ASSETS

PROJECT LIMITATIONS

RECOMMENDATION CONCLUSION WORKS CITED

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Overview
As a group we broke down a social norm that becomes stagnant to many individuals here at Salt Lake Community College. After students at the college finish their second year, the question of whether or not to pursue higher education is applicable to them. Together we surveyed one another asking similar questions regarding a higher education and received a wide variety of answers from a number of people from within the school. On my behalf, the group instigated a very critical matter for many students that wish to continue. We initiated in a few methods to understand what were some primary aspects involving the decision making process. There were a few limitations that slowed the overall process throughout the group meetings. At the beginning of the assigned project, a few members went missing after the third meeting. This became a struggle because all of our assignments and write-ups were with them, which made us have to start over on a few observations.

An interesting aspect that our group came up with was to also view the other end of the spectrum, which was analyzing observations from students who werent going to end up pursuing higher education. This gave us an overall picture to the entire context in mind. With this information, we could then paint our general standard deviated statistics in our mind. This area of study enhanced our verbal communication more than our nonverbal in most matters.

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Project Description
Our group chose to instigate the issue of choosing a college after you complete your second year of classes at SLCC. If students with continue with higher education, then the problematic question arises, Which college should I transfer to after I complete my degree at SLCC? During this project, we discovered that stepby-step learning was not applicable to our case study, as we needed more of a general idea of the concept that thousands of students run into.

After various meetings, our group was tending to lean more towards openended thinking and questions that were then answered in a first persons perspective. This lead to interesting information that was then brought up in a manner that we could all relate to as students. Once the Intel was incurred, we wrote down the criterion that was needed to be met. Along the outline were unambiguous assessments that would be castoff to appraise potential solutions.

We then began brainstorming possible criterion that became applicable for students here at SLCC to abide by. This was achieved by using reflective thinking sequences in a rhetorical manner.

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Group Assets
As our group became more initiated with this project, we developed a strong sense of assets that are crucial to teamwork. From our text there were two identified elements of effective communication: majority vote and cohesiveness. The first element as described is the concept of a majority vote. This applied for the preponderance of work that was done simply because we were answering one anothers open-ended questions in a manner to scale simply by using quantative figures. The more the votes, the more it would apply to individuals within the community college. For a paradigm of this method being used, according to Gary Larsons depictive exemplification of this method it states as told, Okay, Williams, well just vote. How many here sat the heart has four chambers? (256) As more was voted upon, we were given a scaled depiction of the qualifications that students here at SLCC seem to value more than others and apply it to the decision making process for our end result. The larger asset that our group encountered was cohesiveness. At the beginning of our group project we encountered a series of setbacks as a few members had dropped out, this set us back a few steps in regards to the completion of our write-ups. We used this unfortunate circumstance to strengthen our bond with one another, as we had to communicate more effectively and complete the work upon scheduled dates. Workers who belong to cohesive groups are likely to have higher rates of job satisfaction and lower rates of tension, absenteeism, and turnover. (263)

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Group Limitations
The group by which we were all assigned with had a few drawbacks that may have lacked in a series of aspects by which drew out to a lower score on our final product. The two limitations included parliamentary procedure and the nominal group technique. On the behalf of the first segment which entitles itself to parliamentary procedure, this was noticeable in a vast sequence of incidents. When paired up in a group meeting, there were questions that arose that had no prerogative to anything that partook any relevance to the issue at stake. By enhancing more guidelines of how these meetings were going to be contended would have given us more of a concrete structural learning manner which would have been easily stratified to expedite a lot of time that had been wasted. When haste may obscure critical thinking. Because it slows down the pace of discussions, parliamentary procedure can help groups deliberate before making decisions. (286) The second segment that created disadvantages for our team included a nominal group technique. Under this process of learning, ideas from every single member are taken into an equal account in order to factor least importance to most under the regards to students here at SLCC. Since this area of a problematic solution applies to higher education seekers, the limitations only set us back by not taking everyones stance on a simple subject of matter that can be concluded by majority vote. Some instances included personal favorites in terms of choice upon whereabouts and what colleges personally they would have rather seen on the list.

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The methods name comes from the fact that, for much of this process, the participants are a group in name only, since they are working independently. (287)

Recommendations
This project has been an eye opener to how certain methods can be reached to improve overall communication within smaller groups. There were certain aspects that we as a group had lacked upon; although there were evident strategies can preeminently alleviate the discrepancy between the group and conceptual setbacks. With this type of project there needs to be assigned tasks that everyone within the group should abide by. If principally this project were to be assigned again to us, the two cardinal rules that should be set right away are a parliamentary procedure and a series of nominal group techniques. Parliamentary procedure would have given us more structure in our learning and pass upon any unregarded information that is not crucial to our learning curve. With more structure set, there are time frames that come along with it. Now on the behalf of the group, parliamentary procedure can also deteriorate personal participation and not give us a systematized representation of the concept at stake. With a nominal group technique, this could defer any overpowering norms that would be made within a group to abide by personal agendas. Our cohesiveness among the five who stayed for the project actually made for a very powerful group. Nominal group technique would have given members the chance to discuss the ideas and help everyone within better understand their personal stances. The

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members would then rank a listing from least to most important within the conceptual representation of a student here at SLCC to interpret a sense of attachment for the rest of the students to whom these areas of knowledge apply to in regards to higher education.

Conclusion
Throughout this project I have been taught a vast variety of learning techniques that can be applied to the real world and within certain group activities. Upon this learning, I have now analyzed the different methods that are reached upon by group oriented tasking which include cohesiveness, parliamentary procedure and a nominal group technique that involves the entire entitys choice.

Our group was to choose a school that would best fit the criterion regarding SLCC student who wish to seek higher education. During the time of events there were limitations that were drawn upon our learning that set us back by a few paces. In order to overcome this, more tasks were being handed out amongst individuals who were trustworthy with their work. As a group we oriented towards a majority vote in regards to the ranking by which aspects fit best for students who wish to obtain a bachelors. Some assessments included tuition, retention rate, and campus lifestyle. When the majority of our group would decide on certain assessments, we ranked a series of schools within Utah that would best fit a student serving at Salt Lake Community College. Our structured endorsement for the solution we chose was the University of Utah. The school upon choice fit areas such as distance (travel), tuition, and graduation rates as well as the campus life. Students here at

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SLCC most likely will move onto school within the valley any way. My recommendation for this project would most likely involve a most structured way of how groups are supposed to work, mainly in regards to a parliamentary procedure. If the members speak directly to each other, the discussion will more easily degenerate into personalities.(Bentham) The importance that was established during this learning process can be taken into account anywhere you go. This includes the medical field, business, anthropology etc. With knowledge of how to work within a group and being a leader, this sparks interest for many employers, as this area of strength is hard to come by.

Works Cited

Adler, R, Jeanne Marquardt, and Kristen Lucas. Communicating at Work. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2013. "Parliamentary Quotations." Parliamentary Procedure Quotations. N.p., n.d. Tues. 15 Oct. 2013.