Colaborative Conflict in groups

I find that I've been in collaborative conflict when I've worked with groups in school. I think that most people have found themselves in similar scenarios, where relying on others and recognizing the benefit of working together towards a solution is beneficial to all. This happens in school groups most often. I find that im typically in groups that all want the same outcome, to pass the assignment and solve the problem at the benefit of everyone in the group. On a more recent assignment where i had to work with a group, we used the collaboration style to break up the problem into smaller parts to solve it. We organized ourselves in a way that maximized the efficiency of the group, by having people attack parts of the problem that they felt the most familiar with. I think that this 'divide and conquer' technique demonstrated the worth of working collaboratively in a conflicted situation.

I find that I am much more likely to be in a competitive conflict when faced with conflicts at work. This could be because of the importance most place on individually winning in the workplace, instead of working collaboratively for the best of everyone working. This can happen, and has happened to me, when a coworker feels that moving forward, or gaining points with management as an individual is more important than working together with others to impress management.

Types of public speaking

A forum seems to be the type of presentation that compliments community and small political discussions. A forum is a audience participatory meeting that gives individuals an opportunity to speak on an issue in front of the rest of the audience. It is structured and guided by a moderator that allows for all views/opinions to be expressed. This form of presentation seems like something that allows for the most amount of input, but least amount of depth or background from the speakers. It seems like the usual type of presentation found at a community or PTA type meeting.

A panel is when four to eight experts on an issue discuss problem solving of the issue in front of an audience. This format is guided by a moderator, who keeps time and summarizes the positions and aspects of the speakers to the audience. This seems like something similar to a talk show, and can provide some in-depth, well thought out discussion and problem solving. But could lack creativity, diversity or audience participation.

A colloquium is when three to six experts from diverse/divergent views on an issue, discuss the issue in front of an audience. This type of presentation is different in that the purpose is to identify and work through possible solutions with collaboration of the audience and experts. The moderator purposely encourages audience participation and questions, while keeping the discussion on track and moving along. I think this would be an interesting presentation, bring the mixture of deep knowledge and experience from the experts and the creativity and passion form the audience into the problem solving mixture. Although the inclusion of a type of 'open forum' could possible lead to disruption and getting of track.

A symposium is a series of speeches by experts on different areas of a complex problem. The purpose is to present technical information and complicated aspects of the problem. The speeches and speakers are well polished and experienced. There is no audience participation during speeches, but there may be a separate forum for questions after the speeches. This is the type of presentation style for very advanced, scientific, and technical issues. These can be tedious but very indepth.

If I were to use on of these presentation formats I would prefer to view and engage in a panel. I think this would offer the most exciting discussion on an issue, because it uses a focused group of experts, with good background knowledge on the issues.

Cultural Barriers to Communication

Some cultural barriers to creativity include conforming to group norms, expecting practicality, expectations of politeness or social order, depending upon generalizations and stereotypes to much, and trusting logic and reason to much. These cultural barriers could easily keep a group from being creative in a lot of ways. If a group is to focused on everyone conforming, or expecting everyone to agree with the majorities solution, it could severely dampen an individual’s voice and ability to introduce new or different solutions. A barrier that I find particularly annoying is when a group relies to much on the reason or logic behind a previous solution. This can become an issue when trying to get a group to brainstorm for new and interesting ideas. If the group members think that their solutions are to outlandish or illogical, they are less likely to move forward towards new and useful solution. I’ve found that brainstorming, even crazy or illogical things, can really benefit a group, because it brings up new ways of approaching or seeing a problem. And when other group members see or hear an idea, even an outlandish one, it may spawn a similar but more reasonable solution, thereby building a structure that can create a new idea. I feel as though, like most other people, I encounter these barriers on creativity pretty often. But I’ve realized that a lot of these barriers are around for a reason, and understanding those reasons can be really helpful when wanting to move around them, or see the problem form a perspective other than the “way its always been”.

Finding creative solutions

Creativity can mean a multitude of different things. This diversity of what it means to be creative help a lot when trying to think of an example of creativity, outside of working in some artistic way. During my jobs I find that there are constant opportunities to find a creative solution to a problem. This occurs most often during my job at the coffee shop. One thing I’ve found out about working in food service and coffee for a while is that there is always a problem that needs to be fixed, or something is always broken. I’ve also found out that it’s in these chaotic that my strengths in creativity come to surface. I’m constantly collaborating with other managers to figure out a better way to make drinks, improve our speed, or fix a broken machine. More recently we had an issue with our menu, and couldn’t figure out how to fit in all the prices, and who was going to hand write the prices to match the pre-existing font. I suggested that we should try and match the font on a computer, print out some samples, and use the one that matches best. Using printed out prices turned out to be the quickest, most efficient solution to the problem. Looking back, I think this fits in perfectly with how the book describes creativity. The other manager was stuck on the problem by only looking at it form a certain perspective, thinking that the prices had to be handwritten and match the old font exactly. I was able to bring a new perspective, and knowing that a multitude of font are available because of graphic design experience, was able to help find a solution. I’ve found out through working in a lot of groups and teams that I really enjoy collaborating and taking a fresh perspective on old problems. I was glad to read in the book that sometimes you have to throw out old notions to find a new solution, something I always try to do.