17th April 2010, Saturday
The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy – Florence Shin
While it may be too late to reflect on an event dated 3 months earlier, still I believe it is academic competence and integrity to contribute what I am deemed to produce and share the skills and life-long lessons acquired among my dearest comrades and friends.
Wednesday the 14th of April was the last RE 3-group meeting we had before the ORA. When we were asked about the design of an A1 poster which we were told to materialize perhaps 1-2 weeks ago, I was frantic. All we had then were several sketches and rough designs of the poster which I had my group to brainstorm throughout the week.
Not that I hadn’t told them to make a draft on Microsoft or whatever. I did schedule them to send me several soft copies of their drafts to me. But I know that this was all due to my poor management at that point of time. I don’t remember now but then may be a period of datelines for perhaps a couple of projects and as such I was unable to take in the workflow, especially in RE. As such I must have forgotten some of the stuff that was due to emerge in the following meeting and I know it is my responsibility for the group’s inability to surface a contribution that time. We sat in silence.
However, it is not to be forgotten that the group did take immediate action when we were asked for the posters. Aiya I apologize to critics but no one can ever appreciate the angular turn of the group’s direction in realizing the goals that were needed to accomplish within 3 days. From scratch and several pieces of scrawled paper we had produced the A1 printed poster, and yet another informational cum advertisement poster which on my part I believe it was a phenomenal work carried out by the members of the group. While there were those that believed we were wasting our time and should have been focusing on this A1 poster, I had to negotiate and motivate my members in building this informational cum advertisement poster and I know it is hope that got us that far, and I really valued the sacrifices my group member, my peers and friends, had made in realizing the results. Instead I think that we had successfully made some significant contribution to the bigger group on the ORA fest.
Since Yue Heng had included all the administrative details and procedures that had occurred on ORA, I would not like to duplicate information, as such please refer to his entry regarding the details.
Ok let’s get in straight on the learning part here. On my part, there’s much more room in being a leader or manager for this project. I personally do enjoy this RE experience so far and it does mean so much to me I can sacrifice plenty of time that is reserved for other commitments such as CCA ad school etc. But not to be mistaken that I do know they are very important to me as well, I have my own reasons. I do look up to this specific RE for many reasons, maybe because I had invited members to this group from scratch, maybe because I know and like working with all the peers in this group, because perhaps I got an RE teacher I thought was professional and kind as I knew his from last year and saw how he mentored his groups, maybe I believed, and hope, to get a really high grade for this particular, last RE project in RI. I bet my bottom dollar on this group, and with a tint of ownership that’s why I’m very in it I do hope everyone feels it this way.
Yet as a project manager and a group leader, I think I have to consider my role in playing a part in this group. According to the Complete Idiot’s guide (which I feel I’m going to do a review on), there are three roles of a project manager. Firstly, there is the interpersonal role where one has to deal effectively with people from various professional backgrounds, create team unity, focus and motivate members to achieve milestones on the way to achieving the project goal and listen carefully to other’s opinions when making decisions. For the informational role, one has to keep people on tract by arranging meetings, creating work schedules and providing feedback regarding results, quality and project deliverables. Lastly is the decisional role where one has to make decisions without alienating the people who would be affected by his choices.
As such, I believe that for the group to be prosperous and the project to be a successful one, I should consider my role as a leader prior to ORA and how I should change according to the situation of my group. It is not just a matter of leadership but also discipline to lead the members of the group, as you can see from above that a project manager should arrange meetings, create schedules etc. As a reflection on the ORA tumbling block, I really should have some disciplined when it’s coming to be a member of this project because someone needs to delegate workloads and resources among the members to secure the results. From here I realize that actually being a leader is not enough for my group mates, but it is undeniable that leadership and management of the project go hand-in-hand.
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