week 14, question 2

I can think of a situation where my fiancé and I were arguing about what we should do on the weekend. I wanted to go to the Giants game and she wanted to go to parents. Well after a long drawn out discussion we both decided and came to a consensus of going to her parent’s house but I get to watch the entire Giants game un-disturbed.

Obviously there are going to be situation where it always isn’t win-win. For instance, my sister can be such a pain that she will not budge on some things. So in most cases it winds up in a lose-lose or a win-lose situation. There is nothing more frustrating than someone who won’t compromise in a given situation. You can sit there for hours and not come to a consensus.

I think when you’re on the winning side of a competitive conflict then that would probably be the more satisfying win. But since you can’t always win the collaborative process will be a small victory for everyone.

Chapter 13, Question 3

I particularly took to the section on analogies. “The use of an analogy is a comparison between things that are similar in some respects but quite different in others, helps open our perceptions to other useful concepts.” (Pg 192)

I use analogies all the time when I am trying to describe something to someone. I use them a lot in arguments in order to solidify a meaning for someone who may not understand what point I’m trying to make.

For instance I might say something like, “Telling me no to argue is like telling a fish not to swim, it just isn’t going to happen.”

Although not the greatest analogy, it usually simplifies a statement I was trying t make that the receiver may not have fully understood. I find this an extremely useful tool to use in arguments. It changes the receiver’s state of mind In a way that they might now accept your point rather than trying to fight it.

Week 13, Question 1

Our book describes creativity as “the power to originate, to break away from the existing ways of looking at things…” (Sack, 1995, pp. 241-242). I feel I have had many chances in my lifetime to be creative as have many of us.

I can think of one time where we were doing a team meeting for Best Buy and it was boring just as it always was. ME and a few other were chosen to do a presentation of the new Geek Squad roll out best buy as doing in order to give our people some knowledge on where the company was going. So we got out materials and read through and decided it was way to boring to go through slides and just read off of them. So instead we put a skit together and dressed up like geeks and acted out the slides instead of just reading them. This was the first time one of our meetings was actually fun.

Week 13, Questions 2

There are a few cultural barriers to creativity according to Harris.

1) Requirement for conformity
2) Expectations of practicality and efficiency
3) Particular arenas for competition or cooperation
4) Expectations of politeness and following social order
5) A trust in the power of reason and logic

These could cause a couple problems for a group’s creativity. The requirement for conformity might squash the ideas that some members may have. They might feel pressured into thinking like the group rather than outside the box.

I myself have experienced some of these barriers. Particularly with the conformity issue. It happened in high school where conformity tends to be at its highest. I was within my group of friends and we were sitting around thinking of something to do. An idea was thrown out and I wanted to follow up to add onto the idea but refrained because it was out of the norm of the group.

Week 9, Chapter 7, Question 1

For me one of the hardest things to do is control my memory. More importantly my short term memory has been the problem. When engaged in a conversation I try and listen to the best of my ability but sometimes it can be hard to decide what is important to them and what is important to me. But when you are trying to repeat back what you heard in order to get it straight. But there are times when selective hearing also comes into play when you tend to hear that you want to hear in order to prove your point, I tend to do that a lot as well. I have to try and really retain what the person is saying in order to compose a good counter argument or response. But from time to time it is like I am just waiting to talk and I don’t really hear what the person is saying.

Week 9, Chapter 7, Question 2

There have been a few times where I have had selective attention. It happens more often than we want because a lot of times we are waiting to talk versus actually listening. It is actual work when trying to listen. Being in sales it is a huge deal to listen to specifics when trying to gather information about potential customers. But most often I feel that selective attention or selective hearing happens during arguments or debates. Most times people don’t actually listen to what is being said and are just trying to be right by any means possible. For instance, There was a time where me and my dad were getting into a pretty heated political debate. We tend to do this a lot and the ultimate goal is to prove to the other our point whether we are right or wrong. Now obviously in politics it is extremely if not impossible to be 100% right, but this doesn’t stop us from trying. Most of the time we are just spitting words out left and right and not truly listening to anything other than we want to hear. If we were to take a step back and truly listen we might see that we may being arguing the same point but in different perspectives.

Chapter 5, question 3

Nonverbal communication was an interesting part of Chapter 5. Seeing as how the majority of communication is nonverbal it is an intricate part on the group dynamic and normal everyday interactions. Just watching how someone’s face or body reacts to something you say can say way more than the words they spew out of their mouth. I cant tell you how much I value non-verbal communication Vs verbal in my job. As a salesman you are always gauging where the customer is at in the conversation and you can tell more how they are reacting to your words but what the do rather than what they say. If they are swaying while they say “ok” the conversation probably isn’t going the way you hoped it would even though they said “ok”. By watching these queues we can interact with our group members in whole other manner which gives us another look into our group dynamic.