Colleen's Part Two Group Interaction Peer Response

Group Interaction has clearly been an empowering experience for all of us who have gone through New Century College. After reading the responses to my classmates' first part of the exercise, I realize I did not taken into consideration some of the most valuable aspects of group interaction. A couple of people, in particular Matt and Million mentioned the importance of grasping conflict resolution in order to function successfully. I like how they both pointed out the benefits of conflict within a group because it gives an avenue for open communication. Both Matt and Million made excellent points that conflict within a group is usually inevitable but should not be viewed as a bad thing, rather as an opportunity for growth. Personally, I have noticed that many of my group experiences witnessed some form of conflict, yet those conflicts ended up leading to improved communication and new, innovative solutions that lead the group to the right direction.

Another enlightening response was Chris' reference to a text that has transformed her thinking about group interaction. I liked how she mentioned the different lenses of different people as it brings up an important point that group interaction requires people to place themselves into another's position. I think that when a group learns to empathize with another, they are able to connect as one. It can be extremely challenging to incorporate the thoughts and opinions of different people into one collaborative assignment, yet when people are patient and open-minded some of the best ideas emerge. It is important to hear out every idea every person has and to approach topics using different lenses. Thinking outside the box and looking at a subject through someone else's eyes can present some many successful possibilities.

Finally, a common theme I saw throughout the many people's responses was the importance of time management. Staying on task can be a major challenge for groups as it is easy to distract one another with social discussions. Yet, when groups are able to properly utilize the time they have through time management techniques a lot can be accomplished. Many people discussed the need to delegate tasks, establish orderly meetings and make sure everything is planned out from beginning to end. All of these suggestions are excellent, and I will definitely utilize them in my future group interactions.

As I have learned from the exercise, group interaction has many different elements and stirs up a variety of responses. Every one of us as seen the good and the bad of group projects, and have grown from those exeriences. It is interesting to see commonalities in the responses as many stress the need for open communication, collaboration, time management, conflict resolution, and more. I feel this exercise gave me some interesting ideas to think about when I approach group interactions in the future.