Fall

2019

Pearl Diving Assignment IV

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
JOSE MOSQUERA ABELLAS
Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424.
Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman
FOURTH PEARL DIVING ASSIGNMENT

Introduction:
This essay will be divided into three different sections. In the first section I will
analyze a quote that we discussed in class. In the second section I will tell 2 concepts I
learnt from the readings so far, and explain how I am applying them in my daily life.
Last section consists of a review of the in-class debate activity about the Big Dig
engineering project that took place in Boston for about 16 years.

Quote:
The quote I selected is attributed to Ambrose Bierce : “Speak when you are
angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret”.
I selected this quote because it combines some of the concepts of
communication that we have studied so far. Importance of emotion when we give
speeches (pathos), emotions running strong, high stakes…
When you are angry, sometimes you say thing that you really didn’t want to say
due to the high emotion that you are feeling. You just say what comes straight out of
you heart as a result of your angry feeling. You don’t take time to think what you are
saying, to see whether that is the best way to communicate your message to achieve
your goal. You don’t take care of the form of the message, you just want to say the first
thing that comes to your mind without caring about anything else.
If you speak when you are angry you will get your message to the other person
but probably in a hurtful way, which will not be forget. This also relates with Dr. Maya
Angelou quote: “ I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
The learning we obtain form this quote that we can apply to our role as a project
manager/leader of a team is that we should always be aware of our feelings at the
moment we deliver a message to our team. If we are having a bad day or we are angry
for some reason we will probably deliver out message in bad way, a really emotional
way but in this case for the bad instead of for the good. The best thing to do in this
situation is to take a step back and calm down, and take sufficient time to figure out
who to deliver your message in a proper way.
For example, if your team performed a task without following the indications
given, you shouldn’t get angry and start shouting to them for doing that. Instead you
should step back, analyze the situation, look for the causes of that behavior and then
speak with them explaining why things shouldn’t be done that way and why they should
follow your indications to achieve the best result possible.
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Concepts from readings:

One concept I learnt from the reading is “groupthinking”. This concept is
explained in chapter 27 of A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. It basically is a
psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups, when in order to avoid conflict
between members, some people don’t really say what they think, or agree with the rest
of the group because they feel pressure. When a group suffers this phenomenon is not
getting any benefit, actually it is bad for the group overall performance.
I have to admit that sometimes I was in a position in which I didn’t really
express my opinion about a group decision that I really didn’t support in order to avoid
conflict. I just kept going with whatever the group decided even though I disagreed with
that decision. When I read about this concept, I started to be more aware of the benefit I
could cause to the group if I really stated my opinion when I disagree with something.
Since I learnt this concept I no longer agree with the group as a result of
pressure, but instead I state out my point of view. In my opinion “groupthink” is a really
common problem in group projects, and that causes the result of the project not to be the
best as possible in many cases.
Another concept I learnt from the readings is the phone etiquette. This concept is
explained in the book Networking for College Students and Graduates. It is not a
concept in the strict meaning of the word but more like a technique. I learnt the
importance of how I behave when speaking on the phone, when to return calls, how to
leave messages, how to introduce myself etc.
For example, one thing that was really unknown for me is that the other person
can actually know whether you are smiling or not when talking on the phone. According
to the text: “Smile when you are talking. The other person can’t see you, but he or she
can tell in your voice whether or not you are smiling.”
I also learnt that phone calls should be returned within forty-eight hours, to let
the other person know that you are aware of the call, and that you are working on the
issue. If that person took the time to make a phone call to you, you should have the
same consideration to return the phone call as soon as possible.
I’m applying this concept in my day to day life by simply returning every phone
call I receive. What I used to do was sending a text message to the person who called
instead of returning the call, I guess I find it easier and less time consuming to send a
text message instead of giving a phone call.
.
FOURTH PEARL DIVING ASSIGNMENT

In-class debate activity:

My team topic in this activity was the pro side of the Big Dig project. We had to
come up with arguments to defend our position and convince the judges why it was
more beneficial than damaging for the city of Boston.
My ‘official’ role was being the videographer of the debate, but I also worked as
a researcher for my team to help them find good arguments to support our point of view
of the topic. Actually everyone in the group helped the researchers at first because there
were so many thing to look for and very little time. I was not the team leader so I will
now develop my plan to lead my team to the victory:
The first thing I would do as a leader is to make sure everybody has its role in
the team so we can be as efficient as possible. Once roles are assigned, I will act as a
link between different parts of the team, checking everyone is doing their best and
giving their best to the other members of the team, making sure communication
between members occurs. It is known by everyone that a team is as strong as its weakest
link, so by reinforcing the links between members of the team I am improving overall
performance.
A second role I will assume as a leader is to help team members who need it. For
instance, in the beginning of the activity researchers had a big workload so I will help
them take care of that. That is one of the differences between a leader (takes part in the
work and helps those members of the team that really need help) and a boss (just
assigns tasks and expects them to be done perfectly without having any involvement in
what is being done).
Finally I will help the presenter/s prepare their speech in order to obtain the best
result as possible, and make sure that they have their arguments clear, and that they are
ready to answer difficult questions about them. I will also act as the ‘Con’ team and try
to counter attack their arguments so they know what they are going to face in the real
debate activity.

Conclusion:
I think that this essay will be really useful in the future to take a look at it and
remember some of the things I have learnt so far in this course. Time will go by and I
will forget some of the things learnt for sure, but having the most important written
down in an essay will help me to refresh my memory in the future.
The part of the in-class debate activity helped me to think which steps I will take
to ensure a proper team performance in the future, in case I’m a leader of some kind of
team.
I also found the quote analysis really interesting. It was difficult for me to decide
which quote had more meaning but I think I finally made a good choice, and I can also
relate to that quote in my personal life.
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Works cited:

O’Hair, Dan, and Hannah Rubenstein and Rob Stewart. A Pocket Guide to Public
Speaking. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019. Print.

Faulkner, Michael, and Andrea Nierenberg. Networking for College Students and
Graduates. Pearson Learning Solutions, 2017. Print.