Our First Presentation

Hello! My name is Valery, I was the group leader for group three, and I'd like to write about some of the experiences we shared as a group.

To start, we were a little confused when our professor explained how the presentations had to be done. Questions arose immediately, but luckily we have wonderful class leaders who answer our doubts and ask the questions that we, the rest of the students, are too shy to ask. Once the groups were formed and I had sent a Whatsapp link to those who corresponded to group three, we decided on how to distribute the information.

It wasn't a very easy task because some students, myself included, had still not purchased/rented the textbook. Fortunately, Nicole, one of our group members, had the book and came up with the idea of writing down all the words and having each member claim four that they liked. Everyone was on board with the idea, so we proceeded. It was difficult to reach all the members to choose their words, as some had other classes or work, but after a week, everyone had chosen their words and were ready to start working on them. It came in handy that we were the last group to present.

A quick parenthesis: I'd like to thank group one and group two for their amazing work on their presentations! They set up the example of how the presentations should be: organized, visually appealing, and engaging. I took inspiration from their work and used them as a kind of template to design my part of the presentation.

Back to the blog. After about a week of working on each slide (and some last-minute tweaks and changes), came our time to present. It was the first time I had ever done an online presentation before and, I must say, I stumble less when talking in person rather than in front of a camera and microphone. Maybe it's a personal thing, but I find it easier to stand in front of a classroom that has seen me multiple times (even with a mask on) and give out a killer presentation than to sit in front of my computer in front of a class that has only ever seen my name on their screen. However, I do understand why most people prefer to do their presentations online. For some, it takes away the anxiety of having all eyes on them, and also the anxiety of freezing and forgetting your next lines. So, when my part came, I tried my best not to stumble on my words and give out the best presentation that I could. My teammates did the same, and I couldn't be more grateful to them because of it.

We presented on group leadership. This includes the types of leaders, the importance of their roles in a group setting, the types of problems that teams deal with, the idea process, the group dynamic, etc. My words were Shared Leadership Functions, Roles, and Task Leadership Roles. The first one, Task Leadership Functions, explains the importance of the actions that group members must take to keep harmony in their group. These actions are what we call roles. Roles are communication behaviors that fulfill a specific need at a particular point in time, For example, if you are assigned a group of three, one person may research, the other one may create the PowerPoint, and the last one may make the report. Each person is assigned a role, and if a person chooses to neglect their role, it can create stress and tension within the group and ruin the outcome of the project. The distribution of roles is the key aspect for the success of a group.

We have multiple types of roles, however, I was only assigned to talk about Task Maintenance Roles. These include the giver, the seeker, and the analyzer. The giver has to be the most well-informed person in the group, and they must provide the group with relevant discussion topics based on the research that they made. The seeker is the one looking for everyone's opinions on what they think about their topic and how it might affect other people. The analyzer is the one that has to reason with all the information being given by both the seeker and the giver. They have to see if what they're saying makes sense, and have to look for hidden statements in their research; obscure implications that the others might not realize from the get-go. Each member must stick to their role to guarantee their success.

To make a short conclusion of my part of the presentation: it is fundamental that a group properly distributes and respects their given roles. These are there to ensure the overall success of the group, and they're there to make sure that the group members don't stress out or take in more workload than they can handle. Each person should be active and involved in their roles and try to not deviate from their given work unless another member is struggling.

Overall, our group did a magnificent job at fulfilling their roles and creating their part of the project. It was hard at the beginning to get people to be a little more interactive and responsive, however, once the date of our presentation drew closer, each person succeeded with finishing their work and giving out a killer presentation. I say that, for a group that was presenting on leadership roles, we took the words we chose to heart and stood by them to the end. Other than the date of the presentation and some some lack of responsiveness, there wasn't much stress that came from working as a group and respecting our given roles. Each person put in their best effort and respected the fact this was a group project with individual grades, and I believe that says a lot about the people working in group three. Essentially, working in group three was a pleasant experience. Everyone was super friendly, cooperative, and a hard worker. I look forward to the rest of the projects and presentation that remain this semester!