Critical Reflection

When I was serving my bond with a contractor company, I had to present the casting sequence for a transfer slab mass pour to my entire team. From the project director down to the people who were doing the casting. My anxiety was so bad during the presentation, that I felt like I hadn’t covered the whole content despite hours of preparation. This encounter stuck with me and it was the reason why, when we were given the task of writing an introduction letter to our classmates at the start of this module, I mentioned that I wanted to develop my speech delivery.

During this module, I had several opportunities to assess my strengths and weaknesses in public speaking as we had to do a pitch, mock presentation, and final presentation. During the pitch, I received feedback from both my peers and Professor Blackstone that I was fidgeting and subconsciously gazing at a blank space when talking. I knew which areas I needed to work on for the following mock presentation thanks to their helpful feedback. Despite my progress in these areas, I became nervous while giving the mock presentation. As I spoke, I could hear my voice trembling and cracking. The fear of forgetting my content or doing something inappropriate in front of the audience seemed to be the root of my anxiety. To better prepare for the final presentation, I memorised my script and became better aware of my posture, eye contact, and use of hand gestures. I practiced and received input from both my teammates and other classmates on how to improve.

 Although I still have areas to work on from my final presentation, I believe that I had come a long way since the pitch and I’m grateful for the opportunity to receive constructive feedback from different people through this module. This whole experience made me more self-aware and better prepared for a professional workplace presentation.

 As someone who prefers working alone, when in a team, I would often be highly critical of other people's work and I would always try to do my teammates jobs because I fear that they wouldn't be up to par. This personality trait of mine led me to miss deadlines and overlook other responsibilities. When we were split into groups to work on a research project, I decided to mute this personality trait. I noticed that I became more receptive to learning from others, and that I learned more than I might have if I had chosen to work alone. 

The team leader, Syakirah, was laser-focused on the deadlines. She gave concise directions and clearly outlined the end goal for which we were to strive. When we needed to conduct primary research via an interview, I was motivated by Jeremy's bravery in writing an email to a representative of NTU without hesitation. His courageous effort managed to secure us an interview, which made us learn many things about kinetic tiles that we couldn’t have found on Google. Throughout the interview, Jeremy remained courteous and made sure that we asked correct questions. Isqandar’s meticulousness was extremely beneficial to the content of our technical report and presentation slides. He double-checked our content for completeness and pointed out places where we could progress by including more concrete facts. 

Through this project experience, I understood the 7Cs of effective communication better by observing how they were used by my teammates, and for me, this was the most impactful lesson of this module. I feel better equipped with the communication skills to be able to relay instructions clearly in any team I'm assigned to when I return to work.