Ending the Semester with ES2007S

Presentations. The one word that never failed to strike anxiety, fear and stress in me for as long as I can remember. Being a quiet and introverted person, speaking to few people, especially strangers and new people, was stressful enough at times, let alone presenting to an audience, with so many pairs of eyes staring intently at you, scrutinising your every move.

This was before I entered NUS. Since then, I attempted being more initiative in speaking to other people and that has made me more outgoing in informal settings. But when it comes to formal presentations, the word "sian", which means "oh, not again" in Singlish, never fails to pop up in my head and the whole cycle of fear and anxiety repeats itself. However, things were to change for the better after taking the module ES2007S Professional Communication, and I am glad to say my fear of presentation and speaking in front of an audience had diminished. 

Prior to taking this module, presentations were akin to an impending doom to me, as I always thought that I sounded and looked out of place in front of an audience and was always afraid I cannot be heard. I avoided speaking up and presenting as far as possible, whether in class or during workshops, something which I kind of regret now as looking back to my past, I had had several good opportunities to speak, yet I chose to give them a miss.  Also, presentations to me were simply information sessions where you just had to say what you prepared loud and clear, and voila! Your job is done. But ES2007S has changed my whole perception of a presentation. I realised that there is so much more to it than delivering information. It is really a lot about effective communication, from the non-verbals to engaging your audience and talking to them. In fact, presentations are modified forms of conversations, just that your audience size is now bigger.

Contrary to my previous self, I am now less afraid of presentations and even anticipate more opportunities to present, even though I may be uncertain of how I would do. It is almost like I had been injected with an extra boost of confidence and daringness to try out different styles of presenting, and not worry too much about how I will fare, since after all university is the best time to try new things, make mistakes and learn from them before we enter the real world out there. Just keep calm and give it a go.

I had a total of 4 presentations this semester, and I am happy to say that I have improved from the first presentation I did for an engineering module (which I felt was really bad) to the last presentation for the ES2007S proposal project. Overtime, as I learnt more about communication and presentation skills, I became more confident with each presentation I did, and felt more comfortable and aware whenever I presented. I could still remember what happened during my last presentation for the semester, which was for my ES2007S proposal group's oral presentation. Before it was my turn, I kept telling myself “Take charge. I want to tell the audience what I have prepared.” and kept chanting this “mantra” to myself until it was my turn to present. And it turned out to be rather effective in calming me down and making myself more focused on the task at hand. It was one of the rare times when I felt more awake during a presentation and was actually aware of what I was saying to the audience. I also realized that this was probably because I did not rely heavily on my script and had just enough practice to familiarise myself with the points to cover, hence the words came out naturally just like how I would normally speak to someone.  

Apart from the valuable practical and technical knowledge I have picked up from ES2007S, the people who went through this journey with me also made it more memorable. I got to meet many wonderful people, each with their own unique personalities and strengths which I could learn from. I am also really grateful to be taught by Dr Radhika, a very approachable and knowledgeable professor whose lessons were easy to understand. I have indeed learnt a lot from her. 

I remember on the first day of school this semester, one of my engineering professors told the class “Environmental engineers (in fact I think this applies to every profession) must be good story tellers, if not you can’t convince people of your design or justify it well.” (Something along these lines) Thinking back, I am really glad I chose to take ES2007S. Knowing the quiet and introverted person I am, I knew that I needed this course and that it will help me step out of my comfort zone and overcome my fear of presentations and public speaking. Indeed, after 12 weeks into it, I am heartened to say that I am now more confident than before and my expectations of the module had materialised. I believe that all the skills and tips I picked up here will definitely come in useful in the future, especially when I start work, since in the working world out there, being able to speak well is a valuable and highly sought after skill. The 12 weeks of hard work had indeed been worth it. Congratulations to all my course mates who made it through!

Just a little quote to end of my final blog post for this module:

      “The only person you should try to be better than...

                                      ...is the person you were yesterday.”

Here wishing everyone all the best in their future endeavours and in everything you do! :D

Group Proposal Project - A Reflection

This semester has been one of the busiest times of my life, with 7 different group projects and reports to work on, some even occurring concurrently. Although there were times when I was really pushed to my limits since I had other work and commitments to juggle too, through these projects and interactions with different groups of people, each with their own unique dynamics and way of doing things, I have indeed gained countless valuable lessons and learnt a lot from the people whom I worked with. The skills I have learnt from ES2007S, particularly, also came in handy as I worked on these projects. In this blog post, I shall focus on the things I learnt from my group proposal project, in which I had the honour of working with two very driven and hardworking people, Prab and Yeap Jun.

During the first meeting when I first met them, I felt confident that the project will go on well. From the way we discussed and narrowed down the topics to work on, I noticed that my teammates were very decisive and initiative, and that motivated me even further throughout the duration of the project to give my best and contribute in whichever way I could, as I know in the back of my mind that we are all in this together and all of us are doing our best.

Among the many things I learnt from them were initiative, drive and speed. Throughout the project, no matter how busy they were, they always manged to work on parts of the proposal and finish their work fast. This made me reflect on my own time management and work speed, since I often prefer to have more time to produce work that is to my satisfaction and well-thought through. Also, I am very particular about details and tend to require time to “feel” and gauge the overall quality of my work, especially when it comes to writing. Hence, in short, I can be rather perfectionist at times. As a result, my rate of work during this proposal project (and in fact for other projects too) was rather slow and I often felt bad for delaying our group, yet I still want to do my best which means more time is needed. However, I am truly grateful for my teammates as they were really understanding and patient with me, and did not rush me to complete my work, which made me more confident of the work I produced. But, I will still work on improving my work speed as I am fully aware that speed is an important quality in the working world.

Decisiveness was another quality I picked up from my teammates. During online meetings while working on our written proposal, I was amazed at how swift they were when they communicated among themselves to confirm certain things with each other during our group chats. We also managed to more or less settle on our topic by the first meeting and thereafter began researching on it. That has really saved a lot of time for us, which is precious considering our heavy workloads. Also, as I mentioned in my first blog post, I once had a group project in which my group and I found it really difficult to settle on a topic, which wasted quite a bit of time, time that could have been put to better use to improve our proposal for instance.

Earlier in September this year, I attended a camp organised by NUS which taught students the 7 habits of highly effective people, based on a book written by late author and educator, Steven Covey. Working on this group project enabled me to personally experience one of the 7 habits, which is to "Seek first to understand, then be understood". This is because whenever any of us needed more time to complete our assigned portion of the proposal due to other pressing assignments, we will inform each other to see if we could postpone our set deadline or meeting. I really like this aspect of our teamwork, in which we were frank with and sought to understand each other.

Lastly, as someone who truly appreciates reassurances and reaffirmation of my work, I am really thankful for my group members’ constant encouragement and reassurances during the project. I felt that these really kept the group going and made communication within our group easier and more open. I recall in Dr Radhika’s slides about interpersonal communication, giving praise where it is due is one of the important essentials for successful group work. This was the first thing that came to my mind and struck me whenever we encouraged each other. Creating a positive communication climate is another important aspect of a successful working relationship, and encouraging one another along is one way of doing so. In my opinion, these ultimately made our overall project a less stressful one to work on.

I have indeed learnt a lot in the course of working on this proposal project, including adjusting my own mindset and way of doing things to suit that of my teammates on top of the aforementioned qualities. I believe that these skills and qualities will definitely come in handy in the future both in school and at work. Once again, thank you Prab and Yeap Jun for all that you have taught me. It has been a pleasure working with you. All the best for our Oral Presentation next Friday, and last but not least, all the best to the other groups too! :)