Group Work on an Ammonia Reactor Project - Personal Statement Example

? We work in a group of seven on an ammonia reactor project and we meet every week to divide the tasks among us. We have been working on theproject as a group for the first three weeks but then we later divided the tasks for each individual in order to be in a position to finish the project on time. Given that we are now in our second year, we normally face problems since we have to balance our time between this project and other subjects given that we also have to do lab tests. Thus, the aim of this essay is to reflect on aspects we have so far encountered during the course of the project. In this section of the paper, I would like to start by reflecting on the things we have done well. Our communication system is clear and open and there is mutual understanding among all members of the group. The group leader coordinates and controls the communication system but all members of the group are given the opportunity to freely air their views. There is consensus and mutual understanding in as far as division of responsibilities is concerned. Consultations among all members are carried before tasks are assigned to individuals. We realised that this strategy is very effective in minimizing conflicts among the members which can be counterproductive. We treat all completed work for this project as shared responsibility whereby we do not seek to blame anyone should we get something wrong. As a group, we managed to influence all members to develop a positive sense towards the seat goals of the project. However, there are certain things we have done badly in our project. The main problem we have so far encountered is related to documentation of results from the experiments carried. At times these are not recorded on time which often results in wrong figures being recorded. This was mainly attributed to the fact that some members of the group did not like to work as a team since they wanted to do their own things separately. We also encountered some difficulties in coordinating the efforts of all the members towards the same goal since we often failed to meet deadlines to fulfill certain tasks. Some of the tasks required collective responsibilities but some members failed to meet the time for the meetings. Some members were not very good in keeping time which resulted in us failing to meet some of the deadlines. We have realised that there are certain things to improve as well as to avoid in future in order to be successful when carrying out similar projects. The group can be improved through implementation of communication methods towards the same direction. Consensus should be reached before embarking on a particular course of action in a bid to reduce chances of conflicts among the members of the group. In order to achieve the goals of the project, tasks should be divided equally among the members of the group and there should be mutual understanding among all members. We have also realised that we must work as a team in order to accomplish the project tasks with relative ease. Self serving interests should be avoided in the future as these are likely to impact negatively on the project. A project should be a reflection of collective effort rather than individual effort. We also realised that we must not overly rely on opinions of individual persons since a group project is meant to solicit for ideas from each member. In as far as self performance evaluation is concerned, I can safely say that I tried my best to fulfill all the tasks that were assigned to me. I meaningfully contributed during the initiative stage where different tasks were assigned to different members of the group. I also contributed with the ideas about the steps that could be taken in the implementation of the project. My ideas were warmly received by all members of the group and I managed to work as part of a team. I respected the ideas of the other team members and I took my time to listen to their views. I realised that my interpersonal skills greatly helped me since I managed to meaningfully interact with each member of the group. Each member of the group has done his or her task though we encountered some problems. Compliments go to student one who was very helpful to all members of the team. He dutifully assisted each member of the whenever a problem was encountered. One good thing about this student’s personality is that he was a good listener and was keen to help other people whenever they faced problems. However, student two was a bit different from all other members of the group. She was selfish and wanted to work alone. She would go and ask the supervisor whenever she encountered a problem without even consulting other members of the group. She was a bit difficult to work with given that she did not like to cooperate with others which made her task difficult to understand as she would always bring different ideas never agreed by other members of the group. I owe my gratitude to student three and four who were very helpful to me. We did design 2 heat exchangers and pipe work together and I immensely benefitted from their wealth of knowledge. These two students were not selfish as they were very keen to share their knowledge with other members of the team. These two people were gifted in the subject of science as they possessed knowledge about different facets of the project. However, students five and six also immensely contributed towards the writing the final draft of the project. Since these were native English speakers, they helped the team to write the final report which earned us a good credit. Over and above, I can safely say that though we encountered some problems in carrying out our group project, our efforts cannot be regarded as wasted since we achieved something that could not be done by an individual. I realised that teamwork is very important if people are working on the same project in a group. All members must coordinate their efforts towards the attainment of the same goals and they should openly share their ideas for the benefit of all the members of the team. I also noted that communication plays a pivotal role where members of a particular group are working towards the attainment of a certain goal or objective. Read More