My interpersonal conflict

My NUS Science Club boss, Mary, and I, together with our entire committee, organised the Valentine’s Day Bazaar in the Faculty of Science. On that day, we hired external vendors to set up booths to sell items for a cause. We allowed our project directors and their committee members to do so as well. The whole purpose of this bazaar was to raise funds for our Freshmen Orientation Projects. Booths were randomly allocated and Mary specified that no one was to change the location of their booths.

On that faithful day, the sports director, John, realised that his booth was at an unfavourable location as there was low human traffic. Subsequently, he went around asking if anyone was willing to swap booths with him. One external vendor agreed and the swap took place. He thought it was alright not to inform Mary about the swap since the swap was mutually agreed. Do you think it was right of him to do so?

When Mary found out about the swap after her laboratory, she was enraged! She felt that John did not respect her at all as she was the event organiser. Being irrational, she closed down John’s booth, preventing his committee from selling their items. If you were her, would you have felt the same way too? When John realised that Mary had done that, John was even more infuriated! What made it worse was when he accidentally sent a SMS to her which stated “That stupid bitch closed my booth. What are we going to do?”. This SMS was supposedly meant for his Vice director, Paul. John soon realised his blunder and repeatedly apologised through SMS shortly after. He tried calling her but she did not answer his call. If you were John, how would you salvage the situation?

This unfortunate misunderstanding soured their working relationship by a great deal! When John explained and complained to me what had happened, I merely consoled him as I really did not know how to help him and did not dare to approach Mary. Do you think I should interfere if you were me?

Why are effective communication skills important for me?

The theory of effective communication, in my opinion, is something that is easy to grasp but difficult to achieve. Before I took on this course, my father, being a businessman, had repeatedly told me how important it is to master the art of effective communication in this world. I do agree with him because as I grew older and took on more responsibilities, I began to understand that one doesn’t live alone. In order for one to be an effective and successful person, one has to be an effective communicator.

For example, I took on the challenging role of being the Freshmen Orientation Projects Assistant Chairperson (FOPAC) in the Science Faculty executive committee last year. My role was to assist my boss in overseeing the 5 Freshmen Orientation Projects such as Science Camp etc. and to be in charge of NUS and Science Open House and matriculation fair. From my personal experience, I had a number of conflicts with my boss due to misunderstanding during our communication through our favourite communication channels: emails and handphones. I admit that I was afraid of face-to-face talking, or even calling, because I did not want to handle any consequences or negative reactions from her. Using of ineffective communication channels resulted in her messages not been passed down to me clearly and this had an impact on me when my planning of NUS open house did not meet her expectations.

From this experience, I realized that good communication among individuals is needed for any projects to run smoothly and attain high standards. I hope that I can hone my communication skills from this course and be able to apply these skills in my future endeavours so as to become a more effective person. All in all, I hope to reap more than what I sow.

Testing

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