excel in group discussion

 Today I attended a workshop-winning @ group discussion.

First of all, I will review the techniques I have learned.

1. to help people reach mutual understanding; As we are in the same group, we should get a conclusion at last.

2. encourage participation. If xxx does not speak for long time, we can encourage him/her to participate.

3. stop the person who is too aggressive. If someone dominates the discussion, we can stop him/her politely and respectfully. such as: Hi, xxx. We understand your points on this question, how about listening to others? Maybe yyy or zzz have something to say, or we can speak in clockwise order, if someone do not have ideas, we can skip to next one, ok?

4. handling difficult situations. If some person disagrees all the time, we can point out we only have limited time, and our goal is to find a best idea as possible as we can. Maybe it is not the best, do you have some better suggestions?

 

some materials on the advisor's lecture notes.

Dos

1. express ideas clearly and convincingly

2. encourage others to give opinions

3. listen before contributing

4. introduce new ideas

5. step in and redirect the conversation when necessary

6. be sensitive to the feelings of others 

7. be natural

 

Don'ts

1. dominate the discussion

2. keep silent

3. stray from the subject

4. interrupt or squash other contributers

 

And in the workshop, we are given 2 scenarios to discuss. One is Nuclear Holocaust: who should survive? We have to choose 3 persons out of ten. And the other one is a meeting for designing strategies for cookbooks. We are a new committee and we are trying to publish a cookbook to raise money for the local elderly.

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------I am the separation line-------------------------------------------------

My disadvantage:

bad oral English and Cantonese

too shy

nervous

do not have confidence when facing a unfamiliar question

 

How to improve:

speak more and listen more, study when other people say.

read more books.

 

Good luck for me!