Team play
This week was all about us students and team play. We were split into four groups and each group had to prepare a presentation and short activity for the rest of the group. We got rather free hands regarding the topic of our assignment. However it had to be somehow connected to the themes of the course.
Our topic was non-verbal communication in different cultures. We studied the differences between different types of non-verbal communication. We covered facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, touch, body movement, physical space and paralanguage. We chose this topic because we thought it is important to understand that there are differences in the way the non-verbal messages are understood in different cultures and learning to consider these differences is essential if you want to succeed in international negotiations. I think that our group worked pretty well together and no major conflicts occurred. However it would have been nice to get some international students to our group as well to get some new perspectives.
In my opinion all of the groups did great work during our class and I learned a lot of new things and above all I had fun. The first group had come up with this great idea to analyze the negotiation from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (one of my all time favourite movies). I learned that out of box thinking can be a crucial part of the negotiation at least at the very end and it can make you opponent very happy (and a owner of a big hat). Both the last two groups had prepared this funny exercise where we had to adapt a certain role and try to negotiate according to it. It was surprisingly easy to act the roles but noticed that I was not that comfortable with all of them. For example acting a very loud person did not suit me that well.
Our topic was non-verbal communication in different cultures. We studied the differences between different types of non-verbal communication. We covered facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, touch, body movement, physical space and paralanguage. We chose this topic because we thought it is important to understand that there are differences in the way the non-verbal messages are understood in different cultures and learning to consider these differences is essential if you want to succeed in international negotiations. I think that our group worked pretty well together and no major conflicts occurred. However it would have been nice to get some international students to our group as well to get some new perspectives.
In my opinion all of the groups did great work during our class and I learned a lot of new things and above all I had fun. The first group had come up with this great idea to analyze the negotiation from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (one of my all time favourite movies). I learned that out of box thinking can be a crucial part of the negotiation at least at the very end and it can make you opponent very happy (and a owner of a big hat). Both the last two groups had prepared this funny exercise where we had to adapt a certain role and try to negotiate according to it. It was surprisingly easy to act the roles but noticed that I was not that comfortable with all of them. For example acting a very loud person did not suit me that well.
Until next time,
Sanni
It was indeed a fun lesson!! I also liked the activity about the Pirates of the Caribbean =P
VastaaPoistaIt was really difficult to get into other roles. Maybe this is why it is so difficult to change the perspective into a counterpart of another culture.
VastaaPoistaWe should've figuted out how much getting into different roles demanded from you. I believe it wasn't easy nor comfortable to play by roles that were really the opposite of your own normal behaviour. Anyway, I though you all did a really good job and I truly appreciate that you threw yourselves into the exercise!
VastaaPoista