communication essay

Looking back, I thought the team presentation assignment was both educational and beneficial in many ways. Throughout the process I was able to gain a better understanding of the importance of team work, get a clear idea of where I personally stand as team member and presenter, and also form relationships with some great classmates along the way. The process as a whole, from the brain storming all the way to the end result, made many of the concepts we have learned in class realities allowing me to relate to, and therefore better understand the communication process. Although there were times of stress, presentation mishaps, and regrets along the way, I feel that each member of the team grew both individually and as a whole from this assignment.
The preparation stage of this assignment was naturally the most stressful and discombobulated phase for our team as a whole. During the preparation phase we were able to get a feel for each member’s strengths, weakness’, likes, and dislikes, which eventually lead to the natural formation of team roles. Although there were no directly assigned roles and we all contributed in various ways, I feel that each one of us was particularly dominant in a single category. First, I thought that Keagan was a natural task leader. From day one, I noted his strong analytical skills and had a natural ability to combine the thoughts of all of us. Keagan’s particular strength was assigning tasks and setting goals for future meetings keeping us constantly on task and up to date. While Keagan sometimes played the role of the central negative, Madeline was our groups main “devils advocate”. When some of us would get carried away or frustrated, Madeline was always the one to encourage us to take a step back and consider all options and alternatives. When we first came up with the idea of “life swap”, Madeline was the one to bring up concerns with being too similar to the already existing show, “wife swap”. Madeline also brought up concerns