Reflection

As the first project of the year I do believe there were a plethora of things my group and I, individually could have done better. I am very assertive and direct and usually playing a leading role in group projects. However, I can sometimes be overbearing and act more as a CEO than an actual group member. In saying this I did also recognize that I can't do everything by myself. Not just because it's too much work, but because there are some skills I don't possess that others do and are glad to provide. This forced me to depend on other people to complete things which I normally don't do, but am now more accepting of the help.

In the beginning of the project, the planning, my group and I sort of had conflicting ideas, especially due to the people in my group. Two of the group members didn't get along well through out the whole project, I originally didn't get along well with one member because we both wanted to be leaders and of course that didn't work out. And the final group member was very passive and cooperative, so they were the most positive in the group. We all had different ideas of what our board should look like and the lack of one strong leader didn't benefit us. Eventually the other strong leader fell back and allowed me to take over the leader role completely. I then organized our ideas better and did my best to incorporate them and I believed I did my job successfully.

During the construction of the machine my group sort of split in half, two members worked on more of the artistic, visual aspects while another group member and myself did more of the construction. We were very productive especially in the beginning. We finished the overall construction of our a few days early and then gave us enough time to perfect everything while everyone was still constructing. Then towards the final days while everyone was still tweaking with their machine, we were finishing our presentation.

While creating the presentation we had to take into account that one of our group members would be gone. We tried to divide it so the person speaking would know what they talking about. However we realized that some aspects we needed to incorporate, we had no idea about. So, we decided to just divide it evenly and each person was responsible for memorizing and understanding their part. Of course we aren't perfect, but the presentation went well.

Overall, the project was successful and a learning experience. I had to depend on other group members to get work done and it allowed me to realize I can't do everything by myself. I think this will make me a better leader because it will help me delegate responsibility rather than take it all on myself. I am now better prepared and skilled for the next project.