By Communication Consultant Xinyi Cui (Accounting and BIS, ’22)

“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” ~ Gautama Buddha

At this time of year, many assignments involve high-stakes group projects. Communicating in a positive way with your group–expressing your care for their needs as well as the needs of the project–leads to two outcomes: First, group members enjoy their time together, and second, group members pull together effectively to achieve the best outcome.

Positive communication will help a team to enjoy a friendly environment. No matter how difficult the project is, when the team can have a good conversation, all team members will love to solve problems together. However, positive communication rarely comes easily or automatically. Using my own experience as an example, I had a global team for a big project and many problems came up during the collaboration. My teammates had their own work to do and we were living in different time zones, which stopped us from meeting and working together. Also, people treated this project with different levels of priority, and I felt bad if I forced others to do their tasks. All of these reasons made this project more complex than I thought. Sometimes I felt anxious and did not even want to get out of bed to have the morning meeting!

There is no doubt that when people from different backgrounds come together, there will always be some conflicts, which can be internal (like personalities) or external (like internet access). We can never run away from them in group assignments or pretend to be blind of them; instead, the best and only solution is facing them bravely and getting the group on track for success.

RCBC is here to help you develop strong practices for communication in your teams. Schedule an appointment to meet with our Communication Consultants–peer tutors who will strategize with you about ways to improve your team-work experiences. And please have a look at our slide deck offering more tips for effective group communication.

Get information and resources about our center at The Philip Rauch Center for Business Communication.