Individual Proposal

Proposal: Consistant Attendance of All Group Members.

Submitted by
Braden Crook
Salt Lake Community College
Communication 1010
March 21, 2016

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Individual Proposal

Contents
Overview

Project Description

Group Assets

3-4

Group Limitations

Recommendations

Conclusion

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Individual Proposal

Overview
Our Group analyzed and investigated why at SLCC educational
institutions there is a lack of a sense of community among the student
body. Our group effectively identified current and foreseeable
problems, as well as fabricated an overall solution for said problem.
We were successful because our group was very willing to put in the
work necessary to accomplish the task. In addition our group was very
diverse, and provided for an ample amount of creative ideas to work
with. This allowed for a view on many different angles allowing us to
work fluently and effectively to come up with a solution.
Our group did have some apparent limitations throughout this process;
which I would request improvement on in future group projects. One
of the most apparent problems that arose was that of consistent
attendance between a variety of group members. This detracted from
the overall flow and understanding of the process at times. I also
learned of the importance of following step-by-step instructions when
given them. At the beginning we did not completely follow the
instructions that were given, and although we had great ideas they
were often unorganized. Because of these limitations I would
recommend introducing a reminder text, or email. Also an option
would be to have some one who mediates the instructions with the
verbal communication that is being accomplished.

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Individual Proposal

Project Description
Our group chose to tackle the problem of a lack of community among
students at Salt Lake Community College, which was minimal if not
nonexistent. Our initial course of action was to determine how we, as a
group of five incoming college students with a lack of knowledge and
experience in the overall college pursuit could best help establish a
sense of community among current and future Salt Lake Community
College students. As this group project ran its course I learned of the
necessity of hard work among all members of a group. This key
element allowed for a sense of unity and trust to be established while
still maintaining a punctual atmosphere as we discussed and
materialized ideas within our meetings.
Following the guidelines provided in the reflective decision making
guide we were able to create a foundation in the form of question. Our
group agreed that our problem question would be, how can we foster
a greater sense of community at Salt Lake Community College? As we
analyzed the problem we took into account many different contributors
to the problem. We began with a thorough investigation of the history
of the problem so we could have a proper understanding of the
problem. Mainly what had been done in the past. This excluded any
vain repetitions that would arise through the process. We also took
into consideration stakeholders, policies, and resources to find a
solution. We then established criteria, which allowed for a clear view of
the problem that had been affirmed in our group. This was done before
fabricating our solutions so that our criteria were not influenced by our
solutions.
We then began to brainstorm as many solutions as possible. I was
extremely fortunate to have a very diverse group that derived from
many different cultures and backgrounds. This allowed for a very
diverse foundation during our brainstorming process. In our group we
did not exclude any idea from the brainstorming process, and at times
some of the most illogical ideas became some of our most prominent
solutions. Some of the creative solutions that were presented included
random PSA announcements, as well as central and consistent location
choices. We continued our research as a group to see what was most
probable and what may have been unlikely do to institutional
limitations.

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Individual Proposal
We then continued to analyze the potential solutions and began to
combine similar ideas, or discard ideas that may not have been as
effective. To evaluate these solutions we created a chart that evaluated
them on a scale of 0-10, with zero indicating no apparent benefit to
the criteria, and 10 indicating optimal adherence. We initiated this
process until we found a final solution that combined solutions 1,3,
and 4, and that offered maximum effectiveness to the problem
presented.
We then discussed as a group possible problems that may arise when
implementing the solution of a mandatory orientation for freshmen.
Based on these contingencies, we discussed improvements that could
be made on the affirmed solution. We eventually found ourselves with
a cost, time, and resource effective solution that met all the criteria we
had established.
Our groups project conveyed many strengths and some weaknesses,
which I will analyze in the following pages.

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Individual Proposal

Group Assets

Our group demonstrated two impeccable assets that our text identifies
as elements of effective small group communication: commitment and
a diverse identity, which harbored creativity.
According to Neil Kokemuller, Work teams achieve the most success
when employees and teams share the same vision and a feeling of
trust within and between groups. This was very apparent among all
members of our group, as we were very committed to the assignments
and tasks that we had been given, they were done effectively and I a
timely manner, even often times early then expected. Even if a
member of the group was going to be absent for that meeting, there
was a great sense of unity and commitment to one another to help,
and pick up the slack that may have been presented with another
member of the group gone. At times members would miss, however,
upon there return the next week they would ask for what they missed,
and most importantly what they could do to make it up. This displayed
an overall commitment to the project, the problem, and all of us as
team members. This allowed for us to be effective with our time, and
accomplish tasks on time.
The second asset that contributed to the ultimate success of our group
was the unique identity that was brought into the group, due to
diversity in culture and raising. Scott E. Page in his book The
Difference, states, Two people belong to different identity groups, or
with different life experiences, also tent to acquire diverse cognitive
tools. This was one asset that allowed us to sore in creativity. Our
group among others was one of the most diverse. This was of great
benefit to us as we had members of different age, ethnicity,
geographical location, and many other elements that contributed to
our unique identity as a group. This was a valuable asset because not
only did we have a strong variance of views, but our connections were
strong among many members, and cultures. Many may argue that
there may be a lack of communication, or decrease of cooperation;
however, this was far from reality, as relationships and trust were built
amidst the diversity that was actively present.

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Individual Proposal

Group Limitations
Unfortunately our group also had two unpardonable limitations that
detracted from our overall flow of work and universal understanding of
the specifics of a task. These Limitations included first our lack of
consistent attendance from a few members, as well as our inability to
exactly follow the meeting guidelines during the infant stages of the
project.
We fortunately had many opportunities in class to meet as a group,
although a problem quickly arose as the meetings progressed. We
begin to notice that a few of our group members were consistently
absent. At times the flow and progression of our meetings would be
halted because there was a lack of understanding, and often times a
need for repetition from previous meetings because of unannounced
absence. George N. Root said, Habitually absent employees

become a burden on the company and the rest of the staff. This
held true in our group project as well, as with a few members in
the group had developed the habit of frequent absences, it was
definitely felt among the team as a whole.
The second limitation that arose came in the early stages of the
project. As we began we had been given step-by-step
instructions of the course of action we needed to take to
accomplish this project. However we neglected to follow step by
step at the beginning. Gary North simply stated, It doesn't
matter how good a job you do if you do the wrong job. You're
going to get a bad grade. Now this statement is very simple
however it is exactly what we realized as this limitation was
brought to our attention as a group. This then caused us to back
track, and in the process of back tracking we lost an ample
amount of time, which in turn often decreased our effectiveness
because of the hurriedness of certain phases of the instructions.
Luckily we were able to resolve this and move forward.

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Individual Proposal

Recommendations

I have learned a lot from this project while working with such a great
group. I learned a lot about the strengths and the weaknesses of
commitment. If I could do this project again I would create an
environment among group members where attendance was more
widely understood.
We were very committed as a group in many areas of the project,
which was very impressive, and it allowed for us to achieve many
great things. However there were definite holes in the commitment to
be present in the meetings. I have learned that when there is no strict
boundary on the policy of attendance, that many individuals will not
communicate their absence, which takes away from the smoothness of
flow among other group members, and also lays many of the duties
upon their backs.
In future projects I will establish a more firm attendance policy. In this
project it did cause for some of those individuals to lose points,
however it was not enough for them to change there behavior. There
also could be someone assigned to mediate among the members of
the group and bring awareness to the attendance policy. One other
solution would be to have weekly reminders for all group members,
whether it be through text, e-mail, phone etc.. it would establish a
more prominent form of communication in these circumstances.
Virtual communication does have some advantages in group decision
making. For example, due to our busy schedules and distant locations,
our group members couldnt have even completed our task without
technology. I have also learned that people who are timid are more
willing to participate in virtual groups than in face-to-face groups,
because they are less self-conscious (Ivancevich & Duening, 2006).
This might have been one reason our group members participated so
evenly.
The chat rooms worked fine for simple items such as choosing a
problem, brainstorming, and assigning tasks. Asynchronous (i.e., not
every member is online at the same time) virtual meetings would have
been better for steps that required more thought, such as reporting
results of research. We would have had more time to think about the
ideas. But asynchronous discussion areas arent a fruitful forum for
debate or negotiation, which require the immediate give and take of an
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Individual Proposal
interaction process. For this type of interaction, we should have used
a phone conference call. Phone conference calls would have also given
us at least some ability to notice each others paralanguage.
In future projects like this I will try to choose a group that has the
ability to meet in person for at least a few of the meetings. If thats
not possible, I will assign different technologies, depending on the
nature of the task.

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Individual Proposal

Conclusion

Our group came up with an effective and simple solution to the lack of
community among Salt Lake Community College Students. Overall we
showed impeccable creativity and punctuality, as well as a trust with
one another. We could improve on our attention to instruction and also
to attendance
This project conveyed to me the importance of attendance and how it
can affect everyone in a group, and the work that is being done. In the
future these things will be at the forefront of my mind when joining a
group and working together.

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Individual Proposal

References

Kokemuller, N. (n.d.). The Effects of Team Commitment. The Houston

Chronicle. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effectsteam-commitment-42028.html
Page, S. E. (2007). The difference: How the power of diversity creates
better groups, firms, schools, and societies. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Root, G. N. (n.d.). How Employees With Poor Attendance Affect the
Workplace. Retrieved March 22, 2016, from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/employees-poor-attendance-affectworkplace-11517.html
Lesson 4: Follow Instructions. (2007). Retrieved March 22, 2016, from
http://www.garynorth.com/public/1896.cfm

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