During my senior year of high school, my teacher assigned a two week group presentation
that was worth a hefty portion of our final grade. I suggested in a calm manner that
everyone should work on their sections of the project early, so we could be able to practice,
and make necessary changes. However, one of my groupmates favored the idea of waiting
till the last few days to complete his portion of the presentation. He believed that working
closer to the deadline allowed him to focus more. As the deadline for the presentation began
to approach, I became increasingly frustrated with my peer, while they felt I was putting
unnecessary pressure onto him. The differences in our time orientation decreased our
ability to communicate effectively.
While I valued planning ahead, setting deadlines, and completing tasks early. My groupmate
focused on completing tasks at the moment, rather than worrying about future deadlines.
Although neither approach was incorrect, our differences in expectations put more stress on
everyone. Since we never discussed our different methods of managing time, we could
never understand each other's intentions, and began to become aggravated instead of
working together.
Our personality differences also contributed to this conflict. Since I tend to be very organised
and proactive, while my groupmate seemed to be more impulsive and comfortable working
under pressure. I would check in with the other members on our team, in order to be sure
they are getting everything done, or if they needed assistance on any parts. Whereas my
groupmate preferred working independently until the deadline. These differences even
further reinforced our time orientations and made it even harder to understand each other's
different perspectives on the situation.
I would have been able to improve our interaction by being more mindful and adaptive to
his principles . Before I assumed that my way was the only right way, but if I decided to listen
to my teammate instead of immediately disregarding and ignoring his ideology, I also would
have been able to enforce a more open communication. By talking about our differences
during the forming and storming stages of group development, we could have reduced
tension and work together more efficiently.