Past Experiences of Public Speaking - Week 11

Public speaking is a thing I neither love or hate. I have had some good experiences, some bad and some awful. However, when speaking in a seminar with my team, I thought it was a rather good experience because everyone had each other's backs and we were able to present a really good seminar.

I find that many of my good experiences have occurred when I have been able to take my time, prepare a really good speech, memorise most of it, and practice it in front of my friends or mum and dad. I recall a time about three years ago when we were presenting speeches for an assessment at high school. I had written a really awesome speech on the Banshee who is an Irish Death Messenger. I had prepared and practiced my speech many times. I even started it with a really loud horror movie scream as an attention grabber. I presented my speech to the class without a fault and felt like I crushed it. I think most of my class had trouble hearing my speech after my loud beginning. I class this moment as a good experience because I didn't feel nervous as I was well prepared and was confident that it would all go well.

I haven't had many bad or really awful experiences as such but I have had a rather awkward encounter with public speaking. This encounter is one that I cannot quote but can rather better explain it with less profanity. It all began with my best friend Maddison's mother asking whether I wanted to speak at the unveiling of Maddison's headstone on her grave. I accepted because I had already thought of writing a song for this. I wrote the song and when I got up at the unveiling to sing it but quickly realised that I would need to introduce myself and the song as not everyone there knew who I was. I only would have to say two sentences maximum, but within these two sentences I managed to forget the name of the song, swear about a total of 8 times, almost hit the neck of my guitar on the headstone and pronounce 'Maddison' wrong. I felt horrible and wanted to run away and never face any of my friends or Maddison's family again but I still had to sing my song.

Public speaking isn't for everyone and a lot of people have different opinions on it. I know I certainly have mixed feelings about it. However, public speaking is a task that many of us will have to endure in our life times and even though it is hard and nerve wracking, there is always a way through it. Even if you completely muck up, there is always someone who has mucked up worse than you have.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank my team for keeping up with my blog posts through out the semester and providing me with some quality feedback. I have really enjoyed working with you all this semester and I hope that we keep in touch.

"What's my name again?"

The Inner Working of 'Lab Rats" - Week 9

Hi Everyone,

This week's blog post will be analysing the workings of my team. When I first saw that we would be working in teams I was really unsure about whether or not I would enjoy it and whether I would be able to put my shyness aside enough to present my ideas to the team. However, this team has allowed me to come out of my comfort zone and contribute my skills to our report.

We joined as a group rather early on in the semester which has played to our advantage because we were able to start commenting on blog posts really early on and were able to get to know each other relatively quickly. For the past 3 weeks we have been working on the report together. After receiving the grades for our position papers, went shared them with one another and got to work on the report.

Before we started writing, we decided to elect a leader and an editor. We decided that Jade would be our leader and Shaun our editor.

Leadership 

Implementer 
Shaun has come under the role of the team Implementer. He is highly reliable, efficient and is always focused on the job at hand. Even though Shaun has been working throughout the entirety of working on this report, he continues to put a lot of effort into finishing the report to a high standard.

The allowable weakness for an Implementer is that they can be a bit inflexible and slow to respond to new possibilities. This doesn't fit as he is happy to adapt to new things and always eager to help out when needed.

Coordinator 
Nathaniel has taken on the role of Coordinator. Although at the beginning of the report assignment we elected Jade as the official leader of our team, as situations changed Nathaniel stepped into this role to help Jade out. Nathaniel has found it easy to step into this role because of his time with the army and we have been able to use his strengths to our advantage.

The allowable weakness for the Coordinator is that they can be seen as manipulative however this has not shown with Nathaniel. He has pushed us in a mature way by identifying talent and motivating us with his quotes. "Do the mahi get the treats."

Team Roles 

Resource Investigator
I think that Ryan and Nathaniel have both fitted nicely into the role of Resource Investigator. They both had connections to resources that other teams may not have access to. Ryan has family affiliations that he offered to us and Nathaniel was able to access studies done by other army members that were on the topics we were studying.  It has been a great convenience to our team to have two Resource Investigators. This helped us find a lot of valuable information quickly and we were able to dismiss the information that was not useful quickly.

The allowable weakness of being easily bored does not really apply in this case. There has been many jobs to finish and even when they had both finished their share, they offered to help the rest of the team with whatever we needed help with.

Team Worker
Jade is someone who I would call a Team Worker. She is cooperative and gets on with the task at hand. I also fit into the category of Team Worker. I have worked along with Jade in parts of our report. For our position papers, we both studied the social and physical well-being of the elderly. We were able to compile our work to create a strong section of the report.

Ryan is also a strong Team Worker. He is a very sociable and is always aware of the other team members needs. He is a great asset to our team because he is able to also connect us all on a social level.

The allowable weakness for a Team Worker is "indecisiveness" which I think everyone in the team has show at some point.

Plant
I tend to go with the flow of things and am rather laid back. I like to hear the opinions of others before I share what I am thinking. This makes me fit into the team role of Plant. Jade is also a plant. She is creative and is able to solve problems in an unconventional way.

The allowable weakness for a Plant is described as 'unrealistic' which I don't believe either Jade or I have shown.

Completer Finisher
The Completer Finisher role can only be fitted to Shaun. He is our editor and the 'job description' of a Completer Finisher is to scrutinise the work and find errors. However, Completer Finishers are said to be anxious, I have yet to see Shaun anxious.

The allowable weakness stated for the Completer Finisher is unduly worrying. Shaun has not unduly been worried, but rather is conscious of due dates. This keeps the whole team on track to finish.

Conclusion
Our team has worked efficiently so far. The mix of team roles we have within the group has worked well and the strengths and weakness of all members has mixed well and the strengths currently seem to outweigh the weaknesses.

It may look like we have a lot of team roles within our group, but they have all worked well together. I think that we have the right mix of team roles. Having three members of our team fit under the Team Workers role has been beneficial for us due to the fact that the Team Workers help the whole group to gel and use versatility to identify and complete the work required. However, having too many Team Workers would potentially be a problem due to the fact that not enough work would get done, but with Ryan, Jade and I also fitting into different roles helps with this problem.

I have enjoyed the dynamics of this team and I look forward to seeing how our final report turns out after all of our hard work.



Reference
Belbin Associates. 2017. "Belbin Team Roles." Belbin.
Retrieved from:
http://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/

How my Team is Working - Week 8

Hi Everyone,

For this weeks blog I have decided to discuss the topic on how my team is working. So far think we are working together really well and we are getting on top of our group report.

I think that I overestimated how hard working in a distance team would be. I thought my team and I would find it rather hard to contact each other, not get along well, be 'all business and no play' and potentially find it hard to work with each other. How wrong was I?

I really enjoy working in my team. We all are happy to help each other with anything that anyone needs help with. Although we have various road blocks and have had a couple of set backs, we always pull through and manage to produce top notch work. There have been no real frustrations when working with this team. When there is a minor disagreement, things are never blown out of proportion. We constructively discuss it as a team and then come to a conclusion that suits everyone. I think that is a really key trait in our group as it allows us to make decisions quickly and efficiently. We have taken moments like these in our stride and have still continued to power through our work.

I think that working in this team has allowed me to explore not just different areas of the assignments but different areas of science in general. We often share articles that we have found interesting with the group through our Facebook chat and I have even found a common interest of a cartoon with some of my group members! We have found that as the semester has progressed, that we have become more efficient. I do feel as though at this point in time,  that I am letting everyone down because study has not been my main focus with work getting really busy and having a lot of sick animals to look after. However, we have taken things like this in our stride, and whenever someone is really busy, everyone else does their best to help out.

I hope that when the semester is over and we have completed this paper, that I still keep in contact with my group because they are people who I can see myself conversing with about a lot of things in the future (like the latest 'Rick and Morty' episodes). We have had many successes so far and I hope that we have very few to no failures.

I'm going to finish this blog with a quote from Dave Kerpen. "The difference between success and failure is a great team."

Working in Remote Teams - Week 6

Hi Everyone,

This first half of the semester has gone really fast and it's really strange to think that after a short break and another 6 weeks our year will be over! I have already thoroughly enjoyed this paper and its great to see my team's and my own writing develop.

In this weeks blog post we were asked to find an article on 'Working in Remote Teams' and then comment on our own 'Remote Team'. The article I found to support this blog post is one written by Michael D. Watkins called 'Making Virtual Teams Work: Ten Basic Principles'.

Although there are disadvantages of working in remote teams, there are also many advantages. When building a remote team, you have the ability to make or join a team who have similar goals and thinking as you. You do not need to live in the same area to make your team work. When a shared leadership is established, the team can work effectively to produce high quality work. Whilst working in a remote team, a 'meeting' can be held at any time and at almost any place. This is an advantage to people who live busy lives and who don't often have time during their day to attend an 'in person' meeting to discuss things. The evolution of technology has greatly helped with this previous issue.

However, there are disadvantages of working in remote teams. A lot of the time, with the team I am working in, next to none of us are working on our assignments at the same time. This can become tricky because sometimes one of us would like to ask the team a question  about what we are doing at the time but due to us all working at different times, sometimes that question is not always answered. My team usually doesn't have this problem but it can be a large disadvantage. Michael D. Watkins provides solutions to help with the disadvantages of working in remote teams. He suggests to get the team together and talk face to face. This is a good way to establish the relationship with the people in your group and to build friendships. He also suggests to create a 'virtual water cooler' using social networks to make it easier to get information across. We created one of these very early on with the use of our closed Facebook page and our Facebook Messenger chat which we use daily.

Over all, I think our team works very well together and we are always eager to help each other out with anything. We seem to be very organised even though outside of study we all lead very busy lives. We get along very well and have mutual interests which is always helpful. I have found that working in this team has allowed me to voice my opinions (which I am usually not very good at doing) and not worry about what they are going to think because usually someone is already thinking it!

Reference:

Watkins. M.D. (2013). Making Virtual Teams Work: Ten Basic Principles. Harvard Business Review.

Why My Topic Matters - Week 4

Hi Everyone,

For this weeks blog post we were asked to choose from 4 different topics. Out of the 4, I decided to choose 'Why my topic for Assignment 1 matters: to other people or the world in general.'  My topic for assignment 1 is 'New Zealand's current health strategies for the elderly focus on physical well-being. More focus should be given to their social well-being.' I believe that this topic is important for a number of reasons.

I strongly agree that more focus should be given to the social well-being of the elderly. Improving the social connectedness and subsequent health of elderly people is important to other people and the world in general in a number of ways.There are economic as well as social ramifications. Improving social connectedness is strongly linked to health and physical well-being in the elderly. So, activities and interventions to improve social well-being of older people will make them healthier and less dependant of health systems throughout the world. Spending on health is one of the most significant components of most nations budgets. Any reduction in health spending would free up money for increased investment in things like education, infrastructure (eg roading) and social services. If more money is spent on social services, that could help the elderly and their social connectedness.

But probably more important then the economic factors, are the social or human factors to do with the elderly that effect other people and the world in general. They've looked after us so we have to look after them. All older people were young once and it won't be long before we are considered elderly, no matter what our current age. The elderly people in our communities have been around for a long time and hold a lot of history. For example, my Grandad, who died in 2011 aged 91, fought in the Pacific during WWII. He was able to tell me a lot of stories about having to pull boats into shore and about meeting a lot of new people. He also had many stories about growing up in a rural area in the 1920's. My grandmother who is still alive tells stories of an even earlier generation - her Irish grandfather who lived with her family when she was a little girl. He remembered going to school in Ireland in secret because the ruling English did not want the Irish children to be taught. Apart from being important in a historical sense, the stories that elderly people can tell put our lives today in context and show us how easy things are for us these days. They've worked hard all their lives, contributed a lot in both social and financial sense sot they deserve to be looked after now.

I very strongly believe that if the current health strategies focused more on the social well-being of elderly people as well as their physical well-being that not only the elderly but other people and the world in general would benefit from it. Wouldn't it be fantastic if all the billions of dollars spent on defence and missiles and wars were put into financial resources? The world would be a much better place.

"One person caring about another represents life's greatest value." - Jim Rohn

Summarising the Debate - Week 3

Hello Everyone!

Week 3 is well underway and my research and understanding for the topic of my Position Paper have increased dramatically. I have been looking at sources that contrast my opinion towards the subject of my paper. There aren't many around that are reputable but with the ones I have found, it has been interesting to read and come to terms with the authors opinion. 

There are a lot of references which highlight the importance of social connectedness in improving health and well-being, particularly in elderly people. Cornwell and Waite (2009) review a number of these then present their own scientific research showing how "social disconnectedness" and  "perceived isolation" are associated with lower levels of physical health in people aged 57 to 85. They describe social disconnectedness as a lack of contact with others due to a small social network, infrequent social interactions and a lack of participation in social activities and groups. Perceived isolation is characterised as a lack of companionship and support and feelings of loneliness.

Cornwell and Waite's (2009) findings show that social disconnectedness and perceive isolation are associated with worse physical and mental health in the elderly. They state that social disconnectedness is associated with worse physical and mental health, regardless of whether it results in feelings of loneliness or a perceived lack of social support. They conclude that the health policy should take their findings into consideration and make efforts to increase social connectedness and the perceived availability of social resources among older adults.

Cornwell and Waite have taken the point of view that supporting the social well-being of the elderly is important, based on good scientific research. They use data from a nationally representative study of older adults in the USA and carried out statistical tests on the data. Their position is based on science and not on policy or popular or current thinking.

In contrast, the Ministry of Health (2016) does not place a lot of emphasis on supporting the social well-being of elderly people in their Healthy Ageing Strategy. In it's Vision and Priorities for Action section, the Strategy highlights healthy ageing, acute and restorative care, living well with long term conditions, supporting people with high needs and providing respectful end-of-life care. It mentions social connectedness in the text and says that transport solutions are needed to reduce social isolation and improve older peoples ability to participate in their communities and access health and other social isolation in its 15-page Action Plan. There are no sections in the Action Plan related specifically to social well-being.

Given that there is a lot of evidence that social well-being is related to physical well-being in the elderly, it is surprising that the Ministry of Health has taken the position of not prioritising social connectedness. However, the Ministry of Health is a government agency and is probably constrained by government policy, current thinking and government spending or financial allocation. Developing new services and activities to address social connectedness and well-being in older people would increase costs and require higher spending in New Zealand's health sector - something that the current Government does not want to do.

"To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honours." - Tia Walker


References

Cornwell, E. Y. and Waite,  L. J. (2009). Social Disconnectedness, Perceived Isolation and Health among Older Adults. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour. 50 (1): 31-48.

Ministry of Health. (2016). Healthy Ageing Strategy. Wellington: Ministry of Health.

The Literature - Week 2

Hey Everyone,

This week, I have started to research the topic for my Position Paper assignment. The topic I have chosen to study for this assignment is 'New Zealand's current health strategies for the elderly focus on physical well-being. More focus should be given to support their social well-being.' I decided to agree with this statement.

I have found this research process long and quite draining at the moment but I am enjoying finding out about different actions countries and ministries are taking to ensure that the elderly are being taken care of.

To start off my research, I wrote down all the key words in the statement and searched them to try and find some very general research. This gave me a lot of insight into the rights of the elderly in New Zealand and the plans for healthy ageing in New Zealand. Although it was great to find these resources, they were very general like a lot of the information I have found so far. I have just started to get deeper into my research using Google Scholar and speaking to some of the carers in my Grandad's rest home.

It has been pretty tricky to find reputable resources that oppose my position. Most sources I have found that oppose my position are not from New Zealand and are still pretty vague.

I am looking forward to beginning to craft my position paper and finding out how everyone else in my team got along with their papers!

I'm going to finish off with a quote from Neil Armstrong, "Research is creating new knowledge." This quote suits with the topic this week. I am learning more and more while I am researching and it is awesome!

Introduction - Week 1

Hi Everyone,

My name is Bridget Gavigan and I am 18 years old. I live on a farm 10km south of a small town called Pahiatua (which is about a 30 minute drive to Palmerston North over the Pahiatua Track). I have a lot of interests and hobbies which include; animals, hockey, swimming, rugby, weight lifting, horse riding and I would say that my 'unconventional' passion is definitely music.

Ever since I was young, I have wanted to study at Massey because that is where my Dad got his degree. On a home video we have video footage of me at aged 5 saying something along the lines of "I'm going to go to university and be a Zoo Keeper and look after the monkeys during the day then every night I'm going to play my guitar and sing to big crowds." I know that sounds like quite a profound thing for a 5 year old to say but I have always had big dreams and I have always stuck with what my little heart was set on.

I intend on either study a Bachelor of Science majoring in Zoology or study to become a Vet Nurse when I study full time next year. Whether I decided to go down the Zoology path or the Vet Nursing path, I think my 5 year old self would be proud (as long as I end up performing to big crowds at some stage of my life!)

My science interest comes in from my beautiful best friend Maddison who suffered from a genetic disease called Cystic Fibrosis and sadly passed away last year. Cystic Fibrosis attacks mostly your lungs but also the liver, pancreas, intestines and kidneys. It intrigued me as to how this disease was impacting her so since hanging out with her in hospital for years, I became a little sponge for anything to do with human or animal science.

My strengths as a communicator definitely include my ability to talk in front of crowds and not get nervous. I also think my ability to communicate my thoughts through writing and speech. My weakness is probably when I sit back when working in a group and let others make a decision that I don't totally agree with. I tend to do this because I'm quite a shy person (weird considering crowds don't make me nervous!) and I don't want to upset anyone or disrupt the dynamics of the group.

I had an idea that I would finish off my blogs with a quote that I found over the week that inspired me or made me think extensively about it.

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." - Mahatma Gandhi