Virtual Business Project - IBM Collaborative Project
In winter of 2018, I enrolled in the course CMN 325 Communication and the Digital Enterprise, facilitated by the School of Professional Communications. This course was for created for students to explore the shifts occurring within business communication by examining how new media is used as a tool for organizational and social change.
In this class, we had to complete a Virtual Business Project where students were randomly assigned and put into groups with other students from different universities around the world. For this particular project, there was no assigned leaders however, I had to step outside of my comfort zone and take initiative in order to get the ball rolling. I organized the team meetings, maintained open communication, contributed ideas, and lastly, kept the team up to date of the weekly assignments and ensuring they were done accurately and in a timely manner. Some of the challenging aspects of this project was facilitating team meetings with students who lived in different time zones. As a result of that, it was especially difficult to ensure that all group members equally contributed to the group meetings and projects. Despite the time zone differences, we as a group had to go on with these meetings and work together in order to successfully complete the assigned tasks. Although this experience came with plenty of challenges, I gained great insights and new skills for the future.
I not only learned how to stay organized and properly manage my time but, I also learned how to work collaboratively with a different individuals whom I would have never spoken to, let alone worked with, prior to this project. The main lesson learned here is that collaborative/group work is always challenging but it’s always you (yes, you) who determines what the outcomes should be.