Presentation Critique Paper 1

Presentation Critique

Adele Gemmell

ELCC 203: Interpersonal Relations II

Lee Sheward

13 October 2020
Presentation Critique Paper 2

Presentation Critique

As part of our class presentation assignment we were instructed to choose a group of peer

students to work in collaboration with. Our group consisted of myself, Rhona Henry-Tappin and

Beverly Waege. Rhona and I know each other through our previous interactions during our other

course classes for Early Learning and Child Care but Beverly is new to our diploma program.

Beverly has been employed in the childcare industry for multiple years and therefore was a

student I did not yet have the pleasure of working with. Beverly completed her schooling

multiple years ago achieving her certificate level of certification but has since decided to return

to school and upgrade her courses to receive her diploma. Because I have not had any previous

course interaction with Beverly, I decided that this would be a great time to get to know her by

inviting her to join our group.

“Collaborating on a project creates an enthusiasm for learning that solitary work usually

lacks” (Mattson, 2019), the sharing of ideas helps to expand the learning process. “Good

teamwork means a synergistic way of working with each person committed and working towards

a shared goal” (DeakinCo., 2016). For us, the goal was creating and presenting a virtual class

presentation specifically related to interpersonal skills development. Our collectively chosen

topic was the display of non-verbal communications during a job interview. We had previously

studied how “body language is significantly used to understand what is being said” (Beqiri,

2018) when our verbal skills are lacking during a response and thought that this would be fun

topic to demonstrate. DeakinCo highlights the five main elements of successful teamwork to be:

communication, delegation, efficiency, ideas and support.

“Effective communication is the most important part of teamwork and involves

consistently updating each other” … “Collaborating and being open to new ideas are also
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essential ingredients for a harmonious team environment” (DeakinCo., 2016), I believe we were

able to achieve this almost effortlessly. The personalities of Rhona, Beverly and I worked well

together, we able to share our ideas unabashedly and made all our final decisions jointly. We

found no need for one individual member to take ahold of the “Leadership” role and we also

found that because we worked well collectively, that we had no need for a

“Peacekeeper/Harmonizer” (Roles and Responsibilities for Group Members, ND). We mutually

came up with the idea of creating a set of recoded films to visually demonstrate to our viewers

some examples of the vast variety of non-verbal cues that each of us demonstrates at one time or

another. We perceived that making these live video clips would give our presentation a creative

element and based on the positive feedback we received from our viewing audience, it confirmed

that our hypothesis was spot on.

During the gathering and compiling process, we also found no need to nominate a

specific person to be the “Organizer” (Roles and Responsibilities for Group Members, ND). We

all participated as main “Group Members”. We collectively decided when and where we could

meet up, taking into consideration the personal home/work schedules of each of our members.

We “communicated as necessary”, we each “willingly participated”, we offered and shared

“support”, we each located our own “research” and then took turns compiling it all together. We

reviewed the “specific requirements of the project” and strived to cover all areas. We were all

“committed to the group process until the final project ha[d] been completed” (Roles and

Responsibilities for Group Members, ND). I believe the information that we collected and

presented was relevant information and that our topic related to our personal and professional

interpersonal communication course studies.

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When it came to the “Editor” and “IT Specialist” (Roles and Responsibilities for Group

Members, ND) roles for our group, I took on that responsibility. I am not skillful in this

immediate IT area by any means, but we collectively decided that based on what experience I did

have, that I was the most logical choice to construct our final project. I started by creating the

base template for our PowerPoint presentation. I was able to download the video clips that we

had recorded on my phone, and I was able to insert them into the slides of our PowerPoint show,

transferring both the images and the sounds. I started my section of the slides by creating a

cover page and then entering in some of the preparatory information that I believed to be relevant

to our specific topic of study. Once I was done entering my introductory information, I passed

the document onto Beverly so that she could enter her research information. After Beverly had

entered her sections of information, she passed it on to Rhona who could enter some finalizing

points that we wanted to highlight. After Rhona, the document then came back to me again for

final review and formatting. I decided that the best way to “ensure that each participant is given

credit for their work on the created project” (Roles and Responsibilities for Group Members,

ND) was to change the color of the fonts, illustrating which slides where constructed by which

team member of our group.

Skillsyouneed.com gives their formulated opinion on their top tips for creating an

effective presentation. Some of the things they list are: “Show your Passion and Connect with

your Audience”- “Be enthusiastic and honest”, I believe we were able to demonstrate this to our

online class viewers, it can be seen primarily in our video clips as our presentation was not

presented in physical person but I believe our enthusiastic personalities were well demonstrated.

“Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message” – here we tried to keep the information to

a minimum, ensuring that there was not too much for the audience to process all at once. We
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highlighted our key points in the final few slides of our presentation, so that the information was

relayed back to the viewers giving them a reminder of the main focal points of our presentation.

“Use your Voice Effectively” and “Use your Body Too”, we did our best to demonstrate this. I

know the internet connection was not great at times and so the voices cut in and out. I also know

that Beverly is naturally softer spoken then Rhona and I and so her voice was less projected. We

did, however, use our bodies the best we could since that was the sole purpose of our topic.

Skillsyouneed.com’s final tip I found to be the most important piece of advice, “Relax, Breathe

and Enjoy”, I know we covered this for sure! Beverly and Rhona are both great individuals to

work with and I would gladly work with either of them again given the chance.

“Teamwork maximizes the individual strengths of team members to bring out their best”

(DeakinCo., 2016). I was able to experience how one person’s personality and skills can

indirectly benefit another member. I am not a very outgoing person, you may think I am, but I

am not, I am usually quite quiet, and I think Bev is too. I found that by incorporating my

personality together with Rhona and Bev, I was able to feel more relaxed and willing to jump on

in and offer my own suggestions. Bev seemed a little reserved at first too but the more we

interacted she also became more relaxed. Rhona has a very energetic personality that just

welcomes everyone when she speaks, I think mixing our personalities and work ethics for this

assignment complemented each other and helped us get through it.

Because our group members worked so well together, I have no barriers or conflicts to

discuss in during this critique paper, I can however touch on some of the benefits of working

together as a team. Dave Mattson is the CEO and President of Sandler Training, an international

training and consulting organization who teaches interpersonal communication and corporate

team building throughout the United States and Europe. Dave believes that the main educational
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benefits are that, teamwork “Fosters Creativity and Learning … teamwork maximizes shared

knowledge … and helps you learn new skills”, “Blends Complementary Strengths … Learn how

to combine your gifts and become a stronger team”, “Builds Trust … helps employees open up

and encourage each other”, “Teaches Conflict Resolution Skills”, “Promotes a Wider Sense of

Ownership … feel proud of their contributions. Tackling obstacles and creating notable work

together makes team members feel fulfilled” and “Encourages Healthy Risk-Taking … they have

the support of the entire group to fall back on in case of failure” (Mattson, 2019).

My concluding critique is that the three of us worked well together on this project. We

became unafraid to speak up within our group and each of us offered personal insights as to any

changes or moderations that may be required as we processed along. Our main complication

during this assignment process was the actual delivery of our presentation on presentation day.

We experienced a few different internet obstacles; Bev and I came to the college early so that we

could assist each other and get it figured out before class, another good example of our

teamwork. The issue was that we did not understand the current online transfer technique but

eventually with extra help from the school IT online support team and yourself it came together.

The main thing I think we missed during our presentation was the opportunity to engage

the audience. During our slides I had typed “Watch Rhona (Adele/Beverly) to see if you can

identify her non-verbal behaviors” then the slide immediately following each video clip I had the

header “What did you see Rhona (Adele/Beverly) do?” but instead of asking the audience to try

and identify some of what they may have pinpointed during the video clip, our group proceeded

to list off some of the non-verbal examples of our own. I think by asking the audience we may

have been able to identify even more examples and kept them more engaged. Given another

opportunity I will try to recall this missed step from today and make point to include interaction.
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References

Beqiri, G. (2018, July 09). Key Interpersonal Communication Skills you need to Improve.

Retrieved September 23, 2020, from https://virtualspeech.com/blog/interpersonal-

communication-skills

DeakinCo. (2016, December 13). The five elements of successful teamwork. Retrieved October

08, 2020, from https://www.deakinco.com/media-centre/news/the-five-elements-of-

successful-teamwork

Mattson, D. (2019, October 22). 6 Benefits of Teamwork in the Workplace. Retrieved October

08, 2020, from https://www.sandler.com/blog/6-benefits-of-teamwork-in-the-workplace/

Roles and Responsibilities for Group Members. (nd). Retrieved October 02, 2020, from

http://www.humber.ca/centreforteachingandlearning/instructional-strategies/teaching-

methods/classroom-strategies-designing-instruction/collaborative-learning/roles-and-

responsibilities-for-group-members.html

Skillsyouneed.com. (nd). Top Tips for Effective Presentations. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/presentation-tips.html