I formed a group of four students during Singapore Polytechnic for an innovation project. After we were briefed on the objective of the project task, I noticed how my other two group members, Gary and Evan were not well acquainted with each other. As we started proposing an idea for our main objective of our project, they both unexpectedly opposed each other as Evan thought that Gary's idea was not appealing enough while Gary did not take Evan's comment nicely. Thus, they had become uncooperative and a tension formed between them.
During our discussion, Evan shared his idea on how we should do the presentation and what item we should use for the innovation project. Whenever Gary offered a suggestion, I noticed Evan interrupted him most of the time. I told Evan to let him talk but in the end, Gary’s ideas were rejected by Evan without any further discussion. Gary became so frustrated that he refused to speak to Evan. While listening to Evan speaking, Gary fell silent and his arms were folded while he gave Evan an unpleasant look at him and began murmuring to himself quietly. I was not sure if he was paying attention. His display of non-verbal cues involved staring at the ceiling or looking down at his phone whenever Evan was talking.
As our end of our discussion came to an agreement, Gary was too furious to say anything and just could not care about Evan taking charge. He simply nodded without speaking Evan and refused to make eye contact with him. Evan felt insulted by this gesture. Eventually, Evan asked him in a straight forward manner and in a harsh tone to what Gary wanted to say but this made Gary feel like he was being attacked verbally by Evan. Evan clearly didn’t want Gary as a part of a team. As our team disbanded, I spoke to Evan telling him that he initially started the ruckus conversation between them and brought up the fact that we had to work as a whole team if we were to succeed.
As our end of our discussion came to an agreement, Gary was too furious to say anything and just could not care about Evan taking charge. He simply nodded without speaking Evan and refused to make eye contact with him. Evan felt insulted by this gesture. Eventually, Evan asked him in a straight forward manner and in a harsh tone to what Gary wanted to say but this made Gary feel like he was being attacked verbally by Evan. Evan clearly didn’t want Gary as a part of a team. As our team disbanded, I spoke to Evan telling him that he initially started the ruckus conversation between them and brought up the fact that we had to work as a whole team if we were to succeed.
Finally, Evan admitted to his mistakes to Gary and then they
both apologized for any misunderstanding they had done. However, Gary would
revert to becoming silent and the rest of us would not know how to react again
in the same situation. Gary began to participate less in the discussion and
Evan did not bother asking him to do so.
What could have Gary and Evan done to avoid this conflict?
Hi Daniel, your post is written quite nicely however, there are a few grammar mistakes here and there.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I believe that the issue should have been solved as soon as it arise. Like when they were proposing an idea for the innovation project where both Evan and Gary kept opposing each other ideas. At this point in time, the group should pause the discussion and ask the two of them for their opinion on why the other party's idea is not good. From there on, improve on the idea itself and proceed on with the project.