Week 05 - Collaboration

Class Format

This half of the class was dominated by the group exercise. In my research I have followed the branding thread.

Group Exercise

Acknowledging Differences – CROSSING THE LINE

This task was designed to develop an awareness of diversity. To demonstrate this we all lined up in front of a line. Mark then read out descriptions and when we heard something that we felt applied to us we were instructed to cross the room. The descriptions ranged from physical descriptions, religious views, cultural background, well a whole bunch of stuff really. Then Katelyn made Mark answer the questions, which was awkward in the context of the exercise. By seeing on a small scale (our class has eight people) differences between individuals within a group we were given an understanding of the differences which exist between people in the wider community. This lead into the following exercise which deals with the differences and similarities between discretion and Judgement.

Professional Discretion & Judgement

Professional discretion and judgement may relate to:

• Assessing when to keep quiet.
  - Being quiet when someone is addressing the group (any class in this course).
• Being aware of and responding to different personality types.
  - This has primarily affected the way in which I communicate with people. Working in sales I met a bunch of different personality types and was required to judge this quite quickly.
• Knowing when it is appropriate or inappropriate to share information.
  - Don't talk about what an awesome weekend you had on Tuesday after not showing up on Monday.
• Knowing with whom information should be shared.
  - Understand the hierarchy of the organisation you are a part of.
• Knowing when to leave the room.
  - A private conversation (about performance management for example) which does not concern you.
• Remaining calm in the face of unreasonable anger.
  - When I worked in customer service this was particularly important. Reciprocating anger can only escalate the situation, if at least one party remains calm the possibility of this occurring is greatly diminished.

1. Add 2 items to the list above.
2. Give a REAL example from your own experience to illustrate all 6 points.
3. What is the difference between “discretion” and “judgement” in your own words?
   - A judgement for an individual is usually a decision based on personal moral values, while discretion is the same with an added layer of respect for the personal moral values of the others an individual might be in communication, proximity or duty of care. 
4. Why do you use these two things in a professional setting?(explain by using examples)
   - To avoid awkward silences or embarrassing smirks. Telling an inappropriate joke can work for both of these; an error in personal judgement could lead to the telling of such a joke and reflect poorly on your values, while told with discretion could give you that edgy, joker about the office reputation you always wanted.

 

Research

Video

Who doesn't know the brand Sesame Street? The sentiment of this song was seared into my formative childhood brain. I now have trouble playing well with others.

 

Images

More on the topic of branding, received via yet another RRS feed from Design You Trust about the designer David Bier? The link rabbit hole had a couple of dead ends and the remainder led professional profiles and the finally led me to this branding company website/blog? Which I thought was strange at first, but after some reading found some useful articles on the topic of branding (be sure to tune in next week). While being a little crass in delivery it does carry some sound advice.

 

Reflection

This unit of the course is concerned with developing a basic understanding of general social psychology. This is important for a designer for a whole a whole bunch of reasons. Broadly I would say that it is important because there is a sociopsychological consideration with anybody we may work with, for or to. That's everybody.