Week 1 Phone Assignment

Good Evening:

For the first phone assignment, I thought it would be best to send out an e-mail to the entire class. I got many responses, but the first response I received was from Vickie Morgan. We exchanged a few e-mails to determine what would be the best time for us to discuss the assignment. Initially, it was difficult for us to connect because we both had a lot going on with work and family obligations. We scheduled a time to talk, but before our scheduled meeting she called to ask if we could postpone our discussion because she had family visiting from out town. I was agreeable and happy to change our meeting time because I had some things going on that would prevent me from keeping our appointment. During this brief interaction, we had the opportunity to talk a little bit about the struggles we were having with setting up our blog site and understanding the expectations of the class. We each also shared a little about ourselves. Eventually, we were able to get in touch with each other and complete the assignment.

We started the conversation by discussing the course and some of the challenges we were facing. We tried to lend suggestions to each other and provide some help. Then we moved into discussing the actual assignment. I spoke first and told her about my conflict. Vickie was very attentive and asked questions for clarification when necessary. She seemed to understand where I was coming from and seemed to be able to relate. She was able to provide me some solutions including redirecting the individual who I was having the conflict with and try re-wording my purpose in different terms for him to be able to better understand. She made many help suggestions that I will put into action when the opportunity arises.

I listened to Vickie's conflict, which involved her son's rugby team. Her conflict was similar to mine whereby we were both faced with dealing with an individual who didn’t understand the dynamics of our projects. In her conflicts, Vickie explained that the President of the team did not understand the policies of why the board did ways the way they did. He had his own agenda and completely disregarded the "proper" steps that needed to be taken when handling business affairs of the rugby organization. She indicated that the conflict partly stemmed from the fact that this individual was significantly older, and he is relatively new to the organization. My suggestion was to educate him on the policies for handling the business affairs. I emphasized the importance of being patient and possibly having to remind him repeatedly.

Vickie and I seem to have similar communication styles. We are both listen to others concerns and do our best to explain things, but when it comes to do things correctly even thought the other person does not want to it that way, we just do it the way it is supposed to while making the other person feel like it is being done their way. I would say we are both non-confrontational and we both like to solve problems and please everyone at once!

Overall, the conversation went well. It flowed very naturally, both taking turns to talk. We each had so much to say to each other and have times had to say, "go ahead". We got along well and seemed to have been similar in personalities. She was very friendly and talkative. We both had a good command of the conversation and constantly asked each other questions. There were not really any barriers during our conversation. I was on the road in my car and she was alone with no background noise. We are able to efficiently complete the assignment.

I enjoyed working with Vickie. I think she is a bright woman and look forward to reading about her comments about how she thought our conversation went.