Communication

There are many aspects of our interactions at IRE. The one that I am most concerned about is our communication as a large group. So far, this blog has seemed like a daily journal rather than an inside look at Iron Range Engineering. By no means are we a well oiled machine yet. We still have a long way to go until we’re as efficient as we could be.
We often come together as a whole group to make decisions for many things. I have found that these meetings are usually not efficient and they usually end in many people being very frustrated. From what I have witnessed, we are a group of 14 very strong minded, dominant individuals and we have learned to argue and “discuss” in much the same way. We are all used to taking leadership roles in a group and we’re all very used to voicing our opinions. When we discuss things in a large group, it is no different. I know that everyone’s opinion is valid, and I’m glad that everyone has input. However, it seems that a lot of people do not know how to properly convey their ideas and more importantly, it seems that a lot of people do not know how to respect other people’s ideas if they don’t agree with the idea. On the other side, people are immediately going on the defensive if someone doesn’t agree with their idea. This creates a lot of tension, a lot of arguing rather than discussing, and it makes for a very hostile group meeting. Because of all these factors, we tend to have some rather long meetings that do not end in a decision. The decision gets delegated off to someone, which could have been done at the beginning of the meeting…saving time.
Two bits of advice for everyone, including myself: learn how to convey your idea in a non-threatening, overbearing way, allow people to constructively criticize your idea without going on the defense right away. And respect other people’s ideas.

Proofed by: Cory Moran