▶ Your Answer :
There are many times where employees have to work in different circumstances such as cooperating with others' opinion. Having a group project is one of these circumstances where diverse interact occurs. Although some people might reluctant to have a team member who has opposite idea with them, I personally believe that having a strong-minded member, who even disagrees with my opinion, has several advantages. First of all, listening to others' opinion enables one to broaden the range of perspective. It is obvious that successful projects are made by diverse and thorough brainstorming. By having a member who has a totally different view could make members to rethink about their opinions which could lead to a combined opinion, a better outcome. If team members are not willing to accept ones' different opinion, the project cannot outrun its' past work. My personal experience is a compelling example of this. About five years ago, I was in a specific research team for psychological experiment. At that time, I was so eager to build an experiment that was on my mind, so I blocked others disagreements. But then, our supervisor asked me to include a team member who had strong-minded and even disliked my original ideas. I did not like him at first, but as time went by, I realized that the project I had been building got the more logical explanation by him and we could prepare better experiment tools. As a result, I began to take others opinions, and finally, we could broaden our thesis logic which led to better results. Had I not take his opinion, our team might have not achieved this much success. This example demonstrates how accepting opinionated member could lead to a better team outcome. Secondly, working with a co-worker who has a different perspective allows one to develop cooperational skills. Of many things that can broadly expand ones' work strengths, being able to co-work well with others is a very essential pillar. Having cooperational skills could empower one's self-esteem. For example, my younger brother once had to lead a team in Science projects for a semester. He had to meet many different kinds of people, and of course, dealing with a team member who had oppositional idea was unavoidable. At first, he got frustrated being confronted by different opinions, but later he got used to co-operating with this kind of situations. At the end of the semester, he became so confident that he could deal with any kind of person when he graduates University. This shows the benefits of having group members who have a very different point of view. In conclusion, including a team member who has opposite perspectives could lead to better performance and also enhance ones' managing skill. There is a saying in East Asia that 'Bitter medicine is good for one's health.' Likewise, although dealing with others’ criticism and different ideas is hard, it definitely would improve not only the teams' results but also ones' interpersonal skills.
|