Communication, contrary to popular belief, is more complicated than just speaking a certain language. It is also far off from being able to understand a certain language as well. The ability to communicate ideas is a complicated skill as no two minds think alike (well maybe some do, while most do not). Person A for example, can see a bird as just an animal, flapping its wings randomly, making random noises, while person B may see the bird as an object of literature.
The first few weeks here were sluggishly slow in progress, because it was rather difficult to come to a common consensus of which direction the project should be driven towards. We may agree on an approach at the end of each meeting, but by the next, we seem to be steered to another direction instead.
We finally realized that there was a communication breakdown somewhere in the chain. We just did not know what the people from China in our group wanted, and they did not know what we from Singapore wanted.
This journey is more than just about our Wearable Healthcare Project, but also learning from the good and bad experiences. It is about learning to build stronger communication structures in order to be able to understand each other better and perhaps be more accommodating towards each other’s ideas. With better communication, comes better understanding.
