Week Five -Team Work!-

There were many opportunities for me to experience the difficulties and also the true importance of teamwork. For this blog, I would like to share the most recent experience I had in ICU University.

I belong to the ICU Debating Society club, and this year I became one of the leading members of the debating society. There are seven members including me who are responsible for running the club, including the top leader who is the most responsible for any decisions that are made within the core members.

To be honest, I used to hate the meeting that we had every month or so. Every time I joined the meeting, I always felt that I was a worthless being, as I was barely given the chance to speak up. The discussion was often dominated by 2 or 3 members, who were either really aggressive or in the higher position than I was, known as "senpai". The atmosphere of that meeting was so tense and serious that I felt really overwhelmed that I simply could not say a word. Probably the reasons are that these "senpai"- who often spoke in oppressive manner - always tried to take control over the discussion. Also, there was one specific guy who was in the same year as I was, but was so aggressive that any opinion (which opposed to his) that I said was simply stomped over by his strong criticism. For a long time, I could not do anything but simply listen and pretend that I agreed--which was often quite painful and made me really regret for joining the core member team.

To say the conclusion first, the situation did improve a little compare to before. Although it is not yet perfect, I feel more comfortable talking during the meeting, and I think the biggest reason may be the trust that I succeeded in forming between me and the top leader of the club, who we call bucho-san. Bucho-san, though a nice guy he was, simply did not realize that I was having such an uncomfortable time speaking in the meeting. When there were not much connection nor trust between me and the Bucho-san, every time he asked whether I was happy with the decision or not, I always lied to him that I was happy with the way the meeting went despite the fact that I was not. But I was afraid to say so, as I did not trust him very much at the time, and I feared that if I tell him the truth, I may be criticized behind my back.

I don't remember how exactly we succeeded in building trust, but I guess it was his effort into talking me and showing his concern for my feelings which won my trust at last. Although at first I often faked a smile and lied to him about my true feelings, he made an effort to find out my true feelings by talking to me personally, calling on the phone after the meeting, and so forth. His sincere and calm attitude also made me feel secured, as I could see that he was really trying hard to satisfy all the members as much as possible. As the time passed and my trust grew larger and larger, I started to be more honest and told him about how I felt uncomfortable during the meeting--I even told him that I was uncomfortable of one specific guy who always turned down any opinions that were against his.

I also started to feel more comfortable as I succeeded in building good relationship with other members. Although I have not succeeded in building a good relationship with all of them, knowing that some members will support me, I feel more secured and comfortable telling my honest feeling to other members. Also, one of the core members became a really good friend of mine, in which we came to share our true feelings to each other about the meeting. It turned out that I was not the only one who was feeling uncomfortable and stress about the meeting, but she was also feeling the same way, in which she also felt hesitation in speaking in front of the other members. We came to make a promise that every time that specific guy try to stomp over either of our opinions, the other will support the other--that way, we both became confident as we knew we are not alone in the meeting.

I think building trust with the most powerful person in the club and having a strong supporter on my back really gave me courage to speak up in the meeting. In that way, I have learned through the experience that building trust is really necessary in order to have a good teamwork. Although the problem of hierarchy still remain, I am more comfortable speaking now than before, as I have good trust in the Bucho-san who is the most powerful man in the club. Therefore, I'd like to say that building trust and good relationship is essential in conducting good team work, and for that I want to thank Bucho-san for making a lot of effort in gaining my trust.