I should be grateful if you could provide your feedback. And, Happy New Year!
Communication is the heart of every teamwork. Thanks to nowadays technology, people can communicate to each other through different medias; e.g. Telephone, Email, so on. Although some people prefer to take advantage of such technologies to coordinate a project, I prefer the conventional method, i.e. in person. I believe, meeting in person can result in saving time for all members of the group, in addition to improving the peer’s social skill.
Every day is our bank account, and time is our currency. Thus, it is important how we spend and dedicate time to our tasks. I think, setting a specific location and sharing time that is convenient for all group members is more economic than waiting for email response. In this case, people take the responsibility of replying others’ concerns immediately and also prevent from possible misconception. Moreover, email is considered as a formal way of communication which involves some standard rules of writing, redundant sentence or phrase at the beginning and end of email such as “Dear …” or “Best regards.” Can you imagine how many unnecessary words should be included in each email and how much time does it take for spell checking?!
Furthermore, face-to-face collaboration enables us to boost our social skills. Participating in each group meeting requires interacting with others through discussion. In this case, you share your concerns and difficulties which may even open a new door for unexpected ideas. For instance, I remember the first term project that we had to conduct in a 3-person group when I was attending NYU as a graduate student. Since all the members of my group lived at the dormitory, we decided to have meeting every night at a study room. I have to confess that this regular meeting continued even after finishing the term project! Beside from the closeness that this project made happen to us, an amazing idea, that later published as a conference paper, born within our discussion to solve a much simpler problem.
To sum up, teamwork is inseparable from our daily life, however it should be beneficial for all members. I believe, the most efficient way to communicate in this regard is face-to-face. In person meeting brings about a time saving approach in addition to cultivating the interpersonal skills.