Directorate of Partnership, Alumni and Global Initiatives (DKAUI) organized UGM Career Talks and Exploration # 7: “Working in Teams” seminar on Wednesday (14/9). This event is a part of seminars and workshops series in 2016, which has reached the seventh series. The event that was held at the UGM Central Library Seminar Room, 2nd Floor was attended by about 120 people who are final year students and alumni from various departments at UGM.
Attending as the speaker in this seminar is Haryanta, S.Psi., Psi., M.A., lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology UGM. He engaged participants to see how important it is to be able to work together in a team to achieve a common goal, in addition to improve individual quality.
On the occasion, Haryanta explained many things related to the preparation of UGM alumni upon entry to the career world. “Finding a job is like looking for your soul mate, there should be good cooperation between both sides so that the relationship runs smoothly,” he explained.
Among the various strategies of how to build an effective and tough team, according to him the basic must-have one a is good communication skills. There are many elements that can make one’s communication skills good. Among these are the ability to be assertive. “Sometimes we have to know when to say ‘no’. Of course, with a good choice of words,” he said.
Communication is a reciprocal process. Therefore, not only the ability to speak, one also has to be a good listener for the sake of teamwork. “If there is something you don’t agree with, state your thoughts. But remember, attack the idea not the person,” said Haryanta.
When we discuss about team dynamics, of course conflict is one thing that cannot be avoided. This is due to the fact that a team is a combination of several different heads with different contents, it is natural for a conflict to happen. This is where each individual problem solving skills are needed.
The enthusiasm of the participants was quite high in this seminar. Seen from the active discussion session with so many questions addressed to the speaker. [Eggy]