University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 2

Ella Lambert
Communication For Project Managers: ENCE424
Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman
March 30, 2024
Introduction

In the last Pearl Dive essay, I explained that I am enrolled in communication for project
managers to conquer my communication fears. I want to be a better communicator so that I can
be a successful architect. During the last assignment, I challenged myself by taking a variety of
personality tests. To summarize, the personality tests taught me that I have a C personality type
and that I have an Introvert-iNtuitive-Thinker-Judger personality. I learned that the C personality
type is analytical, reserved, precise, private, and systematic. I also learned that the C personality
fears criticism and being wrong the most. Since learning about personality types, I have been
able to identify the personalities of my coworkers. For example, I now know that my boss is a D
personality type, which meshes well with my C personality. I can more confidently bring up
topics with my boss because I know how to appeal to his communication style by being straight
to the point. Building off of the techniques that I learned so far, this essay applies new techniques
such as ethos, pathos, and logos to enhance storytelling. The goal of this essay is to synthesize
what I have learned in class to demonstrate my communication skills.

Email Scenario

Good morning ARCH402 Matthews Section,

I am writing this email to discuss our physical site model. As you are all aware, the
physical site model is due this upcoming Friday. Professor Matthews assigned me, Daniel, and
Calvin to be team leaders in organizing this project. To be frank, me and the other team leaders
have been struggling with this project because we have not gotten support from the rest of the
class. While we are thankful to those who purchased the materials for the model, we need help
from our fellow students to help make the model with us over the upcoming weekend. I believe
the reason we have received a lack of support is that there was a miscommunication that the team
leaders would do the work for the class. I also understand that you all are busy with other
coursework. This is a valid concern as I know we are all preparing for the upcoming structures
exam and have work in other classes. While I understand the concern, I hope students recognize
that me, Daniel, and Calvin also have other work to do and it is unfair to assume that we can
complete this large project on our own. Our studio section has one of the best collaborative
atmospheres out of all the studios, and I have seen us work well together in the past. Because of
this, I am confident that we can quickly get this project done as a team of 15 and receive a good
grade as a class.

To make this process easier for everyone, I organized the project into 3 main tasks that
can be completed by groups of 5 people each. The main tasks that need to be completed are
drawing the model in AutoCAD, laser cutting the model, and assembling the model. I will
oversee the AutoCAD team, Daniel will oversee the laser cutting team, and Calvin will oversee
the assembly team. Attached to this email is a sign-up sheet with the days each team will be
completing their tasks. Please sign up for the one that is the most convenient for your schedule.
If none of the dates work, please reach out to one of the team leaders and we will work with you
to find a better time. We want everyone to feel included since this project's grade reflects our
collective efforts.
 Also, I understand that this weekend is Superbowl weekend so some students may have
already gone home. Those at-home students can still contribute by completing the AutoCAD
drawings and emailing them to the team leaders remotely from their laptops. If students have any
other concerns about the project please reach out to one of the team leaders and we will help you.
I look forward to completing this project with everyone!

Sincerely,

Ella Lambert

This email was addressed to my ARCH402 Architecture studio classmates. It is based on

true events from a few weeks ago where a very large modeling project was dumped on me and
two other students. The assignment was to create a city block of Washington DC out of
cardboard, and the intent was to have all 15 students work on the project. I and the other team
leaders repeatedly asked our classmates for help, but we received no responses and were very
stressed trying to get the project done on time. If I could redo that scenario, this email is how I
would approach the situation. To appeal to the readers I used ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos was
demonstrated when I addressed the class as a fellow student and as the team leader of the project,
as assigned by our professor. Logos was used when I divided the larger tasks into manageable
categories that students could sign up for based on their scheduling needs. Finally, Pathos was
used when I sympathized with the student's busy schedules and reminded them that the team
leaders were also struggling from overwork.

Communication Concept

One important concept I learned in Communication for Project Managers is the

importance of storytelling. During a group Zoom activity, I and other students were instructed to
tell a story using a story template. The storytelling template was structured in order by the
introductory context, the adversity, how the adversity was overcome, and how that situation
changed us going forward. The scenario we wrote about using this template had to be
professional so that it could be told in an interview setting. I wrote about the time that I helped a
coworker at my old workplace. My story went “Once upon a time, I was working at Chick-fil-A
in high school. Every day, I would come to work and do as I was told because I hadn't worked
there long. I felt that I was inexperienced in comparison to my peers. But, one day I saw our
newest employee was put on the register during a huge lunch rush, which must have been a
mistake. Because of that, I left my designated post to help her and taught her how to use the
register on the job. Because of that, I was confronted by my supervisor because employees are
forbidden from training new employees unless they have gone through a lengthy training course.
But thankfully, my supervisor was very understanding since the girl was mistakenly put on the
register, and she thanked me for recognizing the problem and stepping up. Ever since then, I
have trusted myself to know when it is okay to break the rules for the sake of the greater good”.
This story proves that the provided template is effective. First, the story was established to take
place at a fast food restaurant. The context for the story was that I was a typical employee who
strictly did what my supervisors told me to do. Next, the adversity was identified to be a new
employee mistakenly placed on the cash register by themselves during a lunch rush. Then, the
adversity was confronted when I left my designated post to help train the new employee. After
that, the adversity was resolved when my supervisor thanked me for helping the new employee,
which confirmed to me that I had made the right decision. And finally, the situation taught me
that it is okay to break the rules under the right circumstances. It also taught me that people are
sympathetic when they know you have good intentions.

After I shared my story with my three groupmates, they shared their stories using the
same storytelling template. Because they used the template, all of their stories were easy to
follow and memorable. For example, I remember that Sebastian’s story was about a time when
he messed up an order at his job in a hardware store. The story stood out to me because he used
pathos to describe his honest mistake, which was relatable and made his story more memorable.
This storytelling technique is important to me because it’s a good technique to use in interviews.
Interviewees remember people’s personal stories more than their college experience or GPA. For
this reason, it is important to understand how to be a good storyteller so that you can connect on
a personal level with your interviewer. I plan to use the storytelling template more in my
part-time job. Whenever me and my coworkers get downtime I will ask them to pretend to
interview me. That way, I can become more comfortable with the technique and be prepared to
use it in my next real interview.

Work Scenario

If my boss called me an idiot in front of the entire team, I would first assess the situation
before moving forward. The book Crucial Conversations, Tools for Talking when Stakes are
High covers techniques on stress management and making a conversation safe. In a scenario
where my boss calls me an idiot, I would first have to internally manage my stress response. My
stress response is silence. In Crucial Conversations, it explains that the silence response results in
a person purposefully withholding information or their true feelings in a situation (Grenny, Ch4).
I go silent in stressful situations because I do not want to add any more fuel to the fire. Since the
conversation already escalated to name-calling, I would not continue the conversation in front of
the other coworkers out of fear that the situation would become worse. At this point, I would
utilize the contrast to fix the misunderstanding technique by stating that it was never my
intention to offend anyone and give further context if it’s appropriate. (Grenny, Ch5). This
technique helps to de-escalate the high-stakes conversation by correcting misunderstandings
respectfully through added context. This is a good technique because it doesn’t embarrass my
boss in front of their employees, even though that is what they did to me. Finally, I would wait
for the current conversation to end without any more mishaps.

Once things have calmed down, I would wait for an appropriate amount of time to pass
and then request to have a private conversation with my boss. If my boss agreed to speak with
me, I would make sure our conversation setting was somewhere where my boss felt comfortable.
That way, they would be more relaxed and ready to have a constructive conversation. I would
open the conversation by addressing the concerns that led them to call me an idiot in the first
place. I would apologize again for any offense or wrongdoings that I may have caused, and then
invite my boss to elaborate on why they were upset that day. After I gather more context about
why my boss was upset, I would use that as a gateway to explain my side of the story. When
explaining my side of the story I would be very careful to not void myself of accountability, but
rather use it as a chance to explain where my head was at. I would use storytelling techniques to
create a safe space. That way I could use storytelling to retrace the path of our previous
conversation to analyze our emotions and get back to the facts (Grenny, Ch6). I would also use
storytelling techniques to make a more personal connection with my boss so that they could
understand where I was coming from. If my boss had responded well to my side of the story, the
conversation would have gone from high stakes to low stakes. When the conversation is low
stakes, I will use that opportunity to respectfully tell my boss that I did not appreciate the way
that they called me names in front of the other employees. I would explain that at that moment I
felt embarrassed, and say that if my boss were in my shoes then they would have felt
embarrassed too. Painting a picture to put my boss in my shoes would help them see why
name-calling was not constructive during our high-stakes conversation. I would request that in
the future if my boss has an issue with me, they pull me aside and inform me privately, just as I
am doing for them. I feel this is an effective statement because my boss would see that our
conversation deescalated from high stakes to low stakes when we had a private conversation.
Additionally, I think my boss would see and appreciate how constructive and civil our
conversation went behind closed doors, and would probably be open to using that method in the
future.

Personal Story

When I was 18 years old my high school had my class take multiple courses on college
and college selection. For most of my peers, this was an incredibly stressful process because they
could not decide which college was the best for them. They were weighing the location, costs,
scholarships, and opportunities. The average number of colleges that my peers applied for was
six. I, however, applied to only one college, the University of Maryland. People are often
shocked when I tell them that I applied to only one school, and they ask me why I would do
something potentially risky. The answer is that the University of Maryland was the only school I
could envision myself in because of its renowned architecture school. If I had not gotten into the
University of Maryland on the first try, then I would have applied again each semester until I got
in because that’s how much I wanted to go to the architecture school. The school was enticing to
me because I was incredibly passionate about architecture and design, and UMD’s architecture
program is the best in the state. When I got my acceptance letter from UMD, I poured all of my
free time into researching what makes a good architect, how to use design software, and how to
network in the construction industry. I felt like this acceptance letter was the start of my dream
career, and at the time I thought failure was not an option for me.

Fast forwarding to sophomore year, I was enrolled in my first architecture studio course,
ARCH400. This course is a make-or-break class for students who are on the fence about
pursuing architecture as a major. The course was extremely rigorous because we were expected
to create high-quality designs in short periods. Additionally, we had to present our designs to real
architects who would judge our work, which was a very nerve-wracking process. Going into
ARCH400, I was determined to not be one of the students who got overwhelmed and quit
because I knew architecture was my calling. I went into the class knowing that it would be
difficult, and it motivated me to work extra hard to get my work to shine above the rest. The
class was intentionally competitive, and students with good work would often get rewarded with
better networking opportunities. Our first big project in ARCH400 was to design a plaza on the
Baltimore harbor. Me and my peers spent weeks creating design iterations, models, sketches, and
digital renderings. As the project deadline was approaching, I felt very confident in my work
because my design skills and digital presentation were good. My work was well organized,
colorful, and overall pleasant to look at. I was ahead of my classmates and my professor
expressed that he had high hopes for my presentation to the jury. I felt extremely prideful and
was envisioning my success. However, my confidence and pride quickly dissipated, and nothing
could have prepared me for my project getting deleted three days before the presentation.

I logged onto my laptop and found out that my project could not be accessed. I had been
saving my work onto the UMD remote desktop because it’s free for students. The UMD remote
desktop was managed by computers in a Virginia warehouse, which had been struck by a
hurricane. There was no guarantee when the remote desktop would come back, if at all. All I
could do at that moment was cry at my desk out of confusion and frustration. My professor
walked over to me and asked disappointingly why I didn’t save my work in multiple places in
front of the class. The situation had me feeling embarrassed and like a complete failure, and I
was terrified that I was going to be one of those students who stopped pursuing architecture
because of ARCH400. At that moment I was questioning why I thought I could become an
architect if I could not even be smart enough to save my files correctly.

I left class early that day and felt completely overwhelmed. I had to recreate a project that
took me weeks to make in just three days. Although I was tempted to quit, I couldn’t shake the
feeling that Architecture was my passion, and I hated the idea of quitting before trying. That
night, I wrote myself a game plan. I knew that if I wanted to get the project finished in time it
could not be as aesthetic or complicated, so I wrote a list of shortcuts and alternatives. I also
looked up examples of other people’s presentation work in a simple style that I could mimic. For
the next three days, I followed a schedule that I had set for myself that had strict deadlines for
when certain tasks needed to be done. I worked nonstop for the next three days, only stopping to
eat and go to class. On the night before the presentation, I was working on the project when I got
an email saying that the remote desktop was back online. I went to check and surly enough, I had
my original project back. By the time I got my original project back, I had already completed the
second one. The second version was not as bright or aesthetic, but I was much more proud of that
version because it was made out of perseverance. I felt that my second version better captured
my passion for architecture because it was proof that I wasn’t giving up despite my
circumstances. The lesson I took from this was that even in a stressful situation, I could pull
myself together and work towards whatever solution or goal I set for myself. It also taught me to
change my perspective on perfectionism, as I could now see the value in work that was created
out of passion rather than aesthetics.
The Big Five Personality Test

The Big Five Personality Test is an assessment that determines a person's main five
personality traits after answering several questions. The questions are set up by a range of
agreeableness. The questions asked are purposefully personal and encourage the test taker to
honestly evaluate themselves. After taking The Big Five Personality Test, I learned that my main
traits are conscientiousness with a score of 83, and openness with a score of 77. My
agreeableness and neuroticism were both tied at 62.5, followed by extroversion with a score of
21. I disagree with my results because I would not consider myself to be an open person. It is
difficult for me to open up to other people unless I have known them personally for a long time.
While I am happy to help when others are in need, I will not open up to them in normal everyday
conversation. I also have an introverted personality which can make it harder for me to open up
to other people, and I would prefer to keep conversations in line with work topics. Aside from
that disagreement, I generally agree with the rest of my personality scoring. I agree with my
main personality trait being conscientiousness because I have a strong drive to get work done
well and thoroughly. This personality trait also aligns with my DISC assessment results, which
also told me that I have a conscientious personality. This personality type is described to be
responsible, organized, and goal-oriented. I think that it is interesting that my agreeableness and
neuroticism were tied at a higher score because I originally thought that those two traits
contradicted each other. After doing some research, I learned that agreeableness means being
polite and cooperative. I agree with this score because I try to be friendly and helpful to others. I
also learned that neuroticism means emotional instability, anxiety, or self-doubt. I also agree with
this assessment because I sometimes get wrapped up in my head about failure. According to the
DISC personality assessment, conscientious personalities fear criticism and being wrong the
most. The fear of underperforming and being wrong is probably what contributed to my high
neuroticism score. That being said, I do not see neuroticism as negative because the fear of
failure is what pushes me to produce the best work that I can. It also pushes me to think outside
of the box and problem-solve when I am facing adversity.

The benefit of taking different personality type assessments is they help narrow down the
traits that I most identify with. For example, if I had just taken The Big Five Personality Test, I
may have mistakenly been under the impression that I am an open person, even though that is not
something I would identify as. However, this assessment combined with my DISC personality
test and JUNG personality results tell me that I am not an open person, but rather I am
introverted and work well with others. Some common traits that I saw between all of the
personality tests are responsibility, hard work, organization, timeliness, self-growth, and
creativity. These were all traits that I already attributed to myself, so it is nice to be validated.
Now that I have a list of common personality traits, I can list them in my resume. I can also lean
into these traits during an interview when telling a story so that my interviewer can get a clear
picture of who I am as a person.
Conclusion

To conclude, my communication skills have been further improved thanks to techniques

such as storytelling, stress response, and understanding my personality type. These are skills that
are particularly useful in a work environment, and I plan to practice using these techniques at my
internship this summer. I will also practice my storytelling in everyday conversations to network
and create a more personal connection with the people that I talk to. These techniques have
improved my confidence in communicating effectively with others in a professional
environment, and I look forward to further improving upon these skills.
 Works Cited

Grenny, Joseph, et al. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. McGraw
Hill, 2022.

Gallo, Carmine. Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great. St. Martin’s
Griffin, 2019.