John and Kelly were grouped together to work on a finance project. They had to come up with two research titles to present to the lecturer at the end of the term. Thus, they stayed back after class to research for topics so that they could work on it at home. As the computer lab was occupied by some students, both John and Kelly had no choice but to sit a distance away from each other. However, they agreed to inform each other of the topics once they have decided on it. After two hours of doing intense research, Kelly told John that her research topic was on the advantages and disadvantages of securitization. John was listening to music on his phone and thus did not acknowledge Kelly and continued with his research. Assuming that John heard, Kelly went back to her seat and continued with her work. After half an hour, John walked up to Kelly and told her that he would be doing on the benefits and drawbacks of securitization. Upon hearing that, Kelly argued that she had already worked on that topic and told John to select another topic. However, John stared in disbelief and insisted that he worked on the topic first and was not informed that the Kelly had been working on the same topic earlier.
What could have been done to solve the problem or to prevent the problem from happening from the start?
