The networked practitioner

"Co-operate until maximum benefit produced then defect"(Axelrod,1984)
 This simple sentence clarifies the use of networking to me, how a stimulus causes response. I think it's important to note when its co/operative and when its selfish as slowly but surely one way or another it'll effect our professional reputations for the good or bad.
I am hugely interested in the way in which we co-operate, our behaviour in public and when communicating is it strategic rather than genetic?
Why and how do we form close relationships?
These questions lead to 'Affiliation'
- to affiliate

1. (tr; foll by to or with) to receive into close connection or association (with a larger body, group, organization, etc.); adopt as a member, branch, etc.

2. (foll by with) to associate (oneself) or be associated, esp as a subordinate or subsidiary; bring or come into close connection he affiliated himself with the Union

n [əˈfɪlɪɪt -ˌeɪt]

a.  a person or organization that is affiliated with another

b.  (as modifier) an affiliate member

affiliation  n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

A few months ago I was lucky enough to land a part in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' along side friend that I'd recently graduated with.

Just from the 'meet and greet' session you could get a jist of where 'introvert' and 'extrovert' personalities lay in the cast. At first some professionals kept themselves at distant with fellow cast members they didn't know or hadn't heard of. "...introverts are likely to steer clear of social interaction to avoid their arousal from reaching uncomfortable levels. In contrast, extroverts, who have low levels of arousal seek out social situations to stimulate a desirable level of arousal (Johnson and colleagues (1999)" I can relate to this theory just from reflecting back on how the cast members had different levels of desire to affiliate.

After the shows each night everyone would gather in bar for drinks and "chat" this was one of my favourite parts of having this job as there was also a piano in there so one could often have a sing song which led to other gigs, during this period I met alot of interesting people and 'networks' who I'm still in contact with on a regular basis today. On the train home one night my friend/colleague said "Why and how do you find it so easy to talk to V.I.P's?" this question shocked me as I hadn't realised she'd been struggling and it had obviously been an issue, her low esteem stopped her from thinking she had the 'right' to start a conversation with a stranger in that atmosphere. This confused me as she didn't come across as having a 'Introvert' personality at college.

This leads me to "The privacy regulation theory...our desire for privacy (versus affiliation) can vary from being open to others or closed off to others, even in the space of  a few hours"(Altman, 1975)  Why? well to put it in simple language, we judge how much interaction with others we want depending on how we feel, on our desired level of contact at given time.

With my friend I think her ability to affiliate is not only down to how she feels as I know she would prefer to be talking to someone than not. She said she can't think of the conversations to make in the first place, this is down to confidence.  This could have been effected by many different factors some being her home life(family) college  (friends or teachers) workplace, childhood and so on.

Could this affect her professional practice?

The casting director from this job helped me land my next contract, this also leads me to the question.

Do you we need to affiliate for survival as professionals?

Inquiry

In my earlier blog where I reflected on my journal keeping process I concluded by mentioning how this journey had lead me to noticing themes that had been occuring in my blogs,poems and personal journals which emerged as lines of inquiry. How much and when do I listen to music? What effect does it have on my mood?

Therefore I decided to 'Look Inward' and brainstormed my ideas, first abstractly on the train whilst listening to music-

Then I wrote up a clearer brainstorm, spider web-

These are pictures I took with my Iphone as my scanner is playing up..
I have always been extremely enthusiastic and music,and have a wide variety of genres on my tastebuds. Ever since I was little when I had, had a bad day at school or a horrible dance lesson I'd get in the car in a huff and straight away my mum would put on my Martine McCutcheon C.D and I'd sing every word all the way home, by the time I reached my doorstep I was buzzing and back to the 'happy Jo'.
Then as I got older I had my heart broken and found myself endlessly sobbing along to ballads and late night love songs, or nowadays when I've had a bad audition and don't feel like cheering up I allow myself to wallow in self pity for the duration of my tube ride in albums such as James Morrison and Corinne Bailey Raes second album.
This morning on my way to an important singing meeting/coaching session I found myself slightly nervous and over thinking the next couple of hours which i knew wasnt going to be good for my performance therefore I chose a couple of my favourite albums Jennifer Hudson and Lauryn Hills  to inspire me and get me in the right mind set.
These times and experiences prompted questions that I would like to find out more about.
Just from a primary bit of research I have found that music experiences like singing, songwriting, listening to and discussing music, moving to music are used to achieve measurable treatment goals and objectives, this could be for things such as physical rehabilitation in stroke victims and can have critical use in treating mental illness, especially melancholia.     

 I have now ordered a book by ^'Robert Burton wrote in the 17th century in his classic work, The Anatomy of Melancholy' to further my Knowledge on how music and dance can be used as or part of clinical therapy and biomusicology, musical acoustics, music theory, psychoacoustics and comparative musicology.

Interesting Article

http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/feature.php/30313/embracing-social-media

I currently get the Newspaper The Stage delivered weekly to my house.
This is a good way to keep in touch and up to date with the industry and it's news!
I read this article and instantly related to a part of our course,'Professional communications technologies' it talks about the importance and uses of web tools 2.0 in Theatres.
Have a read and let me know what you got from it!

question myself.

Reading back on my last post and further into the reader on Reflective Practices, I feel I have put myself in the category of being a person that learns from 'concrete experience' however the more I thought about me as a learner I realised I can relate to Howard Gardner's idea of multiple ways to look at things(Gardner, 2005) as they do not limit you by making you feel you are one kind of learner.
Refecting on myself I am not one kind of learner, often I learn from relating to other people experiences and emotional life (intrapersonal) for example a close friend that graduated a couple of years before me, decided that Musical Theatre was restricting her and she wanted to explore the other creative side of herself, however this was a hard journey as she spent too much time and energy listening to what others thought or were saying about her, which upset her, this emotional involvement distracted her from her original need or goals. I have and carry on learning from her as she has similar personality traits and we care about other peoples opinions to much. So in this case I am using Reflective observation in the learning cycle (start to learn about it when they are watching the people aorund them doing it).

Poems-Reflection on learning experience.

As I read back on the poems I have written over the past week as part of my reflective Journal. I can see lessons have been learnt from experience in just 5 short days. For example in my poem,'The Invisible Worker' I mention getting a job just from staying in touch.This is prove that although some networking is seasonal it is important to let others always be aware of your assistance and enthusiasm in their work as it could result in your next contract or simply another stop on your tube map!
Also thinking along the lines of your professional reputation, in my poem 'What's this favour?' I talk about, in a few ryhming couplets, my journey from being asked to do a job for a friend, to me ACCIDENTLY not texting back, to me actually missing out on that experience. Which is wholely down to the fact that i hadn't double checked or followed up the information at a earlier date. This is a consequence of reliabilty, which has taught me a lesson, therefore I am "Turning experience into knowledge"Boud(English and Gillen,2001).
If I was to relate my learning experience from writing these poems to the work of David Kolb I think the point in which i start to learn something new is in a 'Concrete experience' (doing something) as genuinely in life, taking it back to my singing,(for example) the teacher could describe how to change from one position of my larynx smoothly to another vocal quality as many times as they like but if I try it myself with that in mind, that's the point in which I am learn. In my poems the action has normaly taken place so I've 'done' then its moves round the learning cycle to the 'Reflective Observation' of reviewing what has happened and so on.
Another thing I observed when reading my reflective poems was that I mentioned listening to music atleast twice, genuinely in the past week it has been me listening to music that has stimulated me to finally write the poem at the end or at some point in my day. Stimulated me to create.
This got me thinking about my inquiry, for a while now I have noticed the importance of music for me on a everyday basis. How it effects my mood, or as i like to describe it my (daily colour). Therefore i am going to research and brainstorm about the effect that listening to music has on me this could lead to music therapy.

Melodic change of mood

In a bad mood I woke today,
no income, cold toes,bills to pay.
My plans are slowly falling apart,
I need to unravel,wake up, get smart!
Cheer up! i think,things arent that grey,
doublie click on itunes,what to play?
I sit and find my heartbeat race,
Type fast,warm up, a whole new pace!!

What's this favour?

"I need a dancer" a friend replied,
unpaid, small gig, undignified.
I weighed it up, then chose a yes;
possible contacts made, plus more or less.
The days went by, to her i asked;
"when's rehearsals?" "Unfortunately Jo your time has passed.
I checked my texts, then shocked to find,
i hadn't finalised! it must have skipped my mind!?

Already Wednesday

Yet another jam-packed day
just looks like lunch,chat, latte.
Names to remember,emails to reply,
a jazz band formed in a blink of an eye.
Phone rings a favour asked from me,
then rings now a casting for t.v.
Gigs booked here and there,
Not allowing me to stop and stare ;)

'The Invisible Worker'

So a day of doing nothing i feared,
then all of a sudden it all appeared.
Time wasted,cold, sat on my bum,
emails, calls planned a week of fun.
Oppurtunities arrised from not doing much,
A job landed just from keeping in touch!

First attempt of reflective poem...

I wrote this whilst commuting to meet a friend-

Chosen bus ride to avoid sweaty train,
weaving through the rush hour traffic, a non existent fast lane!
Watching the city ants leave office blocks with their sofa in eyes,
a shuv here,a trip there, the station their goal, there's no compromise.
The sunset peaking through the silhouettes of tall, shiny blocks,
shop assistants grinning whilst bolting the doors and locks.
Sniffing kids being dragged along by their mits,
then me, warm for now but soon to have cold peripheral bits.
No rush, iPod in
Enjoying a not so mad Monday of meeting and greeting!

First draft of Map- The Networked Practitioner

The Networked Professional

Looking back on the notes I made at our campus session on wednesday I realised what an impact it had made on the way in which I now look at myself as a Networked Professional and how this course is going to improve it in my Professional Practice.
I originally thought of how I use my 'professional networks' to get me a Job but generally that was just a paid job in mind.In the Plenary of this weeks session Adesola made a great point; thats it's not always a paid job we are after whilst networking, it's also part of our creative journey, by using the people/networks we make along the way to sculpture who we are as professionals. This was a point I could connect with and stimulated me to expand on, by using the idea that these contacts made on our creative,professional journeys are almost like 'Junctions'-'Trainstops' on a tube map of us as a 'Networked Professional'.
The day started with us individually thinking about our own sources and ways of networking which followed by steps and discussions.

• Self assesment
• Discussing and comparing our ways of networking with a partner
• Sharing discoveries and ways to improve these with the group.

During these stages we attempted to compare and relate these to theoratical perspectives.

We then divided into small groups to embode our individual maps and ideas together to make a diagram.
! this is where a blib, hurdle or learning curve took place.
Our group (Nicholas, Nikki and I) put alot of time into discussing such a small part of networking;
Linear ways such as our Agents,Web based tools and Colleagues,friends etc.

However after being prompted to look outside of the box and to think of BOTH 'certain' and  'possible' scenarios, this made us realise there was much more to networking. For example our meetings, introductions and social events that make these networks.
Which helped us to come up with the idea of the tube map of networks,using different ways e.g Community of Practice. As a line then have the ways that come under this title as stops,juctions etc.
 I am currently working out how to post a draft I have had to draw up on microsoft onto here, as my scanner Isn't working :(

We presented these ideas to the rest of the group and listened to their outcomes from the session, other interesting and useful ways of clarifying how,when, where and who we network were shown on wednesday and are talked about in blogs like Joannas. They had a couple of diagrams which I have found extremely useful during my journal writing.
Thank god wednesday made me dig my teeth straight into the readers to learn more! so far so good.