The Networked Professional

Task 3a & 3b

My Current and Established Networks

Mine is a complex network of people and information network with multi dimensions and layers.

Over the years of teaching Dance and working in other industries, my people network has expanded considerably.  To date I remain in contact with some of the dance students I trained with 30 years ago and even more of them today since Social Networking sites such as Face Book, and Linkedin.  Since the School and College ‘reunions’ have appeared such as Friends Reunited, this has been a great new source and provision for fresh friends/professionals for networking. 

Most of my friends and colleagues of my generation,  are no longer  hungry to establish a career or find our true calling in life as they don't seem to have any reason to further prove much more to themselves their family or others.  To a certain degree, we have ‘arrived’ after years of work experience, building skills and a degree of financial stability.  It seems our concepts and plans for the future have seemingly come to fruition at this time.  I have had a number of discussions with  my friends and colleagues about career or jobs at this time.  These happen to be about job changes.  Namely,  redundancies, early retirement or health reasons.   With this current challenging climate in mind, helping a friend or colleague find a new job or career through my own network of contacts can be very satisfying to me. I recently helped a friend by introducing them to a contact that was able to help secure a new job in the hidden market.
Why is Networking so important? 

• it can provide you with help when needed
• it offers you expertise beyond your own,

My current Networking includes;

Face Book                               Friends Reunited

LinkedIn,                                  Websites

Smart phone                             Discussion Forums

Skype                                      Network Support sites

Video Conferencing                  Events

Blogging                                   Exhibitions

Email                                        Charity/Fund Raising Events

 Here is a useful link to a presentation on;

 How to Network

I have found one to one meetings and group discussions still the best way to network and get clarity from the lines of my initial enquiry or links.

Today I am forging new links with specific people to add to my map of networking professionals.   I will also need to get involved in new ways and improving the way I network.   I would like to attend more lectures and discussion sessions and to make improvements on my website and complete my  LinkedIn profile.

Cooperation

Experience and I trust, wisdom, has prepared me to know that Cooperating should be mutually beneficial. If I make contact with an old associate or friend for information, help or advice, I do this knowing that we have built a relationship and understanding over the years based on good reputation and mutual respect knowing that we wouldn’t take advantage of one another’s time, position or situations.   It is something I learnt that is a hard lesson of life, for myself.  I am a person that takes time to invest in friends and associates.  I soon realised early on that I needed to be build and maintain very good reputation of myself and my business to keep in association with my specialist contacts.  Wikipedia’s description states;

Reputation of a social entity (a person, a group of people, an organisation) is an opinion about that entity, typically a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria. It is important in education, business, and online communities.

The Game Theory

Linking with some of the strategies I read from The Complexity of Cooperation (Axelrod 1997)   I recall a series of events that lead to a close friend of mine and I to stop working together as it almost destroyed our friendship.  Initially we both collaborated on a Dance project and gave the same amount of time and energy to it and so shared the accreditation, it got to a point that I was putting in more hard work, time and effort only to receive the same accreditation, well I wasn’t happy so I argued for a bigger share of accreditation.  By this time my ego and reputation had grown and I defected with a different strategy.   I learnt an important lesson not to engage in business with a friend or at least if you do to have clear defined rules of engagement.  In this situation it required a delicate balancing act to work aside another person in a creative capacity.  I would have to lead or they would take the lead and I would assist for a short time. I understand this to be inherent genetic behaviour with me rather than my ability to use strategy

My understanding Affiliations vs my experiences with Affiliations.

It seems, we as humans want an alliance, association, connection or partnership with someone, group, social and private events.

It could be seen as a ‘needs to an end’ or various levels of ‘you scratch my back…..’ or ‘Quid pro quo’ (Latin meaning ‘what for what’) I found Affiliation has a direct link with The Game Theory, whether you use strategies and or your genetic behaviour in the end you will always move your links with people to suit your individual game plan. 

At first as a newly qualified professional you need your first chance to step onto the career ladder so your old teachers/contacts are essential for that recommendation, feedback and support. Your strategies constantly shifts and changes at differing levels. You begin to see a change in your private and public life and keep those affiliations separate. I agree with The O’Conner and Rosenblood 1996, model of social affiliation rings very true with this as I have experienced it when my level of contact varies. There are times when I do need to be on my own and at times with just one friend.  There are times to when I need to be away or have no contact with my family.

I believe I have been a good teacher or dancer from the feedback and responses I have been given but times change and learning changes. The numerous times the words of ‘promise’ for a job or dance contract through a new contact that disguised themselves as friends or responsible manager, only to be left stranded.   So my very first lesson was not to instantly trust, but to establish how mutually beneficial we can be to one another.  The outcome over the years is that a genuine friendship or professional mutual respect evolves. 

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I have similar views to Leanne Watson;

 I believe we all learn from experience, and situations in our lives vary and send us on different paths, leading to different contacts and connections within those networks. Really understanding why we do things and need certain things is what will help us grow and understand our professional and personal lives further.

Stripping Back

OR

Going back to find its origin.

I am finding this one of the hardest things to do?  The layers upon layers of information and knowledge that has built up over the years of ideas, theories, thoughts, new technologies, programmes, gadgets,  new ideals, new worlds, new ways of seeing and doing things.  All of these emerging ideas could make you shut down your mind completely.  Are we not over complicating things for our thoughts? Aren’t we just modifying and changing or moving words around for changes sake.  Isn’t this all time consuming and consuming us?  Don’t most of us eventually come up with the right solution, words, answers or stumble on an idea at that needed moment in time just through process of experiencing life as we evolve anyway?  So what is the end purpose of all this for you?

One example of stripping back to basics is currently being shown in cookery programmes.  We are being encouraged to go back to using the basic ingredients and the simple way of preparing food.  They are taking us back to when cooking a dish with pure ingredients and no modification to its originality.  It seems that too many additions take away the purity and wholeness of the dish.  This could be said of most things including dance and teaching.

Another example is the social dance, Salsa, I believe it is becoming a show piece?

Does fusing dance styles make the dance original?  I think keeping the styles close to their classic origins in form, keeps our culture of dance from becoming thrown into a melting pot and loosing the pure identity of that style of dance.  An example I’ve seen on YouTube video of an X factor programme in India showing a young couple dancing ‘Salsa’.  This was an incredible jaw dropping performance with many Ariel acrobatic moves but only showing a few basic Salsa steps. In what way was this a Salsa dance routine?  The New York style Salsa seems to be heading in this direction with more choreographed moves, it is rapidly becoming a show pieces rather than a social dance compared to Cuban Salsa which seems to be keeping to the purity of the origins and culture of the community dance.

It is a continuing debate with new emerging Salsa Dance Teachers that have little or no training in dance.  Let us all go back to being authentic to our culture and true to our origins.

Do you have something you wish to strip back or go back to find its origin or even simplify?

Useful Links - Arts Magazines, Education Agencies, web sites etc.

Here are some useful Arts magazines and links to web sites. 

This is about Arts, Education and Job opportunities

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

This is an Arts Magazine about Arts news,  jobs, events and classifieds

Arts Hub

This is a job agency for Dance, music and PE teachers covering key stages I and 2. I have used this agency in the past to get my foot in the door of education.
PPA Cover Ltd 

This is an organisation that invites schools and youth clubs of all ages and abilities to participate in an organised showcase around the UK and performing their showpiece to like minded audiences with judges and VIP's watching. This gives Teachers and students the opportunity to experience all that is related to a musical performance.

Rock Challenge

Campus Session for Mod. 1 9th Nov 2011

This Campus Session was taken by Alan Durrant. 

Mapping can take form about any subject or about the NOW or the FUTURE. Mapping can also be used for frequencies or for the nature of the engagement or different ways of networking.  Above is a general map of the here and now on networking.  This was a collaboration of the ideas within my group on the day.  Note the use of networking with our families, remind ourselves that we can make use of their experiences and their contacts so it goes beyond the obvious group, thus including the next layer and so forth beyond that layer.  This is something that may not be obvious at first. I make the most of my family who's professional lives include;  Research and Development within Telecoms industry,  Music, TV and video production and Finance and Economics..  The obvious network are the Social and Media networks as in FB, Twitter, blogs, Forums etc.  Include your professional colleagues within design, music, dancers also any employers and think about their networks.

Points raised within the other groups;

• How much time do you spend on networking?
• Social Networking -  culling the people that do not give back
• Networks is about decisions and choices on whom you keep in touch with that is mutually beneficial at the time or may be in the future.
• Mapping as a 'Time Line' a journey of time,  possibly your future and how it keeps moving, changing goal posts.  We are currently changing our careers, we are uncertain so, a 'snakes and ladders' effect is happening.

Assessment Component
This was a break down of Portfolio Part 1, 2, and 3
Critical Reflection.  Explain what you have learnt.  You are your own manager or coach of your professional practice.  Your advisers will not tell you what you are doing is wrong or correct.  It's about your experiences, what are the changes, what are the key themes, what are you most sure about, what will I pursue further.
If nothing makes sense about Kolb's theory etc., then write about that. Take a slightly distant view.  It's NOT about how you feel, it's about making sense of that moment and what methods do you use.  Post on your blog or in your journal.  Realise it's a demonstration of your appreciation of YOUR position, include what you want to investigate further after realising something you missed.  Do read other people's blogs.
Evidence.  This could be in the form of a letter, blog or images.  Somethings will be harder to support with evidence.  Practice writting in your blog, post it ask for feed back.  There may be some private writings in your journal that you do not wish to disclose and without naming people and events can give an outline and conclusion..
Send an electronic version to Avni, link any appendicies to electronic version.
Send word document to Avni at Trent Park address.

It was the first Campus Session attended as I have work commitments and I must say how glad I was to be part of the group.  It showed me that there is much support if you ask for it and that you are all thinking the same things. I was glad to have attended and met the other learners.
Hope this will help in some way.

Inquiry Task 2d Please give me your thoughts and suggestions

During my half term week, there was more time to reflect on themes that may have emerged in my post that would give me an indication as to a new inquiry.  In spite of thinking that I have calmed down since the crazy start of September and thinking strategically about BAPP it appears that this isn’t the case with me.  Initially panic sets in, followed by a mass of ideas to deal with then the time consuming steps of elimination.  It has to resonate with me and demonstrate that there is a purpose for this inquiry.  So, how is this course influencing me and where is it directing me to? Are my peers influencing me?  I enjoy reading people’s blogs especially when referring to their life experiences, motivation, commitments and personal development.

However, I haven’t come across another mature fellow learner on this BAPP course like myself to really connect with, but  I am inspired by many practitioners on our module, one example is     Liam Conman very strong writing style and writes with true conviction and clear outcomes and other modules. I have followed Stephanie Thomas blog with admiration as she clearly shows in her posts, links to how she has, perhaps, come up with a probable final question.  At this point my numerous lines of inquiry look at the ‘health benefits of dance’ to ‘does the world of dance have a place in the world economy’? I need to narrow these down and focus. 

I enjoyed reading about the choreographer Twyla Tharpe ‘The Creative Habit’ (Tharp, Reiter 2006)  I admire her, her depth and matter of fact.  Another idea springs to mind about comparing trained ballet dancers technique to contemporary dance techniques. I will investigate this further.   

But I love giving time and space to children to explore, navigate, lead, expand their imaginations beyond their daily routines through music, dance, movement and sound.  It is reasonable to say that I have and do submerge myself in such activities or dreams and visions to find equilibrium in my life.

What makes me angry? What makes me angry is naturally intelligent people/students who decide not to do anything with their lives once they graduate. What do they do with all that accumulated knowledge? I don’t understand totally but I understand it is to so with choice, circumstance and influence.

I have introduced in this task a small part of ‘The Networked Professional’ looking outward at other people’s ideas.

I won't rush this line of inquiry, I know eventually that a Topic will emerge, but I know I will still panic.