Week 0 - Another Project to Drag everyone through...
The Natural Leader
As you can probably tell from the title, I'm not a massive fan of group projects. Don't get me wrong, some of my most successful group projects at university have resulted in some of my most enjoyable memories, however the postivity emitted from these projects have been equally dampened by projects that have been cumbersome and a pain to resolve. This message exchange in first year for a maths group project pretty much sums up my fustration:
In all of my group projects at university (both mathematics and music) I have always been naturally assigned the project manager or leader of a group. Reasons for this are likely to be stemmed from past experiences including:
- Volunteering in running and leading after school clubs and scout programmes
- Starting up my own business when I was 13 (Self-Motivation)
- Being selected to lead sections of orchestras
- Naturally enthusiastic about learning new concepts and meeting new people
- Starting up my own groups and initiatives and bringing people together eg) Barbershop, Composers Initiative, Orienteering Club - even if some of those things didn't turn out successful in the end
- Balancing social, work and education studies in my A-Levels and University
Comparing my past experiences with a definition of leadership in a business context:
Leadership is a kind of power where one person has the ability to influence or change the values, beliefs, behaviour and attitudes of another person (Ganta and Manukonda, 2014).
The most important word above, I personally think is 'influence'. If someone is an influencer, then they have the ability to encourage changes of ideas or workflow in an individual or group in a confident manner. Experiences like leading after school clubs and starting up initiatives and getting people to believe that they will work is a fine example of influencing and is probably the main reason why I am usually assigned leadership roles. It will be interesting to see in this collaboration, now that I am older and wiser, whether the same dynamic will happen or be different and to analyse why this might be the case.
Initial Reactions
After reading the module handbook, my first thoughts were that this was going to be a challenging module.
COVID has had a major impact in the way that I have interacted with my peers on the MMus course. I have a lot of fantastic connections around Surrey and beyond that I have collaborated with in the past few years (performers, composers, videographers, lighting assistants, tonmeisters) and it did feel like these people wern't going to be very useful for this module. There wasn't much interaction between course peers in the first semester due to meeting restrictions and some cultural barriers (more detail on later posts), so my first thoughts were the group project flashbacks of being paired up with students who are either not enthusiastic about the module or still need to be told by a leading figure when to wake up and how to put their pants on in the morning! These students in particular don't hold much value in my development as a forward-thinking musician - I would much rather be learning about new musical genres that students are passionate about and finding new fusions.
The other concern I had was how I was going to get the marks I deserve. Too much in the past, have I taken the softer approach with allowing students to get similar credit to myself when in fact they have done little to no work. The blog is worth 50% of the module and that was pleasing to hear as that is indepedant work. However, from my knowledge, the other 50% was going to be based on criteria such as group dynamic rather than the final project. This then raises the question on who I was planning to work with. If everyone was going to get the same mark in the group, then I would want to avoid anyone who I thought would drag the group down in terms of efficency which is a major factor in the flow and output of the group. Being part of a cohort of 6 meant that choices were limited, so getting to know the cohort within the next three weeks would be of vital importance, in addition to looking out for soft skills which can potentially forsee whether they can be flexible in their input to the project rather than just presenting their safe-bet skills and only relying on that. It was going to be a module where using skill-sets in a creative manner from a limited size cohort was going to be critical.
Previous Documentations
It's always positive to look back and reflect on previous group collaborations and how I can take experiences (both positive and negative) and apply them to future work. Some of these documents and important quotes by myself are attached below:
1. Professional Skills Development MAT1041
This was a reflection on the project I took a lead on back in first year. Although the reflection is more about what I did rather than a critical analysis on the process (Not quite a 90s student!) it does provide some interesting comments that support my above analysis:
It felt natural for me to stand up as the team leader of the group. I enjoyed getting to know everyone's personalities such that I could assign the roles which optimizes the performance of the group.
Motivating every member of the group through the trickiest of situations is something I also enjoy. As a musician I have already developed these skills of determination and pushing ideas forward and I felt in control of the majority of situations.
There were times when I had to motivate members of the group for which they didn't listen or take on any of my advice. I could have been a bit more stern and forward with my motivation to get them working again but I had to balance not creating a negative atmosphere in the team.
I also felt that I left some of the Microsoft Project software to the last minute because I was scared of the new software.
Despite being an extrovert, I do exhibit introvert qualities that I feel makes a suitable team leader.
The 4th quote was a surprise for me to look back on. I'm certainly glad that within the past year or two, the sense of being 'scared' hasn't been the case - shown by delving head first nto the world of electronic music and as a result my creative process has drastically improved and expanded further.
Now I know for a fact that I did not have the positive feelings that the above documentation explains. I felt hard-done that I put in a considerable input into the project whilst other students didn't contribute as much and received the same result. So my initial aim for Research Training is to select people that are naturally enthusastic about their specilism in music so that they are engaged throughout the whole process and are openminded to the concept of fusion.
2. Pathways in Musicianship A MUS1035
A pianist, electric violinist, electric guitarist and drummer were all on a mission. To arrange some epic classical music from Mendlesohn's Violin Concerto and Debussy's Petite Suite to contemporary music that excited everyone and pleased Tom's dissonance interest. The overall collaboration felt organic and I certainly felt respected within the group dynamic - everyone taking equal credit at the end because we all contributed something major to the collaboration. I managed to find my old diary where I kept notes after each rehearsal - perhaps they might be interesting to discuss in the comments or later on in this collaboration?
A quick observation: I noticed that both projects above had at least one student who was perhaps not entirely organised. However, the projects had different outcomes and my feelings towards those students were different as well. It would be interesting to see why this might have been the case and whether my feelings will be similar of different on this project as well.
Although I am rather aprehensive of this module with the reasons above, in the words of Tom Armstrong 'Bring it On!'