Will you share your life with these people?

Many people social networking is a fad.

Plenty others say that's nonsense and it's the future.

I'm becoming more aware of the need to be an active part of a community. I'm thinking that this is where it's at.

Whatever the community - a family, a student flat, your colleagues, the guys in the pub you see every night, the parents you spend more than a passing second with - these connections enrich our lives, or at the very least give us something to talk about!

Back to this technology stuff. Whatever happens in the months and years ahead, we're unlikely to end up back in the dark ages of having to phone a bank - never mind go into it - to find out how much is in our account. But that's not really social.

As the network effects start to infiltrate how we consume content (has anyone else found that following the twitter feed relating to a TV show or live event while watching said show/event) the experience becomes richer, albeit a little nosier. Sure, we've still got to learn how to filter and how to find space to reflect and form our own conclusions, but there's something in the connectedness that can add such depth.

Finance is typically something we don't talk about much. Well, we probably do, but it's generally in abstract.

What happens when some of the walls come down and we can feel comfortable sharing our financial experiences with our (genuine) friends?

I work for a Financial Services company (please don't unsubscribe now...).

What does it mean for our organisation to embrace this change - how can we lead it?

I'd love your thoughts!

Creative Insight

Jonah Lehrer spoke for under 10 minutes at Poptech 2009, but listening to the podcast I was reminded of the value of being outside. Of not being entrenched. Of being aware of more than what is just to hand. Of being an outcast.

"Sometimes, the most impossible problems - the most intractable problems - they seem difficult and intractable, not because they actually are, but simply because we haven't look at them from the outside."

At work, we've undertaken the Clifton Strenthsfinder *thing* to understand more about our personality. Our make up. My top five strength themes were:

Belief, Strategic, Connectedness, Responsibility and Relator.

I see these play out a lot in how I have developed as a worker over the past 15 years, but one thing that I value more and more these days is stepping out of the situation to try and see it more clearly. To perhaps remove emotion (positive or negative) from it and see what might be taking place. Perhaps rationalising it a little more. That can be tricky and I'll be honest that there's a few things on the go that I'm finding it hard to be objective about!
Taking time to be outside of the bubble/fishbowl/activity gives a perspective so easily lost from the frenzy of activities. That frenzy is all well and good - and often essential. I guess this is where teamwork - and varying skill-sets - is vital.
And it's the opportunity for creativity that flows from this position of observation - and segregation? - that I find refreshing too.
But there's more.
One of the themes I took from Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was that very few of those notable discoveries in science were made by someone at the centre of attention. Einstein was marginalised, yet his impact on scientific thought was astounding. Darwin too (like him or not) was seen as a bit of a whack-job for years.
And for me, far more importantly, Jesus lived on the margins, yet his influence was across the culture of the time. And through the cross an eternal influence.
So that wee podcast is worth a listen/watch. Really. What does it make you think about?

"the whole"

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being back in a recording studio playing some drum tracks for a new project.  Inspired by a conversation with David Stewart on Facebook, here's the story...

Clive Parnell,  who was also part of IndigoEcho, managed to get some funding together (through his employer UCCF) to get some worship songs recorded - with a view to giving over 1000 CDs away to students.  I've heard the songs over the past few months as he has worked the melodies out, thought a little about structure and pace and all that good stuff.  Despite my best intentions, I've not been able to contribute much to this process - time & energy being considerable factors in that.

So, last week I had the chance to jam through the songs with Clive, Gary Francis (also of IE *fame*) and Thomas Dean (not of IE, and in fact far younger than I like to consider at this time.  We played through some ideas and I came out pretty confident that I had some good ideas.

In the past when I have recorded, it's been songs that have been played for a year (at least) so the parts were pretty much sorted out live and we were just replicating that for the recording.  Even when I helped on the Mystery Tent recording two years ago, while I'd not been playing the songs, we had a clear idea of how things were to work.

Clive had recorded the guide parts for the tracks in Monday.  When I turned up at Foundry Music Lab yesterday, got set up and ready to go, I wasn't quite prepared for what happened next.  We basically re-wrote most of what I was playing on the spot.

I had a few choices to make - either spit the dummy, get all precious about *my parts* and go in a huff or just respect the perspective of the producers and get on with it.  I went with the latter (part of me thinks 10 years ago I would have gone with the former, but that's what 10 years will do for you).

Why did I *submit* to these guys who I don't really know?  Three reasons - they do this for a living, I don't and they had a wider perspective than I had at that moment.  They were seeing (okay, hearing) things that I wasn't.

I recognised that we also had a common purpose.  To make the best recording that we could.  We all have a stake in adding to the whole rather than trying to be the whole.  I think you learn this the hard way. Or at least I am!

My experience on the day was great - we got some tremendous sounds (once I figured out what I was supposed to be doing).  I'm eager to hear the other parts (I won't get that until the mix is complete this is a simple session gig for me).

My thought on production - live or recorded

Musicians (as with many artists) can be a fickle lot.  But for anyone involved in doing collaboration as part of a team (musical or otherwise). Spending a day watching and listening to an experienced producer at work can open our eyes to what is possible when it's a team blending their sounds together.

There's a great many cliche's about teamwork, about seeing the landscape as others see it, so let's avoid them, but basically, having a sense of the strategic view can really help people contribute to "the whole".

Or being humble enough to listen (and respond to) the request of an arranger/producer. 

That said, the producer/arranger has a huge responsibility to foster trust with the people they are working with. Trust is not a right, it must be earned. You can have all the experience or musical ability in the world - but if you can't interact with people and understand their map of the world then you run a huge risk of people disengaging from the process and then it's just conflict - which left unresolved doesn't help anyone.

While there's really not a formula to make successful music, there are principles here about honesty, trust and (ahem) harmony that can be practiced - that can be worked at to improve them.  If you want to get better at team *stuff* then you can do something about it.  First, get your house in order (ie get over your pride!) and then share your views by listening (!).  Hear what people have to say, try it out.  If it doesn't work, talk about it and have some real reasons why.  Get beyond *just 'cos* as a reason because, frankly, that wasn't any good after Primary 7!

If someone is better than you - find out why.  What's the difference?  Do you need to be as good as they are or are you able to be excellent at what you do so that you can make a unique contribution to "the whole".

At risk of sounding like a marketing slogan - be all you can be!

/rant

What about you - what's your view on contributing to "the whole"?  Have you done this in a musical sense or otherwise?  Have you learned when to shut and let other things happen?