Routes into enterprise
This post is part of the ongoing commentary on the workshops I am conducting with Media Studies students at York St John University. The workshops are based on the Digital Footprints programme I have developed for HE, FE and Secondary Schools. You can read more about it by clicking here.
What is the larger picture?
In case this is the first post you are reading about the project, I have included a brief description of what is going on. I am working with second year media studies students at York St John University to create a web-presence for one of their departmental magazines. The students have been divided into 7 groups and each will pitch their idea for the web-presence. Along the way, they are also required to define an identity for their group by establishing the context within which they are operating. They also have to create a chronological record of their work/thinking through a blog. This will have an impact on their pitch.
Week 2!
We are now on week 2 of the programme. The initial exercise of self-reflection and subsequent formation of digital identities through the use of keywords produced some interesting results. At first it was difficult for the students to take a step back and reflect on their strengths and professional aspirations. But after a lot of discussion most of them have achieved some degree of self-awareness. This has had an impact on the way they are communicating their ideas to other members of a group. When I walk around the room I am happy to see some engaging debates taking place.
One voice…
Although individual students are aware of their professional aspirations, some groups are finding it difficult to merge these into a single, coherent voice. There are a number of reasons that can account for this, but I would like to focus on one particular aspect. Let me take the example of a group that includes an aspiring business manager, artist, fashion designer and a public relations officer. When it comes to communicating their professional aspirations to the other members, each student has mentioned a very specific career that is based on their perceptions of it. For example, fashion designers are glamorous, public relations officers lead exciting lives and so on. Unfortunately, every other member in the group has a different perception of the career, which has created a lot of confusion. This issue has been conveniently side-stepped by clubbing all careers into an umbrella term – marketing. So the group decided to work as a marketing agency.
From Marketing to Trend Spotting
I know just about enough of marketing as a profession to realize that it involves a period of rigorous academic study accompanied by extensive field work. When I put this to the students they were a bit disappointed. So we started discussing other career options which could act as a conduit to their marketing career. Along the way the students began voicing their professional aspirations in more personal/subjective terms. It emerged that every member was quite attached to the idea of trend-spotting. This immediately opened a number of additional avenues – A&R professionals for music companies etc. Once again students were disappointed by the lack of immediacy. You cannot just become an A&R executive. So we started looking at entrepreneurial avenues. Since they were all interested in trend spotting, I asked them to have a look at whatFace Hunter does. The man has built up an international reputation for himself by obsessively taking photographs of people from across the world and cataloguing them on his website.
This struck a chord with the group who were able to see a tangible/credible career based on their personal aspirations that did not fall into a pre-defined category. All ideas about marketing agencies and such were abandoned and the group began discussing how they could contribute their individual insights to create a convincing online trend-spotting agency.
Enterprise Development – scaling professional aspirations
This brings me to the point that even though enterprise development has gained a lot of importance in HEIs there is too much focus on the end-result rather than the journey. In order to become successful entrepreneurs students don’t necessarily have to conform to pre-existing standards. There needs to be a greater focus on self-reflection and awareness. This coupled with flexible thinking can create a readiness for opportunity rather than a sense of expectancy. Realize what you are good at, think of ways through which you can achieve professional satisfaction and then go for it!
18
Feb 10
Creativity and Collaboration
Seeding collaboration
Increasingly I find that the focus of my work is shifting towards mainstream education. Having delivered several workshops to undergraduate students over the past few months I consistently find that there is very little dialogue between students across different disciplines or even different years in the same degree course. Everyone seems to be moving along a rather linear path. However, I feel that beyond the domain of essays, assignments and marks surely there should be some sort of impetus placed on collaboration, even if it is through the extracurricular.
The freedom to explore and exchange ideas can be a fantastic source of inspiration and development. It also engenders flexibility in thinking, which can have a long term positive effect. After all, who would you rather be in a professional setting – the insecure individual who is unduly attached to his/her ideas, or someone who has the confidence to draw from various sources to generate and express ideas freely and watch them take shape through discussion and debate.
This principal forms the basis of the Digital Footprints programme I have developed for students in HEIs. One of the primary objectives of this programme is to get them to reflect on their strengths. Then, using the concept of keywords as the currency of the web they create virtual identities on the WWW. Over the next few weeks this identity is continuously shaped and moulded to suit different purposes. For example, sometimes I set them a challenge to define their identity as sitemap for an imaginary website, in no more than 8 words. Without the distraction of an interface and all that goes with it, can they convey a sense of who they are through this sitemap. Is it possible to make a statement or even to intrigue? Experimenting with their identities in this playful manner appears to be quite a liberating experience. The students always actively engage with this process.
Seeding collaboration – Workshop at York St John University
A few weeks ago, I delivered an introductory session to a series of workshops with undergraduate students at York St John University. This is a variation of the Digital Footprints programme with a focus on working collaboratively. Over the next couple of weeks I will be working with them on re-branding a departmental magazine. Students have formed 6 groups and each group has to deliver a pitch for the direction they would like to take the magazine in, they also have bolster this pitch by creating a convincing virtual identity for their group. It was interesting to observe the shift in group dynamics as they began the process of defining their identities. There was serious ‘reflecting’ going on around the room.
I hope to post more information about the workshops over the coming weeks. May I request you leave a comment if you are interested in this work.