This week, Susan and Ingrid discuss how each person's version of success differs, but these versions can exist at the same time within an organisation – in fact, for a thriving organisation, that diversity is crucially important. They talk about the mismatch between what we might believe we signed up for and the actual reality of a role, and how organisations can make this clearer for better outcomes for everybody.

Some good questions:

🎻 When auditioning or interviewing for a role, are we representing that role accurately with our process, and our choice of excerpts and interview questions? This is our first chance to set people up to succeed, by choosing the person who is best for this actual role. Also, clear expectations are vital for psychosocial safety.

🎓 Educators, are we providing opportunities for young musicians that represent the reality of a modern music career? Are we doing education concerts, playing with click tracks, learning to play live with a film? Sometimes we don't even have to teach it – but we do need to talk about the things that make a career in music sustainable.

👥 What is it for, and who is it for? Our training model sets us up to expect a certain set of motivations, but the reality is that our work is mostly for the audience. We need to be united as an organisation around a clear shared purpose.

Find Ingrid at Ingrid Martin and Conducting Artistry

Find Susan at Notable Values

PODCAST TEAM

Production support and audio engineering by Thomas Grayden

Theme music composed by QiQi

Theme music performed by QiQi and Darby Lee

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This podcast was recorded on Waawiiyaataanong Country and produced on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and acknowledge the ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous communities.

This week, Susan and Ingrid share some thoughts and stories about blame, diverse roles, and the fact that everyone is trying their best. It can be so easy with our efficiency-seeking brains to quickly mark out whose "fault" something is, and use simple reductionist language to describe complex situations. In our complex organisations made up of complex people, we need to honour complexity!

🔑 Key Takeaways:

🫵 Avoid binary, 'blameism' language that reduces complexity and generalises experience - us and them, right or wrong, always or never.

🌺 A blame-free environment is an environment that allows people to take risks for constant improvement, and allows everyone to focus on the big picture of success.

🏔️ Remember that we are on the top of Mt Stupid, and that's ok. Assume competence, assume good will - and be aware of what other assumptions we might be making.

LINKS

Mentioned this week:

Brene Brown (Feelings)

Feelings Wheel tool

Adam Grant (Mt Stupid)

Find Ingrid at Ingrid Martin and Conducting Artistry

Find Susan at Notable Values

PODCAST TEAM

Production support and audio engineering by Thomas Grayden

Theme music composed by QiQi

Theme music performed by QiQi and Darby Lee

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This podcast was recorded on Waawiiyaataanong Country and produced on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and acknowledge the ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous communities.

This week, Susan and Ingrid discuss the way just about everybody in an orchestra can feel like they're the only one who knows how hard their job is. This is an intense environment, and it can be easy to forget that the systems in a classical music organisation are as finely tuned and interrelated as the ensembles they support. Join Susan and Ingrid for a chat about how we can appreciate the difficult work of those around us, and gracefully let others know about the work we're doing in our own roles.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

🔎 Everyone's job has its own complexity - we need to be able to broaden our lens to see what is going on for those around us.

🧩 Everyone starts with just their piece of the puzzle - as leaders, our job is to show the lid of the puzzle box to let everyone know what we're doing, and trust that everyone is playing their puzzle piece to their full potential.

🔧 It is vitally important to recognise the expertise and preparation of offstage staff, in the same way as we recognise the expertise and preparation of instrumentalists.

LINKS

Find Ingrid at Ingrid Martin and Conducting Artistry

Find Susan at Notable Values

PODCAST TEAM

Production support and audio engineering by Thomas Grayden

Theme music composed by QiQi

Theme music performed by QiQi and Darby Lee

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This podcast was recorded on Waawiiyaataanong Country and produced on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and acknowledge the ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous communities.