Communication Breakdown: My Biggest Challenges

“Through your attitude and actions, you can determine your luck and success”

(Beeching, 2010)

When reflecting on the main challenges that I have encountered during my work placement with Redbox Recording in Belfast, I was surprised by the lessons that I have learned as a result. For someone that is often described as talkative, the main challenges that I had to overcome where those in areas such as communication skills and admittedly, self-confidence. In this blog I will discuss two particularly potent examples of these challenges that I encountered during my placement, and how the lessons I have learned will benefit my work in the future. I will be applying Borton’s Reflective Model to my writing to analyse and evaluate these experiences.

What?

The first instance where I encountered a challenge during my placement was during work on a conference for IACES. During this event, which was both in person at the studio and also live streamed globally, I had the important role of monitoring the live stream to make sure everything was running smoothly, as we had previously encountered WIFI issues during the practice run of the conference. It was during the conference where I had noticed a significant break up between the virtual audience and the studio, and therefore had to try and resolve this issue. I had to communicate quickly and clearly with the control room so that this connection issue could be resolved. During my reflection I believe my communication skills in this instance let me down as it took significantly longer than we would have liked to resolve the problem.

So What?

I feel like this event was significant for me as it highlighted a weakness for me personally. This challenge allowed me to realise that my communication skills are an area where I have a lot of room for improvement. In addition, this challenge has turned my attention to learning outcome 6 in particular, which in turn has helped me realise that I need to improve in communicating professionally in a variety of modes, both verbally and digitally. I understand the need for good communication skills, which is essential in the workplace where high pressure situations can be common.

Now What?

In response, I have been using this information to try and communicate more clearly and efficiently in everyday instances in order to sharpen up on my communication skills as a whole. In the future I will communicate better as a result, and when met by challenges again in the workplace I will be able to speak up and communicate confidently. In turn, this will enable me to achieve more when working on similar projects, as I will be able to work better as a more reliable and valuable member of any team I am involved with.

“Being proactive and developing good personal communication skills are essential attributes”

(Rutter, 2016)

What?

Another challenge that remains in my mind from my placement was during a pre-recording session of a choir and orchestra, in preparation for a live show event in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. During this recording session that took place in the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s, we encountered a range of different problems to do with the network server in the building, which we had to configure to our setup in the control room of the Sonic Lab. It was during one such problem where the Dante server in the studio was proving problematic, where I realised that a challenge I had to overcome was my lack of self-confidence. This was the result of me having more knowledge about the systems in SARC than my employers, due to my time studying there, but still found it surprisingly hard to speak up and voice my opinions on how to resolve this issue.

So What?

Although I eventually found the courage to speak up and suggested ways of troubleshooting the problem, (one of these suggestions actually proved to solve the problem), I still felt very anxious and vulnerable as a result. I then decided from this point that I need to be more confident in my own abilities which is a huge challenge for me. This event was therefore significant for this reason as it taught me to share my knowledge when appropriate, despite how uncomfortable it may make me at times.

Now What?

From that moment on I have used this experience to inform my practises since and will continue to use it in the future. I feel that through more experiences like this, where I have to voice my views or opinions on approaches to workflows or troubleshooting a problem, will allow me to become more confident in my own abilities when relating my past studies to a work environment for example. However, this is obviously not the only reason I wish to be more self-confident. Over time I believe being more confident in myself will allow me to become a valuable team player and a more employable person overall which without a doubt will benefit me in the future as I begin my career.

“we can often only learn these things by observing others, being placed in the situation ourselves and building up experiences that we can draw on”

(Jasper, 2003)

Bibliography

• Beeching, Angela. (2010). Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Music Career. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Jasper, M. (2003). Beginning Reflective Practice. Melbourne & London: Cengage Learning.
• Rutter, P. (2016). The Music Industry Handbook. Taylor & Francis.