SG: What course did you study at UAL and what is your practice?
AC: I studied MA Enterprise and Management for the Creative Arts at London College of Communication. Presently I am not an art practitioner, I am a consultant. I have a consultancy practice that focuses on team collaboration and facilitation.
SG: What inspired the piece you submitted for the Tell Us About It Project and why did you want to take part?
AC: It was a long time ago. I vaguely remember, but I think it was Terry Finnigan who approached me – I believe that she found out about me through my course director and I was interested to do it. For me, my course was not visual, so it was very much talking about my processes and how I was studying – how I manage my time and how I stayed focused and motivated. The piece that I submitted was an interactive PowerPoint Presentation which was divided into various areas of study, such as work-life balance, getting support from friends, research and ideas generation. People could then click on what they found interesting about specific areas.
SG: How has your practice developed since you graduated?
AC: It has developed a lot because when I was doing an MA I was employed. I finished my MA in 2007 and I worked for a further two and a half years and then after that I set-up my own business – it was on my MA that I developed my business idea. I applied for the MA because I thought it was going to help me do my job better. So, I thought it would give me that kind of focus to understand the creative industries more effectively but, what ended up happening was I started to write a business plan. Maybe I would have started a business anyway, but I know that the MA gave me space and the time to explore what that business might be. The business that I launched when I left the university isn’t the business that I am running now; it has evolved and developed a lot since then. But I can still say that I got my business name when I was doing my MA. The start of my entrepreneurial journey and the MA gave me the time and the space to develop an idea which is around creative collaboration. So, when I was doing my MA, the focus was very much on how to help creative practitioners (freelance creatives) to collaborate on projects and now that has evolved to doing the same within and between companies.
SG: How has UAL contributed to your professional journey?
AC: In many ways. It was an academic course, not practice-based, and it gives you some sort of preparation for thinking about your business idea. It gave me the academic grounding behind my business idea for all the research-based processes and so after I finished my MA, I went on to work at UAL’s Enterprise Centre for two and a half years. I think that the fact that I had a MA in Enterprise and Management for the Creative Arts was one of the big factors that helped me to be considered for that role. So, when I was running the Enterprise Centre, I was helping students and graduates set up their own businesses.
There are two things to consider: building a business idea and getting a job after finishing my masters.
SG: What advice can you give to students currently studying at UAL, especially those from diverse backgrounds?
AC: It is of self-awareness. You have got to understand things like how you work best, what you are passionate about, what you find challenging and difficult and be honest about that. Think about what you’ve got going on in your life and then plan your studying around that. So, I knew when I was doing my MA, I had a full-time job that I had to compact into four days. I knew that Wednesday was my study day and then the other days I was starting work at 8:30 am and finishing at 6:30 pm. I had a certain amount of time in the evening and weekends to read research papers and study, but Wednesday had to be the time when I would go in early, go to the library, get my research papers, get my books out, spend time thinking and exploring and that was all planned around the time that I had. I was really intentional about the hours I had available and when I would study. It is kind of knowing what you’ve got on and working around that; there’s no point in trying to work in a way that doesn’t suit your lifestyle. So, I think that probably the biggest advice I would say is to understand yourself, things that you thrive on and things that you are passionate about and things that you find easy and also the things that you find difficult as well. Make sure that you get the help in the areas that you find difficult and you use your tutors and your support network to help you.
SG: What has been your most memorable project so far?
AC: There’s been a few. I have really enjoyed the journey that I’ve been on. It’s not been easy, but it’s been fun and challenging and there have been lots of opportunities since I left the university and setting up my own business. The one that I can think of happened last year. I travelled out to the States to speak at a conference Google were putting on, it was my first time in the US as well, so I really enjoyed that, it was a really great community. I’ve had some really nice experiences speaking at conferences and events and also getting to work on interesting projects. I think that the thing about my business is that because I work with lots of different clients, I get to travel around and I get to see some really lovely spaces, meeting rooms and retreat spaces. So, it’s really hard to kind of figure out what my highlight is because there’s been so many and everything that I do I have learned from as well.
SG: How do you keep yourself motivated?
AC: Well, I’ve got kind of goals that I set myself. I have a clear do-list as well so I know all the things that I need to get done. I also keep myself motivated by knowing what it is that I want to achieve with my business. Looking at the bigger picture of why I’m doing what I’m doing. I love the work that I do, which is on collaboration and workshop facilitation, but it’s not about the workshop facilitation specifically, it’s more about helping people to create in a better work environment so that they can enjoy their work and they can be engaged. When people engage in their work, then it means that they are happier generally so; that is the kind of thing that keeps me going – knowing that there’s a higher purpose to what I’m doing and even if I make an impact in a small way.
SG: Is there a message you are trying to convey in your creative expression?
AC: I think the underlying message to what I do is in the working world, particularly in the creative sector, and anyone working in innovation, collaboration is a big part of it and I think the underlying message that I’m trying to convey is that collaboration is a skill that we can get better at and we need to pay as much attention to the collaborative process as we do to the production of the creative result. Often in the creative sector, people spend a lot of time focusing on the idea, but not necessarily on how they’re going to work together. We can make so much more of a difference by getting team members to talk to each other, talk about how they’re going to work together, how are they going to enjoy what they do, how are they going to get the best out of everyone on the team and how they’re going to be the most productive and creative they can possibly be.
I would say that’s the underlying goal.
I talk about design in the way that you work as a team and being intentional about how you work together, not just leaving collaboration to chance. It doesn’t have to be. You can be very focused and specific about what you want to happen and then create ways to make that happen.
SG: How do you reflect on your work?
AC: I reflect on my work in many ways. Every time I have a delivery, I’ll reflect on: what went well, what didn’t, what would I do differently next time. Every week, I also do reflection practice which is called like a weekly meeting with myself where I would review the week and write down what happened, what I did and what I got through. If there is anything noticeable around a workshop or if I’ve confirmed some work with a new client, I reflect on them. As I run my own business, I also reflect on how I am feeling because it is important for me to check in with how I am feeling about everything.
If I am feeling anxious – where is the anxiety coming from?
If I am feeling frustrated – what was it that I didn’t achieve?
If I’m feeling inspired – what was it that I did in a week that made me feel really engaged?
This will allow me to do more of that and understand what it is that’s blocking me so I can get through that.
Then I reflect and note down ideas that I’ve got because again when you are running your own business and your practice, you’ve always have ideas for things that you can do and it can feel quite overwhelming if you keep them all in your head. So, I try to kind of download all of my ideas, usually as they come, but at least once a week and whatever makes sense. I’ll turn it into actions and I’ll leave it for a later date to come back to. I also do ‘to-do’ lists which I can then reflect on. I have got a diary so if I remember, I will reflect at the end of each day just to see what did I get done and how is it been going.
So, that’s mainly my reflective process.
SG: What challenges did you face going to UAL?
- How did you navigate these challenges?
- What would you have hoped the university/course/program would do differently?
AC: The challenge that I faced and remember the most was the conversation that I had to have with my employer at the time to convince them to adjust my hours to take the MA. So, I was working full time, I had to put in a proposal to Wednesdays off but to have longer hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I don’t recall any conversations that were difficult or challenging from the side of UAL, I remember that the process was quite easy because I had met the course director, she knew me and she was a champion at getting on a course – so from the UAL side, no, but from the other side of my employer, yes as I had to put in a case and had to convince them. I had to convince them that my role wouldn’t be affected by me not being there on a Wednesday (this was way before the time of flexible working, now it is usual for people to take four days and have one day off to do something else whereas during my time there wasn’t). By putting a convincing argument was how I navigated through the challenges.
I would have hoped the university would have provided support to help me navigate that conversation with my employer back then. Things might have changed now but when I did my part-time course it was a long time ago and I don’t remember there being support from the side of the university.
SG: How have your reflections evolved around the piece you submitted?
AC: The piece that I submitted was a long time ago and when I read it again, in terms of what I said, it was okay. As this was ages ago, for me it is difficult to remember as I just look to the future rather than reflecting on the past and retaining those memories, so I can’t really remember too much around doing the piece. I remember more of the productivity elements around it, creating PowerPoint presentations and knowing that my piece would be different because it wasn’t visual – but I believe the reflections were okay.
