MoDiP Teams

On the 25th everyone else did their group presentations. We wern't able to because we were missing a member. But I thought I'd do some reflection on my team while it's fresh in my mind. We are doing our presentation in the new year but I will update you on that when it happens.

•How well do you perform in a team now?

If you had of asked me before the team project I would of said I think I work quite well in a team. But after working with the girls for that period of time I think I have improved massively. It's difficult to take on board other peoples ideas if you think you have a great one. But now I think I'm much better at compromising and combining ideas so that everyone is happy.

•Score yourself 1 (rarely) - 4 (often) using the  following:

•I talk to much 3

•I turn up late 1

•I interrupt others 2

•I take up too much of the discussion space 1

•I let other people carry the team 1

•I always think I am in the right 2

•I act as if I were the team leader 2

•I like everything to stick exactly to the agenda 3

•I keep going off at tangents 1

•I get caught up in the details and lose the big picture 1

•I have lots of ideas ,but many are not relevant 1

•I get too emotional 1

•I don’t keep to the deadlines 1

Possible problems in a team and how to deal with them:

•The one that gets away… Constant contact via facebook or phone so they know when the meetings are happening and therefore have no excuse to miss any. Make it clear if they don't give any input then they won't be getting any credit for others work.

•The quiet one…. Try and include them by asking simple questions without putting them on the spot. Meet somewhere where there aren't loads of people around to overhear or hover.

•The bossy one… Stand up to them as a team. If they are pushing for an idea no one else likes then don't let them 'win' just because they are the loudest or most intimidating.

•The procrastinator….. Everyone needs to undertake the same amount of work to make it fair. The procrastinator should be given the same amount as everyone else and told if it isn't completed by the date set then they won't be carried by the team or get credit for others work.

•Something just not quite right…. This should be evaluated and possible solutions given. One should be decided on and needs to be guaranteed to still be done before the deadline.

Before you start ask the team:

•What are our objectives? 

Create a sketchbook and 3 boards on colour, market and brand, with a presentation.

•Why was it formed? 

To practice creating a brand and working in a group.

•What will it do? 

Give us important skills in working in a team.

•What are its success factors?

Learning how to allocate work between team members, having to compromise and combine ideas.

•What external information does it need? 

Mainly the information will be from MoDiP. But other library resources will be useful including the archive catalogues, Peclers and possibly some e-books.

•What is the best this team can achieve? 

For everyone to feel they have contributed and for everyone to agree. For the approval of peers in the presentation and for it to be interesting. To complete everything originally asked of us, and then some.

•What bad consequences are there if the team fails? 

In the unlikely event the team fails it will mainly be a disappointment. It takes every member in the team to allow it to fail. So I think failure in itself will be the worst consequence.

Halfway through team:

•How well is the team doing against its objectives?

So far I think the team is doing well. We have had a few meetings and have been able to quickly come up with ideas that seem to suit everyone.

•Why?

I think we are doing well because we have agreed to have regular meetings so people can't slack for a couple of weeks and rush their part the night before. 

•What does it need to improve?

Attendance

•Will it achieve its objective on time?

I'm hopeful, I don't think there will be any problems.

•Which objective is it most likely to fail?

Possibly the presentation as at the moment we are allocating work and doing it separately. But the presentation will require everyone to be there at the same time to work on it.

•Will it achieve more than it set out to do?

The group is full of strong minded individuals so I think it will. Everyone appears to be putting their all into it.

•Are any external factors affecting it?

A couple of the girls live in Ringwood and Poole so they understandably struggle to come to the 15 minute meetings. Especially as we aren't all in on the same days.

•Will we be able to overcome these challenges?

The girls who live closer will just have to come in especially for the meetings when the girls who live further away are in.

Pros and cons of teams

•Maybe it’s better to avoid teams? 

I don't think you can or should avoid teams. If it happens in industry then we should be doing it now. 

•Perhaps look at it as discovery;

•a) interesting differences 

•b) variety of contributions       

•c) how they fit together. = a team is more than the sum of its parts.

Identify your team personality

•How can you work individually and together to get the best results from all of you.

I think the main thing is to ensure everyone is on the same wave length at all times. It's easy to go off on a tangent if you haven't told the group what you are doing. The work needs to look good as a collective but still be individual.

•How much should I behave ‘naturally’?

There is no reason to change who you are when working in a group. Maybe if you are particularly quiet, or loud then you may need to tone it down or pipe up. But I like to think I'm quite in the middle.

•Who am I most different from?

Probably Jen because she tends to get distracted by the conversation and talk about stuff that, albeit interesting, isn't relevant.

•How can I work effectively with him/her?

Maybe just try to keep her on track and get her to save her stories til the end of the meeting.

•Who am I most similar to? 

Steph or Chantelle

•How can I avoid the ‘clique’?

I'm not that way inclined, I don't like to exclude people.

•How would I like to develop personally through working in this team?

Produce work that everyone is happy with and fits well with everyone else's. 

End of group

•Reflection –on balance do you enjoy working in a team?

I found it a very different experience to what I expected. But it was good.

•What do you like/ dislike?

I liked having lots of input in ideas and not having to do all the work myself.

•What would you change?

I'm not sure I would change anything. It's hard to say until we have done our presentation.

•When did you feel annoyed /upset?

It's rare that I get annoyed or upset and it didn't happen during this process.

•When did you feel most pleased/happy?

When I came up with my main designs. They were all really quirky and exactly what we had in mind as a group. They had information about the product that I thought was written well.

•Did you feel valued as a team member, why?

Yes I think everyone was quite equal. I was asked to do some stuff, I suggested other stuff that other people should do. It was all very evan.

Are there things that caused you stress, what?

I think the presentation might make me stress a bit but won't know until we get to do it.

Wanderlust Hotel in Singapore

I found these pictures and just loved them. Wanderlust is an experimental boutique hotel in Little India, Singapore. It has 29 rooms and was designed by some of Singapore's award winning design agencies given complete creative control over four floors. It used to be a school in the 1920's.

Twitter

So today I joined Twitter, I read it is meant to be good for networking in the art world. The idea of Twitter is to tweet what are you doing at that moment in time. But my phone only cost me £5 and obviously doesn't have the internet. But it's a really good tool for keeping up to date with some fashion issues. It's not going to be like reading Drapers, but I have my homepage set to the Drapers website so every time I go on the internet I read through the headlines, anything I fancy reading more of I just google. Because you have to subscribe to be able to read the articles on Drapers.

Anyway, Twitter.. So I follow trendland, drapers and drapers jobs, Elle, stylespotter, Times Fashion etc. You get the jist, I also follow Jimmy Carr, far from fashion but he is funny.

My tweetless Twitter is GemmaDugan if you want to follow me. I'm going to use it to promote Ethereal Fashion, my fashion brand I created over the summer.

Claridges

gallian for dior designed under the sea theme xmas tree

Peclers

We had a visit from Peclers at uni today. They are always really interesting! The main thing I'm taking away for 2012 is fastenings. The fastenings need to be attention grabbing. Tobacco was a strong colour throughout, combined with various coffees, pumpkins and sands. Along with oxblood, teal and browns, earthy greens and polar whites. They cover so much in the seminars it's difficult to take it all in. But I've discovered that the Peclers books behind the library counter, have CDs in which is essentially a PowerPoint of the entire book. So even though the books themselves can't be removed from the library, you can copy the PowerPoint onto a USB and voile, Peclers browsing whenever you feel like it.

Branding and Marketing

I've been having a little think about branding and marketing. It's probably more to do with the promoters but will still be a good thing to understand and know a bit about. Especially in preparation for opening my bridal shop. I was watching a music channel the other day and Lady Gaga's Telephone song came on.




Talk about product placement! This video shows 10 separate brands, including Virgin Mobile, Diet Coke, Polaroid and Wonder Bread...

I found this amazing free e-book called T-shirts and Suits by David Parrish well worth a look if you want to know a bit more businesses. In this book the key points for marketing are:

1. Marketing is not just a posh word for selling. It’s much more radical than that. 
2. Sort out your strategic marketing (part of your business formula) before planning your operational marketing. 
3. Target specific market segments or specific customers. Draw up a target list of clients to win. 
4. Marketing is a dialogue, not a monologue. It includes listening to customers as well as talking to them. 
5. Not all customers are good customers. Decide which are good and bad for your enterprise. 
6. Are you truly customer­focused or still product­focused? 
7. Build your business around customers’ changing needs. Be prepared to change as customers’ needs do.
8. How much do you know about your current customers, lost customers and target customers? What would you like to know? Devise a way of finding out what you need to know, through various means including direct and indirect market research. 
9. Help and encourage existing customers to recommend you to new customers – so long as they are the right kind. 
10. Define the ideal customer then find one. Then another one, and so on. 

Royal Fashions

ITV came in to interview people to see what Kate Middelton should wear at the Royal Wedding. I am in the background making my final dress for the draping project.

Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops

I watched a documentary called Fashion's Dirty Secret on sweatshops running out of Leicester. Channel 4's dispatches secretly filmed for three months in textile factories. It showed poor working conditions and only being paid £2 an hour and being threatened with their jobs to work harder. They were making clothes for New Look, Jane Norman and other major high street brands. When The respective CEOs were asked of their knowledge they said that the orders had been subcontracted by the company they gave the order to. But if you know the company you are sending your orders to has a capacity of X amount, and you are sending them more than that, you know they will have to sub-contract. It's just a very convenient way for hight street retailers to escape the responsibilities, and possibly the guilt of using slave labour. One of the most interesting things I noticed about the documentary is that the workers in Leicester were sewing in care labels saying they were made in the Maldives.