Listen; give one’s attention to a sound
By using the re-membering therapeutic practice to interview both Tom Bambrick (Global Academic Quality and Performance Specialist at UOW Global Enterprises)
and Elle Petrou (Senior Manager, Strategic Projects at University of Wollongong) brought a kind of narrative therapy giving us, the audience an insight into their work lives and personal attributes. Listening to them do this in an interview format helped to understand the importance of listening to one’s choice of words as well and the way they explore storytelling individually.
As an outsider witness I heard Elle speak to part of her job being to mediate between people and “helping people see situations using other views”, the difficulty of her job is to try to see and encourage others into different perspectives “so they can understand the impact of these decisions are going to have on people… try to open I guess the blinkers across their eyes at the moment.” It is so significant to her job because her job is people focused and communication focused.
Following, Carey & Russell’s described technique of outsider listening I used my role as such to really intake what Ell was saying to typing out key phrases and terminology to make my listening more meaningful. I interpreted how Elle found her path to this job in the way she clearly stated that one of her core values is people, she said “I’m truly passionate about getting to know people and understanding their stories and their background, and how decisions impact individuals.”
When asked about her club of life and if they too would see this core value reflected in her she whole-heartedly agreed. She mentioned her father was shocked she did not become a lawyer because of how passionate she is about injustice and people. “I would definitely say my parents would definitely agree that that’s my personality. I would step in if there was a crisis at home, or I felt that there was an injustice, or there was something wrong. I’m the first person to my hand up and question things. I’m not aggressive, though, so I’m one to listen first.” As an outsider listener is was my role to pay attention to preferred stories and alternate stories emerging from a spark of memory. And it was interesting that Elle brought in her upbringing and her pre-working pre-university life story in referring to who she has become today. I felt this was also an example of The understanding that no one is completely passive in the face of the circumstances that impact on them, “absent but implicit. that they are always responding to what is being done and are active in that response, provides us with a frame through which we can always find pathways to stories of personal agency by which people can direct their lives.
When it came to Tom’s interview, I found him to be even more of a storyteller, it was as if I was in his mind with him as he spoke through his thought processed and became more literal in his recall of work and his professional field. Whilst Elle could not divulge too much because of the confidentiality of the projects she works on in her profession. Tom shared his quality of taking initiative in the workplace, “I’m worried for what’s going to happen if nobody else steps , and makes that decision, because it seemed as if there was a decision paralysis around like: Well, whose responsibility is this? Whose role is this? And because it doesn’t neatly fit into anybody’s role?”. Tom shared he is usually the first to put his hand up to take on these roles.
Tom attributes his growing qualities at work through building a trusted club of life. “I like to recognize the strengths that other people have and really draw on those strengths to solve problems. So, I do it in my own friend group as well. So, outside of work I will make friends with people who are different to myself, so that I can kind of challenge me, but also to help other people within my network.” Recognising a skill he may want to obtain, he learns from his surrounding relationships. This is exactly what Michael White meant when he coined the term. The idea that peoples identities are shaped by what relationships they build in their club of life with key members who have had particular parts to play in how we have come to experience ourselves. This is the key difference in re-membering and remembering, as it draws our attention to this notion of membership rather than to a simple recalling of history.
References:
– Carey, M. Walther, S. Russell, S. 2009. The Absent but Implicit: A Map to Support Therapeutic Enquiry.
– Russell, S . Carey, M. Year NA. Re-membering: responding to commonly asked questions.
– Russell, S. Carey, M. Year NA. Outsider-witness practices: some answers to commonly asked questions.
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