'When should someone be selfish and when should they co operate in an ongoing interaction with another?'
Axelrod, R. (1984)
This statement and the whole idea of co operation has got me thinking about what situations do I co operate in and when do I use others for personal gain? I don't believe in using people just to squeeze information out of them or to get what you want however reflecting upon how I network I have realized that there are some networks and people that I only co operate with so I can move forward with my career plans and then I defect from them. Here are a few examples:
My Agent: When I first signed my contract with select management I did everything I could to impress the team that were sending me to auditions. I made sure I kept them informed with how each audition went and what I wanted to be put up for, I also kept my page (on their website) and spotlight up to date. I would ring my agent fortnightly just to ask about castings and to let them know what else I was doing to further my career. Now, however, its not that I have completely defected and fallen off the face of the earth, but because I have a performing contract for nine months I don't feel the need to call in or ask about new castings or what I should be doing to enhance my portfolio etc. I was invited to a dinner with the whole agency and did not make the effort to go, which really I should have as when my contract ends in November I will need to be put up for more castings.
Spotlight/The Stage/Dance cast: Obviously now that I have my new job I do not connect with anyone on these casting websites, I feel that I should keep up to date with whats happening in the dance world but its hard when you don't necessarily NEED too.
Bird College Network: Although I speak to a few people from college its no where near as many as when I was auditioning. During the period where I was out of dance work and attending auditions I would frequently message all the people within my Bird College loop, I even took time to visit a lot of them so as to stay in the Bird loop. Having the knowledge about auditions that were coming up or who was going to what was not my only motivation for connecting with my college class mates however looking back I think it really was a large part of why I kept in contact with so many of them. This seems obvious now, as I rarely make time to message anyone from Birds but I dont like the thought of just co operating with people for personal gain, it makes me feel uneasy about the world and about peoples intentions.
In my new job I work with five other cast members and we are under instruction from not only our dance captain, choreographer and director but also our manager. Our manager basically organizes everyones rotas and when they're working etc, he also ensures costumes, dressing rooms and our accommodation are kept in good condition. Recently, as a team we have not been co operating well. Initially when the contract started everyone seemed to be working together, however recently we have found our manager to be defecting from us. There were a lot of small issues that seemed to build up and when our manager decided to firstly work against us we ended up not co operating with him and it created an awful work environment. Finally everything came to a head and we had to come together for a meeting. Everyone explained how they were feeling etc and we did manage to sort out the issues however if we had not mutually decided to co operate it would have been a very hostile work environment.
I do believe that mutual co operation is the right way to work within a job situation, working your way up does not need to be malicious, but there may be oppurtunities where you can 'use' people for their skills etc to get ahead. In terms of networking, you do need to be careful when defecting against others as the performing arts industry is a 'small world' and if you treat someone with little respect and just use them for their knowledge it could then come back against you. The people that have helped me get to where I am now were more than willing to provide me with information that would help me move forward in their career, they also know that I would always do the same for them.
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