Breath...Teamwork

I am used to being busy all the time with little to no relaxing time because I feel lazy if I let myself have too much downtime. But during this summer I have sometimes felt like I took on to much and I think I would have failed if it had not been for my teammate at the Museum Danielle. She has been flexible and also many times even a buffer between the museum's curator and myself. I have a very strong personality and I'm very driven and sometimes I feel people find this quality not as a strength but as a threat. In my internship, because I am not being paid they don't have me sign any contracts or agreements. My position is a volunteer one and with that comes with its own issues. 

I was told that I could use verbiage from the museum to work on conference proposals but when I sent the proposal to the curator and Danielle, the curator said I plagiarized them. I thought we had an agreement that I could use their verbiage because I wanted to make sure that I didn't misrepresent the museum and its message. So that is the short story to the situation I was in. 

Danielle came to my resue to explain to the curator that my intentions were not malicious and that I didn't want credit for their work, I only wanted to advocate for them. When Danielle talked to me about the situation I felt I could react two ways; one in which I was offended and angry, and the other to put myself in the curator's shoes and try to see things from his point of view. I did the latter. I am so glad that I did or I doubt I would have been able to nurture this relationship and continue my internship. Sometimes in our careers, we really must take a set back and take a picture of the situation so later when we calm down we can make clear and unemotional decisions. 

When you are working with other people you really have to take into account the things going on in their lives and their background to understand where they are coming from and how you can work more efficiently with them. Teamwork can be a challenge sometimes but when it is done people can achieve a great many things. 

Danielle and I will be giving a session in Kansas next weekend over How to Create a Civic Society in the Museum and I will give you more details on the planning of that in a few days.