'Peer Pick' - mentoring and reflective practice between music leaders

Plymouth Music Zone's 'Peer Pick' training was developed in response to our music leaders requesting tailored training and support, without this necessarily being something needed by our whole team. It's been a kind of mentoring with specific aims, and for the most part proved a useful way of quickly getting to the nub or what they needed to know and develop. It was a cost-efficient way of providing training where it was needed. It has also highlighted the usefulness of music leaders having a chance to acknowledge their own unique skills through the process of sharing, and very much a chance to reflect on their practice... 

Plymouth Music Zone’s ‘Peer Pick’ Scheme – Targeted support between music leaders

What we did:

• We invited music leaders to apply to take up the opportunity, helping us work out who this would be most helpful for.
• We also used supervisions and 'snapshot' session observations to help identify skills gaps and areas for development
• We matched the skills across those who needed support and those who could provide it
• We asked music leaders to organise their sessions to suit their own schedules
• We paid music leaders for their time to train one another
• Music leaders tried out new skills within their work and / or made decisions about whether they wanted to discontinue their development in particular directions
• The impact of the scheme was explored in supervisions with the Music Programme Manager and supported by the Training Manager.
• We revisited these specific development areas within each individual’s ‘Capabilities Matrix’ to assess where progression was made.

What we found out:

• Working with peers helped music leaders build on skills without feeling ‘under pressure’ in a group situation
• Rapport was already built between music leaders which seemed to speed up the process of feeling comfortable with one another
• Other non-musical skill areas were also explored. For example one music leader requested time spent to develop a better understanding of programme management and other things that go on ‘behind the scenes’
• A music leader who trained others in developing confidence with music theory and keyboard skills said that it helped him to reflect on his own knowledge and think about how to make this as accessible as possible for those not very confident in this area.
• targeted support was a powerful way of learning and developing
• Music leaders developing as ‘trainers’ could practice trying things out things with their peers before potentially rolling out training to external organisations etc.
• The process helped to build more team resources and capacity
• Music leaders who had not been trained in formal music education talked about being helped to demystify things that had seemed intuitive but not always easy to explain to others.
• These intensive bits of training were useful in addition to the bigger ‘whole-team’ training offered at Plymouth Music Zone.
•  All music leaders said that they valued the opportunity to connect with others because they sometimes experience feeling isolated in their work over time and felt that all opportunities to share their experiences were valuable. 
• All music leaders expressed (even through being asked to apply for the Peer Pick scheme as an opportunity) that it helped them reflect on their skills and built confidence and helped them place value on their own ways of doing things.