What would Frank Sinatra do (if he led TSRC)?

"To do is to be.” Socrates

We can all agree that this is true. How does it relate to Tuckamore Simulation Research Collaborative (TSRC)?  To date, we have mounted a number of activities that we can DO together in order to BE the collaborative.  We have workshops, mentorships, research and living labs, and our chop shop under Andrew’s guidance is offering research meetings and presentations.  In addition, we have presented our work at meetings locally, nationally and internationally, and participated in community outreach activities such as MUNbuttoned.  We hope that in 8 months these are enough of ‘DOs’ in order to start to ‘BE’?

"To be is to do." Sartre

One interpretation of what Jean-Paul Sartre meant when he wrote "To be is to do", and as it relates to TSRC, is that if we over-focus on the DO there is a good chance that we would be delivering workshops to empty rooms, mentoring no one, and would have no research to talk about at research meetings.  Therefore we need to focus first and foremost on building the “feeling” of being a community.

If possible, I would like to hear or read about your ideas on how to achieve this goal. You can comment on this blog and hopefully we can have a conversation (which would be an indication of a BE rather than DO).

"Do-be-do-be-do.” Sinatra

To DO is to BE and to BE is to DO are polarities that are both filled with pathways to successes and failures if we focus too intensely on either one.  As a collaborative, we need to focus on how to ensure that we grow our identity, our feeling of community in order to do things together that are meaningful to us, to more strongly identify with TRSC and to discover new things to do…. One way to think about this situation is in terms of polarity management.  We deal with managing polarities every day (e.g., we inhale and exhale) and once we solve the porblem of how to BE, we can use this model to be mindful of keeping a healthy balance between DO and BE.

Sinatra wins for best polarity management!

[Polarity Management is a concept that institutions, including academic institutions should be more aware of. I’d suggest the work of Barry Johnson and Bonnie Wesorick as a starter.]