Margo Blikman 🇳🇱

'Find the differences - research work and making music.'

Years back I started to fulfill a childhood dream - I took guitar lessons. My music teacher very patiently taught me all the notes and other techniques and introduced me to various genres of music. But most importantly, he taught me how to play music. Because playing means, that you empathize with the piece of music, try to get that feeling out of your guitar and give the best you can as a guitarist for possible.

I see guitar playing as a metaphor for the research work I do inside and outside projects - empathizing with your clients and making sure they get the best you have to offer as a researcher.

The research needed with a project question you look at before you get to work - what are the questions, where are the hick-ups, how do you set up the "search strategy," and what do you ultimately want to deliver. This is just like a piece of music, because there too you first look at how the piece is put together, where the difficulties are and how you are going to play it and finally, in what way do you want to convey the music.

Then in the project, when you know where the questions are, what kind of data is needed, you are going to use your years of experience to apply the right methods and techniques to get to the desired result. Coming back to the guitar piece, in this phase of study you are going to determine the proper finger setting, such that you will get through the piece most smoothly.

In the project, you end up analyzing the data found, and drawing conclusions from it. To use them to make sense of the consequences, but certainly also to identify what you can possibly do about it. Similarly with a piece of music - when you have mastered the technical part, and you can play all the notes correctly, then comes the mood setting and intonation - how are you going to interpret and interpret the piece for yourself and for your audience.

In guitar playing, I have incredible fun. This is because of the variety of the pieces, the challenge to go harder and harder and the never-ending growth in development. The comparison with my work also applies here: I still have a lot of fun in this as well.

New assignments create a dynamic where my old knowledge is connected to new ones, where I am forced to step out of your comfort zone to tread new paths. And it gives a thrill every time the final report is delivered - something you are proud of. Like you have played the final notes of your piece of music and it has sounded the way it was intended - a thrill!

Meanwhile, I play in a guitar orchestra.