Last week we talked about getting the best from every musician in your orchestra. This week we want to discuss the performance of the symphony as a whole. This is what it’s all about, the performance of the team.
At the core, every orchestra and every organization’s raison d’etrê is to be more than the sum of its parts. Without this level of performance the world would be better off with just the individual components so they could find another more productive way to organize themselves. Consider a company that is rife with politics, has poor communication and has cumbersome processes that impede its people from serving their customers. Regardless of how special a product or service the company is offering, the company is not adding value to the process.
From a musical point of view one can imagine an orchestra of musicians all playing perfectly, but to their own tune. The outcome can be labelled as a cacophony, and the entire sound is clearly not greater than the sum of it parts. The whole hides what might be stellar individual violin and flute performances, that could each be enjoyed on their own, but are wasted in the poorly led orchestral effort.
In contrast, imagine a concert where the players are proficient and well practiced, and play the concert from their hearts, in alignment with the conductor’s interpretation of the music; but to their own ears, and the ears of their conductor, they made some technical mistakes and created an imperfect performance. Here the concert’s ending would likely still be greeted with bravo’s, as the sum was infinitely more than the parts, even with the imperfections.
Sound has resonance which amplifies the sound level and can create the beauty of harmonic notes when multiple sounds come together at the right pitch. This is the leverage in music where orchestras are so much more than the individual instruments. Organizations need to find their resonance as well. Vision, leadership, alignment, commitment and engagement ensure that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Organizations that move ahead together with the hearts and energy of their people will find a way to resonate with their customers, and along the way will prove their reason for being.
