Management Lessons from Wind Band Performance
Windband Concert in KBU
I’ve just attened a wind band performance this morning and realize that there are many management lessons that could be learnt from it. The lessons covered leadership, organization management, employee career and even external marketing. It was indeed interesting and I reckon that each of these students who played a part in this performance will one day realize what they’ve learnt which could be applied in the corporate world.
First of all, we could picture the entire band as an organization, it’s made up of the different instruments grouping. These grouping are very much like the different divisions and departments we have in an organization. Some groups will be larger than the other, which makes sense depending on the requirements to make up the right song; just as we don’t expect HR’s workforce to be as large as the sales team.
While listening to the performance, I hear comments like “The guy standing with his back facing us seems to have an easy job, I could have easily done that!” Yeah, true. In fact a part of me felt that was quite an easy job too. But after giving it a long thought, I finally realized that the though part wasn’t about directing, it was about making it there to the position. Just like any CEO of the organization, it takes a lot of courage and challenge and achievements before he finally takes the seat. And definitely, a CEO much respected by the people will often do a better job than those not respected; isn’t that the same in the case of the conductor?
Let’s move on and take a look at the clarinet team. Occasionally we see them switching seats for different songs. It’s like how most of us within the organization who will need to switch roles withint the same department to ensure that project requirements are met. And as for the leader of the clarinet team, he will still continue being part of the team and does not merely direct like what the conductor do. That’s because when a team is small, the leader should play a part in doing what the other employees do too; but when you’re managing multiple teams like what the CEO does, your role like end up being more of a people manager and no longer hands on at the task.
Halfway through some of the songs, a guy will stand-up and play solo for a short period of time with minimal musical support from the rest. All the focus will be on that guy and that’s when the first claps and cheers from the crowd came. In most organizations, we’re just part of it. We’re part of the big group of people that keeps the company going (and hopefully profitable). Occasionally however, especially in turbulent times, we might need a hero somewhere to drive the organization (and this may not be the CEO). During a financial turmoil, the strong analytical and financial skills will need to stand up; when stock is low, the manufacturing team will have the highest pressure. Yes! When the focus is on the “hero”, he gets cheers when things goes well, but definitely mistakes are easily noticeable too.
Next came the quartet, followed by the duet. Which goes to show some SMEs or partnerships (small companies with lesser people). In these performances, very often a conductor is not needed. The overhead is too costly to have someone herely giving directions. When the team is small, it has to be run by people with most passion in the organization. Which means that the leader should do the actual work too (just like small departments). Also, mistakes gets punished and it gets obvious and the slightest error can be seen. In a duet, just like any partnership, both the partners may be doing different task but they have to be in the same direction to produce the best “music” to the environment.
Since we’re now talking about the environment. The reason a organization exist is to meet the environment’s needs; and therefore the reason the wind band is performing is to provide entertainment. They will need to change according to the needs of the environment and tweak according to the situation in the hall. Being ready to go for “encore” if requested from the crowrd is like getting ready to go the extra mile to meet our client’s needs.
Remember how many would think money is the main motivation? From this wind band performance I found that there’s another possible motivation that might not cost and company anything - customer satisfaction! While most organizations go for customer satisfaction and calculate the benefits based on the additional amount sold, it goes a longer way than that. When the crowd claps and cheer louder, we could see the energy coming from performers going higher. That’s how employees react to the pride of being in an organization where people recognize. This probably explains why many big names could underpay their employees but still retain a whole great team. That’s real passion.
The final part about energy. A teams momentum can grow from the influence of team members. When the song were smooth, everyone seems energetic, it flows and the momentum keeps going. Once a mistake is made in a big group, it tend to have a domino effect which causes not only the music but the mood of other performers from their facial expression. But all it takes is for someone with determination to go all out and correct it with another smooth wave, and the earlier mistake will be forgotten. A new momentum of energy came. This is how an organization culture is created.
To many, this might just be another performance by school childrens. But if we were to look deeper, many management lessons and organizational skills have been learnt here.
Share on Facebook
Comments