What if orchestras suffered from the problems of most teams?
You glance down at your ticket to make sure you’re in the right spot. It says Row O, Seat 12.
Your view of the Carnegie Hall stage ahead is nearly perfect. Your seat is positioned about 15 rows from the stage in the section just off to the right from center. The red velvet seats underneath you are soft and confortable. You wonder how often they have to replace seats in a pretigious, one-hundred and thirty year-old landmark like this one. Your anticipation builds for the awaited performance, your eyes wander the intricate, gold adorned moldings that adorn the historic concert hall. The ceiling high above must be 6 stories tall. Every seat is filled. Several stacked layers of balconies loom above and around you as they wrap the amphitheater in a crescent shape. The whole space is majestic and awe inspiring. Every detail fuels anticipation for the performance to come.
The musicians of the orchestra begin to march in from both the sides of the stage. Every single one of the three thousand people in auditorium goes immediately silent. You could hear a pin drop. Again, the anticipation intensifies.
You smile as the musicians begin to play.
But something isn’t right.
As the musicians begin to play you begin to notice that they’re not all playing the same song. Some of them even appear to be changing songs in the middle of their song.
Your smile quickly fades and is replaced with confusion.
You look closer and you notice that there's no sheet music in front of any of them. There's no conductor, no metronomes, no drums. There's nothing at all helping them play together.
Suddenly, some guy with a tuba just stands up and starts belting out a solo. It doesn’t fit with the song at all. I’ve seen this before, it kinda looks like he’s trying to get promoted. Then a few other soloists jump up as well. A flute. A guitar. A violine. They’re all playing solos at the same time. None of them go together and each is trying to play louder than the others.
The sound keeps getting worse.
A guy trying to play the piano looks frustrated and gives up in defeat. The person sitting next to you explains that there are some new people in the orchestra. They've actually just started. They've never actually played any instruments before. But they heard about playing instruments in college.
Finally, the the band didn't actually have enough resources to get instruments for everyone. So 11 of these people are just humming.
What is this music sound like?
This is horrible noise. It's excruciating. You can't deal with it for very long.
It sounds like jazz.
No, I'm just kidding. Jazz doesn't have those issues. It has different ones.
But many of the world’s teams actually do have those issues.
Strategies and plans are changing all the time. Team members aren’t working together. New people don't have the training and space that they need to get up to speed quickly. And teams don't have the tools or the resources and tools that they need to be successful.
The music that our teams are playing together sounds like garbage.