Tap into the power of multiplication

Enthusiasm and joy etched upon her face the conductor raises her baton; she brings it down to create a massive, solid wall of sound.

The orchestra sees the conductor's instant, shining enthusiasm and mirrors and magnifies it a hundred fold: each player's enthusiasm building upon that of the conductor's, creating and projecting wave after wave of glorious sound.

The audience, seeing and hearing this rich harmony of enthusiasm, responds with attention, then growing excitement that eventually erupts into cheering, clapping, bravos and stamping - demands for more.

The conductor turns to receive the acclaim and sees, hears and feels her own passion reflected back at her - one thousand fold.

The audience receives its encore. 

Never under-estimate the power of your enthusiasm. Show it and watch it shine in other people's eyes. Watch it magnify and gain power within those around you. Then tap into it to create something extra, something valuable, that unexpected encore of a shared idea that will make all the difference.

Compose Collaboration

One way of defining a piece of music is as a vehicle created to encourage and exploit collaboration between people. Even a solo piano piece usually involves collaboration between the pianist and the person who put the notes down on paper; the composer creates the structure with directions and indications about how he or she feels it should be performed and the pianist interprets these through the perceptual filter of his or her knowledge, experience, preferences and emotional reactions to the music. Even if the pianist also wrote the piano piece there has still been collaboration with the piano maker, who has created the medium through which the composer/performer expresses his or her self.

It is this fusion between performer, composer, instrument maker and indeed many others (venue managers, lighting engineers, etc.) that creates the collaborative magic of performance. The composer’s notes on the page are dry and dead without the rich interpretive juices of the performer and the specialist knowledge, experience and skills of those who create and manage the mediums within and through which they are brought to life.  

Perceiving composition in this way, as the creation of collaborative structures that people can contribute to, help develop and bring to life, has led to the creation of new and inclusive forms of music that maximise the roles of everyone involved, including the listeners (an excellent example is the Toronto Symphony).

This innovative approach to composition demonstrates that focusing upon and valuing not only the act of collaboration but also the design of its mechanics and dynamics (the all important intricacies of when it will work, where it will work, how it will work and with what it will achieve things) can enhance the quality and effectiveness of the work people do together.   

When working with your partners how much attention do you give to the structures and processes that need to be built within, around and between your collaborations to ensure their success? Have you and your collaborators become composers of collaboration, giving as much thought, care and attention to when, where, how and with what you will collaborate as to the act of collaboration itself?

Ask yourself whether you have:

Provided easily recognisable cues or signposts that will prompt people towards interesting and significant areas and helpful people and resources? Have you made the entrances and pathways to and within your collaboration easy for people to find, enter and follow?

Decided upon the instruments you will use for your collaboration, the tools that will make your collaboration possible? Will these be physical (e.g. providing accessible and suitable accommodation where people can meet), virtual (e.g. creating online communities such as Wikipedia), human (e.g. recruiting people skilled in collaboration), or a specific mix of all three (as is the case with ground-breaking and innovative collaborative learning approaches, a good example being the Collaborative Contract Programme of the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia)?

Ensured your collaborative structure can be re-arranged for the forces that are available or needed? Is it flexible and modular enough to be easily dismantled and reconstructed, allowing different partners to link up, share ideas and cooperate in a wide variety of stimulating and innovative ways?

Enabled partners to go solo when they need to? Do they have the private spaces to relax, consider and work on things on their own before discussing, sharing and developing ideas with others (as is the case for those contributing to Wikipedia)? Additionally, can different partners take the lead part as and when needed? Have you created ‘cadenza points’ within the structure of your collaboration that provide individual partners with the opportunities to demonstrate and use their virtuoso skills and expert knowledge to their own and others’ advantage (as is the case when a collaboration embraces the emergent expertise and experience of its collaborators and gives them the time, space and authority they need to influence its work and direction and enhance its outcomes).

Constructed the collaboration’s rules of 'harmony and counterpoint' and ensured that everybody understands them? Are there structures in place that help people consolidate agreements? Do you have processes that enable people to disagree in acceptable and constructive ways? Have you put in place conventions or ‘rules of performance’ that allow and encourage people to work together safely, share their ideas and create new and valuable things?

If you are interested in finding out more about collaboration please see my other blog: http://cuttingedgepartnerships.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Music and collaboration come together again

Music and collaboration come together again.

Nothing else need be said!

(Although I will not be able to resist in a future post.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k15ODM7Pg4w&feature=player_embedded

Integrate diverse ideas

For Sibelius and Elgar, the creation and linking of diverse ideas was the very foundation of their compositional style. Listening to a Sibelius symphony is like listening to a jigsaw in sound. Musical fragments are introduced, developed and then gradually combined, so that by the end of the symphony ideas that were diverse and unconnected have become joined up and unified, part of a greater whole.

When listening to an Elgar symphony this process of fragmenting and then unifying is not so obviously apparent, but a description of his compositional process is very insightful. One of Elgar’s friends describes entering a music room and being greeted by the sight of musical fragments scattered all around: pinned to walls, placed on chairs, covering the floor. Amongst all this was Elgar, looking from one fragment to another, identifying links, making connections and creating novel ways to develop and combine his ideas. This short anecdote illustrates very clearly that creating a stimulating, unified whole from diverse, independent and fragmentary ideas was central to Elgar’s compositional style.

We can apply the above approach to problem solving in general. Firstly, we need to generate lots of diverse ideas for solving the problem. Then we need to explore how each idea could be combined with the others in order to create new, even better ideas.

Ultimately, we need to explore whether or not one holistic, joined up solution can be found that successfully incorporates the majority of ideas generated.

Tell stories

There are many examples of story telling and narrative drive in music, from the country and western song, to the tone poems of composers such as Liszt and Richard Strauss, but perhaps the grandest example of story telling in music is opera. And perhaps the grandest and most ambitious of all opera is Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

It is worth standing back from this gigantic monument of a work to appreciate its timeless, story telling characteristics. There are heroes and heroines and impossible undertakings. There are villains who seek to undermine the heroic progress and replace it with one of their own. There are endings and new beginnings. There are victories and defeats and countless reversals of fortune and through it all, intertwined with the story's narrative, there are essential truths about the nature and meaning of life. 

In terms of the music itself, significant ideas and characters are given their own musical themes and these rise out of the musical ocean accompanying the action when they are particularly significant or the onward narrative demands it. In Wagner's operas this background, boiling ocean of ideas is not only symbolic of the subconscious and conscious feelings of the individual characters, but also of the overall feel of the world depicted, its ‘background radiation’, the cultural and psychological atmosphere within which the characters live and breath.  

It can often be very effective to take the above principles and apply them creatively to our problems and issues. Who are the key players and are they positive or negative forces (heroes, heroines or villains)? What are or could be their roles? How powerful are they and how important are they to the situation or problem? What challenges, events or tasks are crucial to your success? Which ones need special (perhaps heroic) attention, the mastery of specialist skills or the application of expert knowledge? What is the overall story of the problem? Where were its beginnings? What is its history, its back-story? How has its narrative progressed so far? How many subplots (secondary problems) have formed? When will all the subplots or secondary problems come to a head? How is it all likely to end? What type of ending would you like? What are the alternative endings? If it looks likely that it will end tragically how can you alter this (or at least survive to fight another day)?

Lastly, what type of atmosphere or background radiation surrounds the problem? Within what ocean of culture, thoughts and emotions does the problem exist? How has this shaped the problem? Indeed, is it the very reason for the problem's existence?

Transform mediocre ideas

Schubert was an exceptional songwriter; he could conjure great songs from mediocre poetry.

He was able to see the seed hidden within a cliché ridden poetic phrase and make it flower in music: to focus upon the smallest spark of inspiration and kindle it into flames of creativity. For example, in "An Die Musik" Schubert transforms sentimental "candyfloss" verse into a song that beautifully expresses his love of music.

Most innovative ideas begin life as mediocre ones. At first, just like anything new-born, they seem capable of nothing except devouring time and resources. But, given care and attention, they can transform into mature and beautifully crafted solutions.

The next time you are confronted with a new-born mediocre idea, look beyond its half-baked appearance for that small sharp spark of inspiration.

Give this spark your care and attention; help it transform into something excellent.

 

https://www.amazon.com/author/charlesmlines

 

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Introduce the new by way of the familiar

Whilst listening to Elgar’s 2nd Symphony for the first time, I remember experiencing a very surprising but not unpleasant sensation. The music started as expected, perhaps a little subdued in places compared to Elgar’s normal style, but still very much recognisable as Elgar. Then, well into the first movement, I felt that I was being ever so gently but persistently nudged into a parallel universe of sound: one that I definitely did not recognise as ‘Elgarian’. It was magical and fantastical: the sort of music you might hear whilst dreaming of a forest at nightfall.

These dreamlike sounds were very different from Elgar’s usual musical style, and if he had started his symphony with them his audience would likely have been baffled. They might even have thought that they were listening to music by some other more modernistic or impressionistic composer. Indeed, their bafflement could have become strong enough to diminish their willingness to listen.

Elgar carried his audience with him by starting with what was familiar and then gradually introducing something new and innovative. We too can apply this approach when introducing and implementing new ideas. It is especially effective for gaining support from within cultures that are very traditional in their thinking (like Elgar’s Edwardian audience!).

When you next need to introduce and gain acceptance for new and innovative ideas, think about the following:

• The current context or situation and how your ideas are relevant to and grow out of it.
• The specific steps you can take to help people relate your ideas to their personal experiences and current situations.
• How you can present your ideas as additional options that complement and build upon existing approaches.