Overview
A department manager of a global bank approached ConductVision with the following: they were expanding the team due to a higher number of new corporate and private clients. New members to the team had difficulty adjusting. Communication did not run smoothly, misunderstandings were piling, tensions growing. One new member who came to the bank with flying colors and a brilliant resumé was constantly underperforming. Why, nobody knew. The manager discussed this numerous times with the team, tried to find out why but to no avail. They undertook several traditional team trainings and individual coaching methods, however problems persisted. Finding out about the unique approach of ConductVision to team and individual challenges, he asked us to help solve the lingering problem.
Something had to change urgently.
Approach
We implemented ConductVision's Orchestrate your Business Program throughout a 3-day off-site team building training. Our approach for this client was to first raise awareness, bring understanding as to the why of their current challenges, and together come to a solution. We kicked the training off by first introducing the team to various music structures. This triggered with the team the 'out of the box' thinking process, and gave them a completely new way of thinking about their team. They now understood that different structures can be equally successful but it was crucial to find out what team structure was a natural fit to their team. Our second step was to find out what instrument they represented in their team, in other words, what their individual roles were in the team. With the focus on the challenges of this particular team (as stated above), an in-depth analysis of individual roles in the music team offered a transparent, natural and clear overview of the importance of indentifying in a business team the same correctly. Our third, final step was to put Step 1 and Step 2 together.
Results
The implemented program gave the team the opportunity to view their team and themselves through a completely different perspective. The pure fact that their initial association of music was that of a happy pastime or for some a passion, relaxed the team, brought down stigmas they might have had, put a smile on their faces and opened their senses to new information and experiences. Looking through music teams and role-playing members in a music team, they came to solutions which they could own. Team dynamic transformed, bringing out the best in themselves.
It fulfilled all our expectations and we were able to see our business from another perspective. There are a lot of similarities between music and business. You were able to show us ways how musicians (especially conductors) lead and you always found a link to our business. Your training supported also our team spirit a lot.
The main discovery was that the root of poor communication and misunderstanding was a misperception members had towards the team and towards themselves. The analysis of the string quartet explained how important the correlation between a person's temperament and role in the team is. The above -mentioned member underperformed because his personality and temperament collided with the role and position he was given. His team leader upon hiring him, assigned him the role of the 1st violin in the team, though the member was by temperament and disposition a 2nd violin. The string quartet here proved again an excellent example of how all members are equal and equally indispensable. This was important for both the team leader and member to understand. Once we shifted him to a new position in the team, his performance dramatically improved. He was himself.
'In a string quartet both violins are leaders in their own way...'
Steve Job's thoughts on the string quartet as a model for business proved with this team the point:
My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people.
Conclusion
The conducted training highlighted the often neglected importance of understanding individual personalities and their role/job description for a team's success. Implementing lessons learnt from our program, this client showed that higher productivity and employee satisfaction are achieved when the two are aligned.
Analyzing music structures and musician's roles in a relaxed and enjoyable way, helped them understand and find the parallels to their business themselves. In this way they were able to own their findings and come to sustainable solutions.