Managing music projects, lessons for the business world?

2024-08-11 17:06:17

The relationship between musicians and conductors provides a profound perspective on the relationship between bosses and employees. The preparation of a concert is a project in itself, from the selection of the repertoire to the public performance, including rehearsals, booking concert halls and publicity activities. Of course it is necessary to plan and manage financial resources to cover costs such as the remuneration of musicians, advertising and technical costs, and to generate a profit to ensure the sustainability of the musical organization. But (most importantly) it is necessary to give the public an unforgettable performance, which depends mainly on the way conductor and musicians work together.

These three objectively measurable elements, schedule, budget, and quality, constitute what is known in project management as the “triple constraint.” Meeting their competing demands is difficult because they are sometimes contradictory: To hire better musicians, for example, you have to loosen up your purse strings.

This mechanism is characteristic of any company that works in project mode, and this is increasingly the case. The metaphor of leader-musician and boss-employee is widely used in academic and popular writings. Montrealer Henry Mintzberg, a distinguished management researcher at McGill University, used it to illustrate Different organizational modelsIn what he describes as a “makeshift” structure, the conductor guides and inspires the “musicians” while giving them a degree of freedom to interpret the music in their own way under his direction.

Building harmony

I had the opportunity to work with different orchestras in Canada and France, such as the Lyric Arts Studio of the Montreal Opera and the Orchestre de Musique Contemporain du Québec. These groups, which ranged in size from 10 to more than 100 musicians, met face-to-face with the consent of the music leaders and completed a quantitative questionnaire. The results were combined with on-site observations.

It is widely recognized in the music industry that musicians’ trust in conductors can be divided into four substructures Scientific literatureHowever, they are almost always separated from each other: the leader’s approachability, benevolence, his skills and abilities, and his integrity, which can also be interpreted as his reliability from a technical point of view. Similarly, the measure of cooperation includes four well-established subconstructs, which are usually considered separately: the flexibility or adaptability shown by the leader, information exchange, collective problem solving, and empathy. The assessment of fairness (being treated fairly and impartially), which is often overlooked in such studies, is based on four specific items from my questionnaire.

---

Every Monday, whether you are a manager looking for strategy or an employee wondering about your tier options, you will receive our themed newsletter “Business” in your mailbox with key research and expert advice on working life.

Subscribe Now

---

The responses from 1,500 respondents from 52 orchestras clearly show that trust, cooperation and a sense of fairness constitute Basic Elements The dynamics of the team ensures high-quality concerts and, in turn, successful implementation of the project. The importance levels of the three constructs always tend to be equal. Two aspects of the model, kindness and empathy, seem to play an important role in establishing a happy working atmosphere, which resonates with our work on kindness at work.

Victim of fake notes

The questionnaire also allows for the construction of a “ratio” variable that measures the feeling of being the prey versus the feeling of being in complete control of the predator. This prey/predator model is exactly what we use. Let’s analyze it The relationships in our behavioral theory of organization. This assumes the existence of a social network called a predation web, in which the elements of “the spider captures its food” are spelled out. For predation to occur, there must be harm to the predator, prey, tools, social stigma, and most importantly, unintended effects.

It is almost impossible to find dysfunctional musical groups in which vulnerability is high, not because they do not exist, but because the musicians (not to mention the leaders) are very reluctant to express themselves when the atmosphere is tense, perhaps out of fear of losing their status in the group. For one of these, I arrived in the midst of a cacophony of noise, but I was allowed to conduct research; the group disbanded shortly afterwards.

One musician confided to me during a practice session with his ensemble:

“No one wanted to work with the boss anymore: he was a tyrant who didn’t know what he wanted. Since he came, we were all afraid of making mistakes, afraid of being laughed at in front of other musicians, and we played music no longer for fun, but with resentment. In the end, we no longer even wanted to give the concerts we had planned. »

The triangle of trust-collaboration-fairness is inextricably linked to the inherent vulnerability of every musician. Intense discomfort can cause relationships to backfire and produce defensive behavior. We can then easily descend into a situation where it’s every man for himself.

So, of course, success in organizations that operate in project mode depends on a unified and interdependent system in which trust, collaboration, and fairness are key elements. But we cannot understand these organizations without measuring the vulnerability felt by employees. How can we limit this? We have observed some hints in this regard.

Setting an example

To reduce the perceived threat and enforce the above standards, the manager can meet with employees regularly, for example in informal meetings. Thus, he will really listen to their suggestions instead of tossing them aside or responding to them through endless committees and procedures, thus complicating their tasks and activities.

To focus on unifying rather than dividing company members, post “accomplishments of the month” type messages that emphasize specific actions rather than people. This will avoid insulting those who may feel left out.

Most importantly, this will demonstrate an impeccable work ethic and behavior that is fair to all. Adopting an absolute master attitude or creating an atmosphere where verbal abuse is often unchecked will create anxiety at best and anger at worst, which is never effective. The ultimate goal, of course, is to create the most harmonious working structure possible within the organization.

1723413725
#Managing #music #projects #lessons #business #world