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"What's he really doing?"
12-Jun-2006
By John D. Van Fleet
Shanghai - An ordinary night in Shanghai, watching an old DVD, Red Dragon. The first scene features an orchestral performance (and a flautist who appears for the only time in the film, because the part becomes parts -- served as amuse bouche to an unsuspecting group of diners), and my Shanghainese friend asked me this question about the conductor.
"He's the conductor - he leads the orchestra." As I answered, I wondered whether this otherwise worldly young lady had missed Western 'classical' music during her exposure to things non-Chinese, or whether I had misunderstood the question.
The latter. "I know that - I mean, why is he so important? Don't the players already have their parts in front of them?"
"They do, but the interaction between the conductor and the players is like yeast and dough - the combination yields something quite beyond the sum of the elements themselves."
"How much difference can it make - the players practice their parts, right? Isn't their job to play the notes accurately, so that each persons' part contributes to the whole sound?"
"The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. If the players were merely to appear on the stage and play their notes, even if they had a flashing light or similar to maintain the tempo, the result would be vastly different. The conductor influences not only tempo, pitch and relative volume, but the nuance of each player's or section's sound. A good conductor also weaves the various players and sections together. A famous conductor once said the difference between a mediocre orchestra and a great one is the difference between light and lightening, and the difference is primarily the conductor."
As I was talking, I realized how the discussion related to my work. I lead a service-sector organization (education) here, and I have found that a peculiarly difficult part of my job getting our staff, particularly the new ones, to stop working as if their jobs are specified tasks, walled off from the rest of the operation, and to start working as integral members of an interactive, communicative 'orchestra' of people aimed at creating an excellent environment for our students. My friend's question reminded me exactly of the occasional attitude of some of our staff: "give me my part and then let me alone to do it."
I can understand why people here might work in such a way:
- For centuries, the majority of people here were strongly motivated not to communicate regarding their work. Communication equaled potential for more work, or more trouble.
- And for decades, very few had the ability to extract marginal gain by providing marginally better service. Sellers could not compete, because the state controlled price and supply. Moreover, in a desperately poor economy, service quality was a luxury the system couldn't afford.
- Plus, many people I meet have never experienced what it's like to be a part of an organization that is well integrated in an effective way, and therefore achieves more than the sum of the parts. Rather, their experience is often that integration and communication degrades performance, because in a system with no incentives, nor training in how collaboration can work, such collaboration results in empty conversation or worse: the more powerful arbitrarily delegate tasks to the less so.
Moreover, while the ranks of players eager to get into an orchestra are legion, the number of people here in China who even understand great service delivery, let alone yearn to be part of great service organizations, is not.
So a key challenge service-sector leaders face here in China is this one - how to get the parts to play together so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? I think I've started to find answers - they include giving the team the actual experience of great vs. poor service, and also allowing them to gain tangible benefit from changing. In our operation, we've designed an incentive system that is more detailed, and offered more frequently, than anything I've ever seen in the West, so our staff can start to feel some benefit, quickly, from being willing to change their mindsets. I also take them for training/experiential learning at great service providers in the city, such as top hotels and restaurants.
But a large component of change-driving comes only with stubbornness (on my part) and time. When our organization started operations more than two years ago, our team were skeptical of many of my strategies and plans. As we've developed into a sector leader, they've gradually become aware that working in ways that characterize great service organizations brings major incremental benefit to the overall organization, and wins high praise from our students.
And I gain an additional benefit -- watching their worldviews change, and watching them grow, is one of the most rewarding professional experiences I've ever had.
So -- following my conversation with my Shanghainese friend, I think I'll buy our staff a season pass to the orchestra.
