Orchestrating Experts

On Tuesday afternoon we headed into Oxford. The two participants from Milan showed up last for the bus - only a few minutes late but enough to get a mouthful from Francesca who is one of the wranglers and who was anxiously counting us. The “chat” was in Italian, so we’re not sure what she said, but the word italiani featured twice and we all had the giggles. 

Our destination was Balliol College where we definitely got our Harry Potter fix. Sandstone walls, arched leadlight windows and towers, it was everything Oxford is supposed to be visually. Despite the cold, we spent a lot of time outside taking photos. 

Our first session at Balliol was by an 18th century English lit expert, all about language - the current growing use of “I feel” instead of “I think” and “my truth” rather than “the truth” and what that may mean. Really interesting. It pales into comparison however to the next session. We were brought into Balliol Chapel and sat in the pews while our presenter Peter gave us a five minute session on the role of a conductor. The focus was your role as a generalist leading subject matter experts, and the session included a brief bit of hand waving practice with a partner. Then we all individually came up to conduct a choir. A real choir. The singers had been instructed to respond exactly to what we did - start, stop, tempo and volume were entirely dependent on the person conducting. After a first try, Peter would explain what we could do to improve and we had another go. Peter made incredibly insightful, accurate comments (phrased as a question, but really a comment) about our leadership style or approach. Who told him I was impatient and always thinking of what came next ??? It’s hard to believe it was just me telling him by waving my hands. Person after person stepped up to conduct and the leadership feedback was so spot on. Control, not giving others space, micromanagement, ego, you name it, we were exposed. We don’t know each other that well, but enough to feel it was right, and conversations afterwards confirmed it. They changed songs, so the different pieces presented different challenges, and the choir was superb. The choir members also gave us feedback in small groups about how our actions impacted them and how they felt about our conducting. My feedback was that I connected well with them, that they felt I was trying to understand their needs. 

Minimal instruction, no experience, public, instant audible response to our leadership , with the whole room able to hear the impact of our actions. Scary. But… the music was so very beautiful and to be part of the creation in making it added a layer that nearly made me cry. I had a Bach piece - the music, the acoustics of the chapel, the stunning surroundings, just magical. 

The session was followed by a formal dinner in the dining hall of Harris Manchester college, starting off with a grace sung by our long suffering choir members. It was a noisy, fun meal and a nice chance to debrief with each other about the day. I’ve tried to attach a video with a bit of the conductor, showing us how it’s actually supposed to be done after we had all finished our attempts.