The Frame Around Your Picture

Chuck Beasley (pictured above) was one of my dearest friends. He was also the lead alto and musical director for a 19-piece big band that bears his name to this day. Chuck had another role in our band, one that you would never know unless you were actually in the band: Chuck arranged most of the music we played.

I knew nothing about the art of musical arranging until I joined this band and became friends with Chuck. An arranger creates the setting in which a particular tune is played. The introduction to the tune at the beginning? Usually an arranger did that - not the composer of the melody. Which instruments should play which parts of the song? An arranger decides this as well. How will the song end? Once again, the arranger usually has a huge impact in what you hear last. This is why our version of Duke Ellington’s song Take the A-Train sounds different when our band plays it.

You don’t hear much about arrangers anymore, as that term was used frequently during the era of the Great American Songbook. To be sure, the role is still there… but it’s now the producer of a particular album of songs. ?Jon Landau helped Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ramone produced Billy Joel’s biggest hits, and Nile Rodgers turned Madonna into a megastar. They are truly the unsung heroes of the music business.

You might be wondering why in the world I’m talking about music when I usually write about leadership, work culture and career development. The idea of arranging a song actually has a fair amount to do with the working world, as an arrangement of a song provides a vital link to getting the composer’s message across:

Context.

Why Context Matters

How many times have you been asked to supply information to someone without knowing why or for what project? You’ve probably done it already today and didn’t give it a second thought. Sadly, it’s more the norm to ask things all the time without providing context. I’ve been guilty of it throughout my career.

I didn’t really understand the importance of context until we started doing a series of focus groups a few years ago with leaders who had made the transition from middle management to senior leadership. We wanted to know what the transitions were that these leaders had to face. The #1 transition issue they all faced? The weight of their words on others.

Because of their level in the organization, questions suddenly became directives. Thinking out loud sent people scurrying to create projects the leader had no intention of initiating. The conclusion was clear to these leaders: setting context wasn’t just important, it was crucial.

What’s true for people at the top is still true for the rest of us. If our request of someone else might be viewed as curious or even controversial, they will start making up a story as to why we are making the request. We all love to judge the motives of others, but the only problem is that we’re usually wrong.

Why We Avoid Setting Context

To practice what I’m preaching, I don’t want to judge others for not providing context when asking for something. I can only speak to why I’ve avoided it in the past.

The reason is time: I told myself a story (consciously or unconsciously) that it wasn’t necessary, it was just a little thing, or I was worried I’d have to give you a project overview (and I was just being lazy). The other dimension of time that made me miss setting context is a sense of urgency… especially if the info was a request from a person much more senior in rank.

I don’t think any of these are great excuses, and I’m sure you have your own. The irony in all of this is that we will spend more time working on a project when we don’t provide enough context. When people don’t understand the what’s and the why’s of something, they often don’t give you the info you need.?You then have to go back and set context anyway… wasting precious time and attention of everyone involved.

Setting Appropriate Context

Setting appropriate context isn’t really hard, nor is it time consuming… if you know what I call the “Big 5” (these are also my mandatory elements of any PowerPoint deck):

1. What is it? 1-2 sentence project description
2. Why does it matter? What outcome are you trying to achieve? How does this outcome benefit your organization?
3. What do you need? Be specific here - data, analysis, an opinion?
4. When do you need it? Please give the real date, not the date you would turn it in if you were doing it
5. Who can I call if I have a question? Specify a person, not a functional group in your organization

Now once this is all written down (edited, and shortened- twice) … save the document. Then you can attach it to an email or cut/paste parts of the document into your email.

Too Much Context

Can you provide too much context? Yes, you can, and my field of work (Human Resources) is notorious for giving too much context in an attempt to establish credibility with business leaders. We fill pages of PowerPoint decks with who we’ve talked to, the extensive research we’ve performed, and how this project aligns to key corporate values.

It’s not to say that some of these things aren’t helpful, but they should be added to an appendix at the end of a presentation- not at the beginning. Too much context is why senior leaders get crabby and jump ahead in your presentation and start asking you questions before you are ready to go there. Stick to the Big 5 and the crabbiness will go down.

Start Today

Music and work actually have a lot in common with each other.?Both take orchestration, both require people to have a shared vision, and both desperately need context in order to work. ?An arranger frames a song with their arrangement, and you can frame your project with the appropriate amount of context.

Have you ever noticed how different a piece of art looks when it’s framed vs. unframed? That’s what context provides for your project. People really appreciate knowing what something is about before they help you. And if you practice setting context with every request you make of others, you’ll notice that they give you better information… which makes your job easier.

The good news is that unlike getting your favorite painting framed, setting context is much cheaper.