Lessons from Choir Singing
Robin N. Cook
Organizational Development/"Cultures of Innovation". People don't resist change. People resist being changed.
I think there are some lessons in facilitating from this reflection, in part triggered by a recent thread about group ground rules on an OD listserve:
I have a solo quality voice. In fact, I have often wondered whether I might have had the potential to be operatic caliber if I'd had training early on.
Many years ago, some members of my synagogue back in Chicago decided to form a congregational choir. A couple of the choir founders heard me singing at a Friday night service & invited me to join. I had never done ensemble singing before.
One of the most difficult things for me to learn at the beginning was that a strong, powerful voice doesn't work very well in a choir. The key to choir singing is to blend with the other voices. If 1 or more voices stand out identifiably, the choir doesn't sound very good. While I always seemed to have natural, untaught breath control, it took me a while to learn the different sort of breath control that enabled me to blend.
As I thought about the experience, it occurs to me that learning to blend probably has some strong parallels to learning to be a good facilitator...
Continuing on my journey to strengthen the resilience of individuals, teams, leaders, & organizations, that are navigating transitions to change.
5 年Blending is indeed something that an ensemble strives for as it makes the most pleasing vocal sound. Having said that, there are also times for a solo voice to stand out. I believe there are lessons here too, Robin, for facilitating a team, in this case a choir, toward a beautiful & spiritually uplifting religious service.?