What a 25-Pound Bass Has To Do With Your Team

I took a bass class at music camp this past July, and I’ve stuck with it.

Yes, that’s right, double bass. The big, upright, elephantine instrument that’s taller than I am.

It’s highly impractical.

It weighs about 25 pounds.

It’s a pain in the you-know-what to wrangle into my Honda Accord whenever I need to take it somewhere.

And I’m not that great at it yet. For the most part, I’m just outlining the root notes of the chords of songs when I play with a group.

Nothing fancy.

But sometimes nothing fancy is just what’s needed.

Take last weekend, when I spent Saturday at a weekend music retreat.

Basically, a weekend of jam sessions.

Now, the problem with playing bass, since I don’t have a wheeled carrier, is that it disincentivizes me from roaming around the venue.

Unlike with my ukulele, there’s no way I’m lugging 25 pounds of bass all over creation.

Which meant I was pretty much limited to one building… if I wanted to play my bass.

On the other hand, even as a bass newbie, without a lot of skills, I found myself enthusiastically welcomed into the music circles in that building.

Instead of being the 10th guitar, or 4th ukulele, or 3rd banjo, I was the only bass!

Instead of my voice being drowned out (as it surely would have been if I’d been playing guitar or ukulele), I actually contributed something of value to the whole.

So my chops might not have been impressive, but they filled a needed gap. 

The best business teams work like this: instead of 8 guitars, duplicating each others’ strengths, you’ve got a range of different instruments, filling in the gaps for each other.

?? Harriet plays rhythm guitar

?? Kendra plays lead guitar

?? Tung plays keyboard

?? Shermalyn plays flute

?? Syed plays drums

?? Pooja plays percussion

?? Ankit plays bass

Each member has a role to play. Each member fills a particular gap.

When everything is humming along smoothly, you know the metaphor: you make beautiful music together. ??

But what about when things aren’t going so smoothly? 

As a leader, you can tell when things are off, but how do you know exactly what to do about it?

First, you need to assess exactly what’s not working. 

Enter my new Team Assessment Tool!

I made this assessment tool to help you uncover the strengths and weaknesses of your team.

Inside you’ll find:

? 10 questions that should take no more than 5-10 minutes to answer

? Insights based on your results, into your team’s strengths and areas for improvement

Click here or on the cover graphic below to download the Team Assessment Tool now:

Then let me know: where does your team have the biggest opportunity for improvement?

Don’t worry — I don’t expect you to send it to me as a song. But I can help get you grooving and making beautiful (metaphorical) music together again.

This article originally appeared on the Creative Sandbox Solutions? blog.

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I love helping teams and organizations find clarity, connection, and collaboration through creativity! When you’re ready to increase YOUR organization’s productivity, here are 3 ways I can help:

1) Download my FREE Team Assessment Tool to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of your team

2) If you’d like to build up a bench of leaders from which your company can pull as it grows, send me a msg with “BENCH” in the first line.

3) If you’d like to catalyze, cultivate, and sustain a Culture of Creativity in your team or organization, send me a msg with “CULTURE” in the first line.

And be sure to subscribe to this newsletter for more tips on the intersection of creativity, learning, technology, and business.

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About Melissa Dinwiddie, M.Soc.Sci.

A former professional artist and trained improviser and jazz singer, I'm now a Creativity Instigator & Creative Strategist, helping fast-growing, people-first companies strengthen connection, communication, collaboration, and clarity through creativity, so their impact matches their smarts. From custom-designed offsites, to trainings on how to lead amazing, effective virtual meetings, I design environments where people deepen connections, have breakthrough ideas they wouldn't have had on their own, and are energized by their newly discovered capabilities. An acclaimed creativity instigator, I'm the author of The Creative Sandbox Way?: Your Path to a Full-Color Life, an interactive playbook that countless readers have sworn freed them from creative block virtually overnight. I'm the founder of Creative Sandbox Solutions?, and I love performing improv, playing ukulele, making art, crafts, and vocal loops, and chasing my two rambunctious kitties off the kitchen counters.