Does Mozart’s music deserve a place at a nuclear power plant?
Energy Northwest’s nuclear plant, the Columbia Generating Station, is the safest environment I’ve ever seen. Every precaution is taken to keep the employees protected from the omnipresent radiation. Everyone must wear a badge that monitors your exposure, protective gloves, goggles, a hard […]
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As soon as I had invented The Music Paradigm in 1995 people began to ask to read about it. So I set my sights on writing a book about the powerful insights that spring to life when you see your life at work through the lens of music.
I soon discovered that […]
Continue ReadingLast Friday, I sat in Arthur Ashe Stadium watching the much anticipated US Open tennis match between Venus and Serena Williams. Only six days later, I myself was playing on an indoor tennis court in Switzerland, remodeled to accommodate a business meeting.
I was not holding a racket in my hand, but rather a […]
Continue ReadingEver since I invented The Music Paradigm in the mid-90s I’ve dreamt about having a sports team participate. I kept imagining all those athletes, coaches and management seated alongside professional symphony musicians, observing the array of skills that musicians and athletes share: speed, strength, coordination, performance under pressure, extreme focus on fundamentals, conditioning, trust… the […]
Continue ReadingI love this 2-minute video because it gets at the heart of why there is so much risk aversion in organizations. It’s very instructive to watch this rehearsal clip with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the famous Austrian conductor. But first let me explain what you’re about to see.
There’s an especially awkward and challenging passage for the […]
Continue ReadingMy colleague, Vijay Govindarajan, has written a new book: The Three Box Solution. It illuminates the complexities of leadership in a time of rapid and disruptive innovation. The activities that lead to success today will likely not be relevant to the exigencies of tomorrow. And yet today’s leader is responsible for […]
Continue ReadingIn every Music Paradigm session I include some demonstration about how different the orchestra sounds when standing on the podium, compared to what the players hear in their chairs. From the podium the entire orchestra snaps into focus, like the pieces of a puzzle being assembled into one vibrant, coherent picture. To the […]
Continue ReadingThere are many times when a conductor’s most effective direction to an orchestra is simply a straightforward instruction: “play softer here,” “take time with the triplet,” “bring out the woodwinds,” etc.
But sometimes the most beautiful results can’t be dictated by the conductor. They require an artistic partnership with the musicians who, after […]
Continue ReadingI was lucky enough to hear Liz Wiseman speak about how to be a leader who brings out the best in your people. Multipliers she calls them, as distinguished from Diminishers. One of the differentiating behaviors is that, whereas diminishers tend to tell people what to do, multipliers ask questions. I had […]
Continue ReadingI recently had an enlightening conversation with author Timothy Clark about his book The Employee Engagement Mindset: The Six Drivers for Tapping into the Hidden Potential of Everyone in Your Company. Tim researched many companies, seeking out employees who were recognized by both their peers and bosses as being extremely engaged. From […]
Continue ReadingThere was a revealing moment in my recent session in Rio de Janeiro, my first time working with a Brazilian orchestra. At one point I modeled a dysfunctional conductor whose preoccupation with the movements of his baton had eclipsed his connection to the actual sound the musicians were producing. Of course the orchestra […]
Continue ReadingHave you seen The Godfather Part III, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino? Only an orchestra conductor with inside connections could know of the valuable lessons related to trust, leadership and eliminating layers of bureaucracy to be learned in the making of this classic film about betrayal, murder and revenge.
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Continue ReadingWhat the Ebola Crisis Can Teach Us About Leadership
“You’ve got to pick a fight with some musician,” gruffly declared my conducting teacher. “Otherwise the orchestra won’t take you seriously.” And so, once in every other rehearsal, I’d watch him attack some defenseless player. You could hear a pin drop, the atmosphere was […]
Continue ReadingClick here to read the full New York Times story from Sept. 17, 2014 by James Oestreich
There’s a Lesson Here; All You Have to Do Is Listen
Roger Nierenberg and the Music Paradigm Program
I couldn’t have been more skeptical. […]
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