Ensembles

This past Saturday I attended (selfishly - my son was in it!) the all-county high school band concert. It was great to hear these kids, especially since they have had so little time to come together and put together a great concert!

Sunday the New York Giants, a little bit longer at work as an ensemble, but together an improbable win in the Super Bowl. So much so that two members of the losing team backed out of the "ensemble" Pro Bowl. (And by the way, Niner Noise was invited to perform at the Pro Bowl.)

In my line of work, physicians tend to work in "groups". And group is probably the right word. Trained as individualists, they have a hard time becoming a "group." (When I interviewed for the job here in Maryland, the first question I asked was, "Are you a group, or a bunch of doctors practicing together?") But now, the more I think about this, even the word group is inadequate.

Dictionary.com defines a Group "as any collection or assemblage of persons or things; a number of persons or things ranged or considerd together as being related in some way." An Ensemble, on the other hand, is defined as "all the parts of a thing taken together, so that each part is considered only in relation to the whole."

Sometimes we say we want to be soloists, or mavericks. Or we want to be part of a team, or a group. But looking at what successful groups are, they are ensembles. Tom Peters talks about teams that come together to work on a project, each member bringing a talent, and then disbanding until they get into another project, perhaps with or without the same players.

I'm going back to music for inspiration at work, and not just playing motivational soundtracks. I'm going to look for a role to play in an ensemble.