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What my high school band taught me about teams
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What my high school band taught me about teams
Yes, I was in a band in high school.
Our name was Critical Solution.
Very cool, I know.
We loved to play. We loved music. We had a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, we all wanted to be in a completely different band.
Our drummer had recently gotten his hands feet on double bass pedals and was determined to get some mileage out of them. Everything he touched turned to metal.
Our (legitimately very talented) guitarist wanted to start the next skater punk band.
Most of the music I wrote was 2000s indie rock, ala Death Cab for Cutie.
We didn’t fight. We didn’t bicker. We didn’t have ‘creative differences’ resulting in thrown punches or smashed guitars.
We just kind of sucked.
Maybe we hoped that three different visions for the band would magically work. Like some new mastodon/pink spiders/dashboard confessional genre-breaking new take on music.
Maybe we were stupid.
While we had a lot of fun messing around, we struggled to create a cohesive sound.
In hindsight, we suffered from a problem thousands of teams wrestle with.
We built the team people-first.
The first tool teams running on EOS learn is the Accountability Chart. Through the tool, we establish the key roles that exist on the team, and what accountabilities each role must hold for the team to be effective. Then, we find the right person for the seat.
On a leadership team, you might have a Visionary, Integrator, Sales Manager, Marketing Director, Chief Engineer, and a CFO.
The Marketing Director, for example, might be accountable for the following:
Marketing Director
Leading and managing marketing department
Brand
Marketing strategy
Website and social media
Lead generation
Only once that Marketing Director seat is clearly understood can we find the right person to fill the seat. They must suit the structure.
We did this backward in our little rock band.
Instead of clearly understanding the roles required, we looked at the people and asked what they wanted to do. There was no clear idea of what our collective goal was. We had no vision.
Instead of a clear set of roles and accountabilities in the band, we ended up with a collection of seats that made no sense:
Singer-songwriter bassist / singer
Punk guitarist
Metal drummer
Any idiot could tell you that wouldn’t work.
Because we were a high school band, we were allowed to make a mess of it.
Most teams don’t have that luxury.
I can’t tell you how often I see this problem among teams.
They think “people-first” and end up with a team that doesn’t make sense. Comments like “we’re so unfocused” and “they’ll grow into the role” show up constantly. You can’t hold someone accountable when you know they don’t have the capacity for the job in the first place.
Don’t be like my high school band.
Structure first. People second.
If you think there might be a lovely clarinetist in your metal band, check out the People chapter of Traction (I’ll give you a copy if you’re nice about it).
Good people in a bad system seem like bad people.
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Here’s a band who knows exactly what they’re doing.
Pretty sure Tim Henson’s an alien. Also, for any guitar people out there, he plays a resurrected old Ibanez nylon string. They brought it back and rereleased it last year here. I want one.
be good
z
