Dark Star

I went to see the Dark Star Orchestra not long ago,  For those of you unfamiliar with DSO, they deliver what can best be described as the Grateful Dead experience, often better than The Dead themselves did.

Image via Wikipedia

They play Dead shows – we saw one from May, 1972 – as the band did.  They look like them, they sound like them (and in fact are way more consistently good on a night after night basis) and if you shut your eyes, you can be at a Dead show from whatever decade they’ve chosen to present.

“Interesting,” you say, “but what’s the business point?  Good question.

During the show, I said to the guy I went with that the musicians must get kind of frustrated playing – being! – some other musician‘s stuff every night.  The men and woman in the band are clearly excellent, talented performers and yet they are sort of trapped inside another band.  I got to thinking afterwards that maybe it’s more like classical music – the musicians present someone else’s musical vision and the performance is judged on how well the composer’s vision is presented.  There’s some room for interpretation (get some classical music fan going on how different conductors deliver different sounds and the conductors don’t even play!) but mostly the music is the presentation of the composer’s work.

In business, I think that’s kind of what we strive for as managers.  We want the plan – the sheet music – we compose delivered precisely and well.  There is room for interpretation, but we don’t want the original vision – the sound we hear in our heads – to get off track.  In DSO’s case, not only do they deliver the compositions as envisioned, but they deliver the sound, look, and feel of the original band too.  As a customer experience, it’s great – unlike even the original band you know that the music will be played perfectly, there won’t be long periods of tuning, and if you can figure out what original show they’re playing (where people stand on stage, number of drummers, and song choice are your clues), you’ll even know what’s coming up.

Letting your folks know the tune and listening carefully as they play is what we do as supervisors.  I had a boss long ago who straightened me out with the phrase “my bat, my ball, my ass, my call” when I started out on a bit too much of an improvisational path.  Playing in the band – even someone else’s music – can be liberating and fulfilling, at least until you’re ready to write a tune that’s better.

What are you writing these days?