Sir Simon Rattle (born in 1955) is one of the most highly acclaimed and sought-after conductors in the world. He has gained numerous international plaudits—being knighted, being awarded the French order “Chevalier de la Legion D’Honneur” (Knight of the Legion of Honor), receiving several honorary doctorates, and winning three Grammy Awards, for his achievements in music—for his dedication to teaching and his social commitment. In 2007, he and the Berlin Philharmonic were appointed International UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors in New York. Rattle’s longest creative stint so far, from 1980 to 1998, was with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he served first as principal conductor and artistic adviser and then, from 1990 onward, as music director.
Simon Rattle not only captures attention because of his exceptional live performances and recordings, but also because of his remarkably broad repertoire, which extends from ancient to modern music. Furthermore, he has repeatedly taken on ambitious, large-scale projects, such as a TV series about orchestral music of the twentieth century, for which he won a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award in 1997 for best arts program or series. On top of this, he successively staged the complete Ring cycle by Richard Wagner, starting in summer 2006 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and concluding it at Salzburg in 2010. Hopefully, both for Rattle himself and for music lovers the whole world over, he will manage to make many more wonderful recordings, maybe even beating Sir Georg Solti’s record of 32 Grammy Awards.
Conductors who master their profession as well as Rattle succeed in creating a perfect whole, something that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Their inner vision, tireless efforts, and leadership unerringly steer their orchestra toward achieving the sublime perfection that fills concert halls around the world. Like conductors, all managers must strive to create something that extends beyond the sphere of individual performance. This already holds true for small-scale enterprises, because anyone leading a team of a few employees has to make sure that the organization’s overall performance is more than the sum of its individual members’ contributions. Yet the same applies to anyone in charge of a sector, department, or entire organization, though they of course will bear correspondingly greater responsibility.
Conductors listen not only to the overall sound of the orchestra, but also to the performances of its individual members. This creates a kind of interdependency, for by aiming to enhance the orchestra’s overall performance, they raise the ambitions of each individual musician, and by helping individuals perform better, they increase the quality of the work as a whole.
Good conductors spend a great deal of time communicating the work as a whole to their musicians, providing background and explaining their interpretation of the score. They do this because only when the intention behind the work and its meaning have been properly understood can individual members of the orchestra help to convey the sense of the work in its entirety through their instrument. Gustav Mahler, for instance, insisted that every musician sit in the auditorium, at least once a week, to hear the combined effect of all the orchestra’s instruments. At the same time, good conductors also work intensively with individual musicians. On top of all his daily work, once a year the great conductor and peerless interpreter of Mozart, Bruno Walter, wrote a letter to each individual member of his orchestra in which he listed everything he had learned from that musician. Invariably this prompted a fruitful dialogue between Walter and his players.
Likewise, managers need to retain an overview of the performance and results of their entire organization as well as to keep track of what its individual members achieve. That way they can take appropriate measures leading to an effective overall achievement. But whereas conductors face the difficult task of interpreting a score, managers are also “composers,” since their duties include thinking through what kinds of contribution are required. In fact, any specialist effectively faces a similar task.
It is important to bear in mind that specialist knowledge is of no use by itself: The benefit derived from it arises only when it is integrated into a greater whole. This is the function and purpose of organizations: to incorporate such specialist knowledge into a combined overall performance. Without the organization, the specialist know-how of the knowledge worker—and therefore the individual in question—would remain ineffective. The organization itself can only be effective if it succeeds in channeling specialist knowledge toward the fulfillment of a shared purpose.
However, people in an organization will not automatically strive toward a common goal. On the contrary, any specialization conceals the inherent danger of knowledge workers who are experts in specific fields exclusively focusing on their particular domain and thereby losing sight of the bigger picture. In addition, organizations’ hierarchical structure means that every level has, or even must have, its own view of things, because only in that way can it fulfill its designated role. Accordingly, management by objectives and self-control is essential if everyone is to pull in the same direction. In this connection, you, as a manager, must make sure that the organization’s objectives—geared toward achieving a perfect whole—have been understood at all its various levels. The individuals involved must see the big picture and understand what they have to do to help their organization attain its overriding goal.
One rule for managers advocated by legendary General Electric CEO Jack Welch was this: “Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.”1 Until this message has permeated every level of an organization and lodged itself in the minds of all employees, you may well need to display a great deal of patience. Indeed, as Jack Welch said about himself: “There were times I talked about the company’s direction so many times in one day that I was completely sick of hearing it myself.”2 Nonetheless he persevered.
If you, as a knowledge worker, ask yourself what you should be contributing, you can make certain that you are aiming to achieve the right results. People who fail to ask themselves this question often work harder, but end up performing less effectively for their organization. In addition, asking the question effectively broadens individuals’ focus and places their personal contribution in a wider, more comprehensive context. The aim here is not to create generalists, but to enable specialists to make a fruitful contribution to the greater whole, the joint performance, just like in an orchestra. In other words, effective “generalists” are specialists who successfully forge links between their specialty and other areas of knowledge.
How are you contributing toward the attainment of your organization’s overall objectives?
Considering the big picture, where does performance need to improve and what exactly needs to be done to bring this about?
Where can each individual area of the organization improve and what impact would that have on the organization as a whole?