I heard Malcolm Gladwell talk about how the world is shifting from a "strong-link" game to a "weak-link" game. He explains that we are no longer playing games where we can focus on developing our few strongest players to win (a game like basketball). Now, our ability to advance is dependent on how our weakest players perform on the team (a game like soccer). 

Thus, our hiring strategies, talent development, and culture building all hinge on a mindset shifting toward elevating from the bottom up and cultivating high team cohesion, rather than promoting a few stars while neglecting the rest. 

I subscribe to this proposition. I believe this is a path forward for our industry too. We are a team sport, after-all.

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I continue to be interested in how this strategy can play out in generating high-performing teams. Here are two ways to begin: 1) build purpose-driven cultures and 2) promote psychological safety. 

1) Our primary incentives traditionally are tied to carrots and sticks, and they are often financially-oriented. They come down from a strict hierarchy where decisions about what motivates us have been decided for us. Each individual is incentivized to play their own game against this system. 

Alternatively, when incentives come from meaning and purpose, motivation becomes both highly personal and shared collectively among all the people. We drive ourselves from within, and we can see that there are overlaps with what drives us with what drives those sitting next to us. It is a crucial leadership objective to find what drives each person, recognize it, develop it, and weave it into the fabric of the organization. 

2) Psychological safety is something missing in the arts. Movies like Whiplash and most recently Tár paint fairly accurate pictures of psychological danger in our industry. Without an explicit permission to fail and experiment, we stay stuck. Our inherent goal to attain perfection is something ingrained since a young age. And that makes it so hard to fight. I can see how it is easier to simply do what we've always done.

Alternatively, we can give permission to say "I don't know" or "I made a mistake" or "That didn't work out." This accelerates growth in the individual by allowing everyone (both the weak and the strong players) to ask for help and get better. It fosters an organic filling of knowledge gaps. It cultivates a feeling of belonging and safety that the other people have our back and will figure it out with us. 

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I feel validated by Gladwell's idea of playing the "weak-link" game. 

My work has always centered around helping musicians feel valued, seen, and fulfilled - regardless of their rank and title. We often treat musicians like cogs in a machine. They are easily attainable and replaceable by a long waiting list of qualified musicians. We forget that people have human needs, desires, and goals. Cultivating those will only benefit the whole team.

My work aims to dispel some of these learned mindsets and practices to ensure we can play in the "weak-link" world that honors collaboration, integration, and teaming.

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