What we can learn from Zoom meetings
If you’ve been on a group Zoom call in the last couple years, you may be familiar with the host framing a meeting through community agreements or guidelines.
It sets the stage for expectations, mindset, etiquette and focus for the meeting.
Statement on these community agreements can look like:
Honor confidentiality
Assume positive intent from others and show it ourselves
Use “I” statements. Speak about your own experiences and responses, not on behalf of others.
Respect diversity of thought
Allow space for others to speak
Most of these items are not earth-shattering novel statements. We naturally want to show attributes like respect and kindness toward each other and expect them in return.
However, an agreement like this can act as a reminder and a frame as we enter an environment of collaboration with other people.
It brings these thoughts and actions into the fore and top of mind. For me as a participant, they often make me think, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” It primes our mindset to see these as important values and guiding principles, right now in this space. It sets up expectations and boundaries for us, and it allows us to recognize when we or others may overstep. It grants the whole group, not just the leader, the permission and the agency to course correct when needed.
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You may be thinking: we expect we would do these obvious things naturally. So what's the big deal? The truth is that we all need a reminder, and we need to be reminded regularly.
Expectations, boundaries, safe spaces, values and guiding principles are what make teams do extraordinary work - with great productivity and impact. This includes orchestras.
When applied to the orchestral context, I can think of 3 items I'd add right away to those statements above:
Do our best - not necessarily to be perfect
Be curious about what could be
Show up to have fun
So, if we started each rehearsal or rehearsal period with Zoom-esque community agreements, how might that change our mindset? How might it impact each musician's sense of agency and responsibility?
How might it affect the way we feel - during and after we leave the space? We've all experienced leaving rehearsals feeling either uplifted or defeated. So how we feel matters.
The psychological safety that can result from implementing such agreements and reminders can help us feel more comfortable and empowered to take risks and innovate.
We can also go a step further and ask: what if we could create these agreements together with the musicians and tweak as we use them? That would take things to a whole other level.
As people, we make assumptions about what we can expect of ourselves, and sometimes we just need to be reminded. Plus, given the busyness of our lives, we all would appreciate a frame to help us focus our mindset.
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