Blog post, Daniel Pink
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Symphony – Well Structured Magic

What does that word mean to you? Symphony orchestra comes to mind. The blending of sounds from different instruments to create melody and variation and sound that move people to heights of joy and sadness, music that tells a story, draws a picture, creating a perfect mixture of the right notes and volume. Symphony is like design with sound.

A synonym for symphony is harmonious.  I think Daniel Pink intended it to be more than harmonious sounds.  From his book I get the impression he is talking about harmony and symphony as experienced in sight and sound … pleasing to the eye and the ear, to the heart and the body and the mind.

I like the concept of symphony.  It is well structured magic.  There is a formula for writing a symphony.  A symphony is an extended piece of music for orchestra, especially one in sonata form. Usually there are four movements in a symphony.  They are played by symphonic orchestras, with sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.  the sounds of the different instruments are organized to create beautiful melodic sounds.  There is structure and sometimes, although not always, music and not noise is produced.  if you have ever listened to the warm up of a symphony or a rehearsal you know things are not always performance grade.  Maybe that is what Pink was trying to get across.. the idea that practice is necessary to create beautiful music together… that we need to work together to find our sound, our contribution to the work and the world. Working together we can generate the same kind of well structured magic as symphonic orchestras do.

That is what happens in PULSE conversations … well structured magic.  There is a formula.  There are movements ( four).  There are sections represented by the roles being played.  We follow the score or process…and we create harmony.

How do you create symphony and how to you learn to strengthen your ability to do that in your life?  You listen for it.  You identify it and its elements and then you work at recreating it.  That is almost exactly what I said to our participants in this weeks PULSE training.  Relax and listen so that you can hear the patterns … the melody… in the conversation.  You will know when things are off key or tempo and you will begin to understand what needs to happen to create the balance and the harmony, the blend of sounds, words and actions that align to make symphony.

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