A Cappella and Teamwork, a Lesson in Contributing Your Most "Boring" Work
In college, I was a member of an a cappella group and while we were all in strict quarantine this spring, our director reached out to a group of our founding members, asking if we’d like to hop on the virtual a cappella train and create an alumni reunion video. We all gave an enthusiastic, “I’m way out of practice and will likely give a sub-par performance, but I’m in!”
I love a cappella music, the way that our voices can sound like different instruments is fascinating to me and just so cool. But what does it take to make that work? A whole bunch of people basically singing (sometimes very monotonous) gibberish in harmony for four minutes. For instance, the first two pages of my part consisted of 12 rounds of “humm mo dmm, humm, mah dmm.”
The funny thing is, those seemingly monotonous and repetitive contributions take an intense amount of concentration (at least for me), making sure that I didn’t zone out while counting and being ready for the next section, all in service to a much greater sound. It is also those contributions that provide the foundation for the song.
We were encouraged to submit a video of the solo as well. Oddly enough, after taking two hours to get an acceptable recording of my Alto 2 part, I recorded just two takes of the solo and called it a day! Yes, the part that would get the most “attention” was the “easier” part!
In improv, one of our primary principles is that we all agree to, “Make each other look good.” I think that a cappella is a great example of this. We have to let go of our own ego, our need to be the star of the show or to be the one that gives what may traditionally seem to be the most impressive contribution. The person out front singing the solo gets most of the attention, but it is those in the background, singing the “hmm dmm aaahs,” who are doing the hard, and less glamorous, work, providing the foundation and making that soloist look good.
As a leader or a teammate, where do you have opportunities to make your team members look good? Where can you put aside your own ego and use your skills and concentration (even if it is something simple and unglamorous) to provide the foundation that they need to succeed? I’ve seen it in improv, a cappella and on corporate teams, that when everyone agrees to “Make each other look good,” everyone ends up looking great!
In the end, some of my solo video was used, but it is only because of those other women who put their time and energy into their own part, that made me look good. I think it is because we spent our college years working with and supporting one another in this way, that 15 years later, we jumped at the opportunity to sing together again.
If you are also a fan of a cappella, our video is available here.
If you are looking for a resource for virtual teams or teams who still need to keep their distance while in the office, I’ve created a workshop, Virtual Improv for Remote Team Building, to give teams an opportunity to do just this, laugh together, while learning how to communicate and collaborate in a more positive and creative way.