Teamwork With Colleagues for Wedding and Party Music

Magnolia Jazz Band in Palo Alto, New Year's Eve 2011

I recently described some benefits I receive from teamwork with my colleagues.

Here we are last New Year’s Eve — a great night for teamwork.  Thanks for the wonderful photos, Joy.

You might wonder which is better for a band — teamwork or working alone.

That’s the wrong question.  We’re always using both.  Teamwork better suits some kinds of projects, and working alone better suits others.  Teambuilding programs can help us learn to combine both tactics.

Instead, we should be asking about WHEN teamwork is better than working alone.  And vice versa.

The answer is far from clear. We sometimes hear that “two heads are better than one”, and then a minute later we can hear that “too many cooks spoil the broth”.

Take creativity for example. Some evidence suggests a person is more creative working alone. Other evidence suggests he’s more creative in the midst of teamwork with a group

Usually teamwork is a joint effort of solitary experts working together, then working alone, then together again.  Over and over.  Back and forth.

Which do you prefer — being a solitary expert or a brainstorming committee member?  Which is better — Working alone or in teamwork with colleagues?

This is a trick question.  My favorite Tip: You better become skilled at both.

Media headlines favor stories about creative individuals. We hear about creative people all the time but relative little about creative teamwork.

For every project we all tackle, creativity is sometimes important. Sometimes not. You don’t want a creative dancer in a chorus line, but you might like a creative touch in designing your landscaping.  A creative soloist can spark the performance of a jazz band, but all the musicians playing together in a tight ensemble can achieve amazingly powerful music.

Rules are rules.  You might not like a creative captain steering your cruise ship, or piloting your airplane. Unless of course, an emergency comes up, and for example you and your colleagues might need to land your aircraft in the Hudson River.

Then all bets are off, and the highest priority goes to skillfully and quickly creating a strategy for landing.  But watch out for any nearby cruise ships.

Few of us will ever face such an emergency, but I think all of us constantly need to balance stints of working alone and stints of teamwork.

How about you?  Tell me:  How well do you balance teamwork with working alone?  Would you recommend a teambuilding program?

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The Magnolia Jazz Band entertains at weddings and parties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you are nearby, you’ll love catching us in action, seeing and hearing us create a great mood.  For now, please join our Facebook fans to receive daily tips for planning music and to receive reminders for our public events.

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