What can we learn from the Seattle Symphony and hospital pediatric emergency wards?
For starters, they can teach us how to handle a crisis. By Robert Bea Like many people, I struggled to play an instrument as a child. Perhaps this helped me appreciate the Seattle Symphony Orchestra many years later. Yet listening to the orchestra also provided an important insight into how even the most structured organizations can change to deal with the uncertainties that characterize a crisis. A symphony orchestra is the very model of hierarchical organization. At the top is a conductor, who sets strategy (choice of music, how fast and loud, who gets solos) and directs the performance. The musicians surround the conductor. The top performers sit nearest to the conductor, so the first violinists are followed by second and then third violinists. The musicians implement, using their skill to play the notes of the score according to the conductor’s wishes. Everything is so structured that the word “orchestrated” has become synonymous with the harmonious blending of disparate elements.
