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Business Rule #39:
Use Success as a Model
November 17, 2005
by Caroline Pfouts
The cliché, "I don’t know art, but I know what I like," is probably truer when turned inside out: "I like what I know." Familiarity is pleasing, especially in artistic endeavors, like music. Fans of a certain kind of
music, like alternative rock, want to hear something new—yet familiar.
This week, the teams were challenged to write and produce a song that would fit into the format of XM Café, a show on MX Satellite Radio. Since this
show features alternative rock, the task was clear:
write a song that falls into that particular genre.
The test this week was whether the teams could
use the music played on the XM Café as a model to create a new song.
Rebecca Jarvis and Randal Pinkett were far too willing to accept Clay Lee onto the Excel team, seeing him as a creative force. Rebecca and Randal should have heeded the red flag of the other team wanting so badly to get rid of him. When there’s a group effort to reassign someone, there’s usually a reason.
Becoming Project Manager, Rebecca was sorry soon enough that she had welcomed Clay onto her team. During one of their team brainstorming sessions, he became so personally invested in his whole “What about me?” theme that, not only would he not let it go, he wouldn’t stop talking about it, making it tough for Excel to move on and take any another creative direction.
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Rebecca picked Jide as their team’s musical artist for this task in part because of his special international heritage. The fact that he was originally from Nigeria intrigued her and could have been used as an effective marketing angle for their song. Clay though latched onto the fact that Jide was a middle child and couldn’t get creatively past it, muddying the waters. Clay’s fascination with the singer’s birth order seemed to have a lot more to do with himself than with Jide or the task. I’d be amazed if Clay isn’t a middle child himself.
Capital Edge and their Project Manager, Felisha Mason, were so relieved to no longer have to work with Clay, they all but celebrated. They were so happy, it was a bit unseemly—but it’s understandable that they felt more able to work without having to deal with a difficult personality.
The new sense of harmony on Capital Edge was evident in the way they came together on everything, from their mutual agreement in choosing a performer to their ease in coming up with lyrics together. The relaxed atmosphere probably helped Felicia feel free enough to step back and look at their project as a whole. Unfettered by distractions, she was able to listen to the overall sound of their tune and conclude that it just didn’t fit the targeted musical genre. Having heard the show, she recognized that their song was too jazzy for it and changed course. Modeling their music after what XM Cafe played on the air was vital to Capital Edge’s success on this challenge.
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I like what I
