ThinkNick

In the final rehearsal for a concert last Saturday, the choir sang the most challenging and beautiful piece.  We all knew that we did not give a good account: voices were nowhere near together; crucial entries were missed.  At the end, the conductor talked about a couple of specific points of tempo and dynamics.  He said nothing about the ensemble or the errors.

The performance later that evening was superb.  The conductor had understood that he did not need to say anything: his choir would recognise the major shortcomings, and sort it out for themselves.  A lesson in conducting, and in situational leadership.

I recently started singing with a local choir. A vote was taken at the last rehearsal about dress code for performances. Talking to other members, it was clear that a debate about this had rumbled on for many months. In the end, the vote was to choose between ‘no change’ (all black), or going to a mandatory white blouse for the women.

It would be easy to satirise this. But it’s not easy to handle in real life. Everyone has an opinion, it’s all subjective, so how do you reach a decision? Consensus is difficult, a ‘leadership’ decision may not be acceptable (perversely because it’s not a very important issue), so what is the best course of action? Perhaps uncomfortable compromise is the occasional price of democracy.