Month: May 2016

THE SEASON FOR CHANGE

Very soon, we’ll be in the midst of a new marching band season and there will be an overwhelming number of things pressing down on us. There’s a good chance that last year you thought of some things you’d like to do differently next year with regard to rehearsal procedures, show design, and maybe the timeline for learning the show. You may not be thinking of them right now, but it’s guaranteed that when the season begins, those changes you wish you’d made will haunt you for another season. This is the time to think through what you want to do differently and come up with a plan for change and action. Here are a few suggestions….

Involve others on the staff.

Get together with the others you work with and brainstorm ideas. You might do this in a social setting rather than at school so there’s a more relaxed, peer relationship. Involvement creates ownership, and when others on the staff feel like they have a part in developing a successful program, you build loyalty. Encourage even the wildest ideas! You never know which one will lead to a breakthrough.

Involve your student leaders.

As connected and aware of our students as we might like to think we are, there’s a dynamic at work within the band that only the students are privy to. You can create the same kind of ownership within the students that you do for the staff by listening and acting on their ideas. BEWARE! If your students have “concerns,” do your best to listen to what they’re actually trying to say rather than HOW they say it! Emotions run high when you’re a teenager (remember?) and they don’t always see themselves they way adults see them. SUGGESTION: When you invite the leaders to share their ideas, any concern should be accompanied by a solution. They’ll discover that solutions are much more challenging to come up with that problems, and this teaches them how to think through a problem rather than just amplifying it.

Have your own list of changes you’d like to make.

Rather than just list your ideas, consider discussing the scenarios that brought those ideas about. Then you can gently guide them to the conclusion you may already have reached. Then give them the credit! If you lead your staff and students without regard to who gets the credit, you’ll create even more loyalty and ownership in every stakeholder in the organization.

A few of the things I wanted to improve over the years were…

• Better rehearsal pacing
• Consistent attendance and punctuality
• Higher individual accountability without seeming oppressive
• Greater social responsibility

These and other topics will be the subject of future weekly System Blue tips. As always, if you have questions or would like more information, contact Frank Troyka at frank@systemblue.org.

THE LIMITS OF “LEAN AND MEAN”

Most bands have different categories of student leadership opportunities. These may include:

·       Instructional leaders (drum majors; section or squad leaders; brass, woodwind, percussion, and color guard captains)

·       Logistical leaders (loading crew, field set-up crew, electronics crew, librarians)

·       Elected leaders (president, vice-president, secretary, historian)

For those programs that send their students to leadership camp, or who host their own leadership camp or retreat, it’s common to require instructional leaders to attend because they are most directly involved in the rehearsal process itself. I was one of those directors. Early in my career, I sent only the core leaders—the instruction leaders—to camp in order to develop their teaching, communication, and performance skills. My thought was to go “lean and mean” so we could focus more on the individuals and thereby develop their potential more fully. But there were always kids who tried out for instructional leadership positions who were strong in many ways, but who were not selected because there may not have been a need for additional section leaders, or perhaps they were strong marchers but not strong enough as players. These students were often encouraged to pursue positions as logistical or elected leaders instead, but I stopped short of including them in the leadership camp. I missed a great opportunity!

Then it dawned on me. If I send ALL the leaders—instructional, logistical, and elected—to camp, then I would have three times the number of students who received advanced training. I would encourage the non-instructional leaders to participate in the teaching and communication activities which gave everyone a greater insight and, more importantly, greater empathy for what it takes to be an effective student leader. And the additional students became a larger group of marchers for the instructional leaders to practice the teaching skills in a more realistic situation. Rather than return to summer band with only 20-25 well-trained instructional leaders spread across a 270 to 300-member band, now I had 60-70 students who had gone through the leadership training, forming a much larger core of kids who “got it.” Their influence by example transformed the effectiveness of the instructional leaders and, in effect, transformed the entire band into better leaders.

“Lean and mean” may have its advantages. But for me and my circumstances, being more inclusive helped develop a more pervasive culture—a culture of leadership.

If you have questions or would like more information, contact Frank Troyka at frank@systemblue.org.