“…And The Piccolo, The Piccolo…”*

How do you create leaders and a culture for any environment?

I am the Rudy Ruettiger of piccolo playing. What I don’t have in talent, I make up for in heart and enthusiasm.

Give me the chance to play it in a band and I am delighted.

The piccolo was my first choice as an instrument, but I was guided to starting on the flute to develop control.

While I grew to love the flute, I am giddy with any opportunity to play the piccolo.

The piccolo is tiny, the size and width of a pen.

In Italian, the word piccolo literally means "small." It is an octave higher than the flute and produces about five times the shrill.

While the flute is thought of for languid, melodic pieces, the piccolo has no chill.

Perhaps most well known in the U.S. for the solo in Stars and Stripes Forever, this tiny instrument can be heard above the entire band.

It almost sounds like a whistle. What most people don’t realize is producing the toy-like sound is equal parts fun and brutal.

Because the piccolo is so small, it takes about a third more air than the flute to play.

In fact, it requires more air than a Tuba.

Half is wasted, spilling out across the tiny head joint.

The rest is focused down into the small opening, the size of a pencil eraser.

Head rushes are quite common when you are learning to play.

Making a sound is easy. Playing in tune is the challenge.

Just because you are in tune in the lower register doesn’t mean you will be in the upper register, or vice versa.

When an instrument is out of tune, you can hear a “wha wha wha wha” dissonance wave when played alongside others.

On a piccolo that sound is so shrill it can make dogs bark.

As Dr. Cate Hummel says, “Everything, good and bad, is magnified on the piccolo.”

Piccolo players have several things they do to control their pitch and intonation.

The head joint can be pushed in or pulled out to adjust for sharp or flatness.

Throughout a piece, the piccolo can be rolled in toward themselves or away, impacting the angle and amount of air that enters the mouthpiece.

The embouchure can be tightened or the corner of lips pulled downward.

Chins are dropped and jaws are lowered for real-time adjustments.

Airflow may be increased or decreased, and your diaphragm can be tightened.

Each little movement can have a profound impact on the pitch.

When I am performing, my inner dialogue sounds something like:

“Nope, you’re off, roll in. Deep breath, deep breath! Squeeze your diaphragm. Here comes the upper register: drop your head, lower your jaw, tighten your embouchure. OK, now relax and reset for the next run. Nope, nope, that note is off, adjust! Missed that note – oh well, keep going. Yay, I got the run right! Whoops, here is the upper register again – focus and tighten! Here comes the high note - go for it strong!”

There never is an “in tune” destination.

Instead, there is monitoring and tweaking to hit your notes. There might be 47 adjustments in one song alone.

It is a constant shaping of sound.

This is part of the unspoken musician agreement: creation of music with each person contributing to and shaping the outcome.

In many ways, organizational culture can be viewed as a band.

Each person contributes to and shapes the culture each day, and you are never done shaping culture. It shifts daily.

In cases like the past year, even dramatically.

Many companies are fighting to “preserve culture” by having employees return to working in an office.

There is this belief “We have to retain our culture by getting everyone back to working in the office or defining specific days a week for in-person work."

But that isn’t how culture works.

If you are returning to working in an office, don’t be fooled into thinking that your culture experience will be the same as it was in February 2020.

That is a myth. Your culture has always been shifting.

You just may not have noticed because you were playing the same song for so long. As soon as you add new songs into the mix, like working virtually, you start to notice what worked and what didn’t.

Culture wasn’t lost by virtual work, and hybrid designs don’t lead to erosion of company culture.

Culture shifts take place in both scenarios as well as the in-person culture from February 2020.

Companies that struggled blamed physical location for their challenges.

They missed it was a symptom of a lack of agility in their culture.

Healthy cultures are agile enough to make the real-time adjustments to support the employee and business need outcomes.

If your culture isn't working in a given setting, this is a symptom of needing to address larger issues.

Leaders that struggled to lead virtually had that same lack of agility. Great leaders recognized the pivots needed to keep each team member engaged. There was never a concern about controlling work. The concern was always listening and removing obstacles.

Those that relied on control and were really masking a larger company issue of leadership expectations and development.

There were already things that weren’t working in your culture before February 2020.

You just either didn’t notice or didn’t experience enough discomfort to make changes.

They remain regardless of where people work and will surface again.

There is no perfect organizational design.

The key is in the agility and the way the organization and teams adapt to real-time monitoring and tweaks.

Small, Real-Time adjustments prevent a larger cultural transformation.

Blaming culture on location is like saying “I am in tune, but everyone else isn’t.”

Conduct a Team Rehearsal

You have the ability (and obligation) for your culture to be in tune in any environment. Equip teams to have conversations to define real-time tweaks.

Teams need rehearsal. Every band rehearses before a performance. It’s a chance to work through specific details, tweak what isn’t working and appreciate what is working.

You define norms together and learn how to support each other in rehearsal.

Leaders should regularly plan these “offsites” (which may be an “onsite”) to reflect and have a different discussion. Especially when you have a significant transition like hybrid work.

If you haven't met like this in over a year, you're overdue.

Before the session, collect a list of all the fears/challenges your team faces.

Then turn these into problem statements to be solved.

“Those in the office will benefit from informal interactions over those at home” can become “How do we create informal interactions for everyone on our team?”

Work through each of these as a team.

This not only strengthens your culture, but it also helps you define what to watch for and make real-time adjustments.

Music doesn’t happen because conductors waves their arms.

It happens because each person choose to play their instrument.

The quality of the music depends on skill, practice and real-time tweaks.

If you want to retain and evolve your culture you don’t need mandates.

You need input so each person can make the choice to play in tune.

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*If you know where the title of this piece comes from, we need to be friends.

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p.s. Have ever wondered any of the questions below? I have a new way to help you reliably measure and answer these questions (far more reliable than the standard survey). Reply to this message if you want to learn more.

• How compelling am I as a storyteller?

• How compelling and credible am I as a presenter?

• What does trust look like on my team or organization? How much trust do we have?

• What is the true story of culture in my organization?

• How does my team or organization view me as a leader?

• How effective is my training program?