Your Band’s Greatest Hits

Get the members of your band together (your staff, your department or team, your family). Spend a few moments talking about the things you do well as a group. Then ask them what they consider your “greatest hits” to be. What have your greatest successes been? Your most memorable moments? What are the things the people are going to remember you for (the songs that will be played on classic rock stations for years to come)? Next, ask them about what they think your “new songs” should be.

What would they like to try doing as a team? Are there new technologies, methods, or markets? Are there new “instruments” they would like to learn to play or a new medium to explore? What skills does your band have to bring to a new song? What will you have to learn? Your band should not only be unafraid of change, but excited about the possibility of making change. If you are functioning well as a group, and everyone is on the same page about your vision and your commitment to pursuing it in the long-term, then the odds are good that the excitement will happen naturally. You’ll sound tight when you play your current hits, and you will be ready to write the new music, too.

Bands, like other successful organizations, function best if they master the balance between stability and flexibility. The ideal mix is: a stable line up (a core of competent members who stick with you through the years) a single and compelling idea that drives the whole group’s efforts a collective ability to produce appealing and high quality work in new situations as well as familiar territory A band can keep rockin’ for 30 years as long as it maintains its vision, stays focused on the long-term, and creates its own change. Your band will still face challenges, go through rough patches, and experience some strife. But in the end you will be much more satisfied and fulfilled individually and as a group. You will be a lot happier. And, you will be better positioned to keep your fans happy. Rock stars live and die by their fans, you know.