executing together builds Harmony…
When teams are at their peak, there are ways of executing together that anyone outside of the team are unable to observe. Little looks and phrases become cues for Harmony that are hard to duplicate. While the reason for being together may be stressful, those hours of work start to build muscles that become second nature. In one season, I was in meetings 3 times a day with the same people – 6 days a week. We got tight enough to understand how to cover for each other’s faults, and build on the strengths in ways that most teams will never experience. What causes that Harmony?
Marilyn McCoo is the other voice/leader that most people identify with The Fifth Dimension. Her parents were two Doctors—not an easy achievement for African Americans in the 1940s. She eventually moved to LA, where she first appeared on the Art Linkletter Talent Show at 15. She graduated from UCLA in 1962 with a degree in Business and, as noted earlier, entered and won the Miss Bronze California Talent competition. A founder of The Fifth Dimensions with Lamonte and Billy, she helped recruit Flo who she met through that competition.
… and can cause tension…
We return to Laura Nyro and a song she wrote when only 18 as a mini-suite, with many dramatic rhythm changes. Her producer “didn’t allow her” to execute it that way, and later, she mostly disavowed her first album. Bones was looking for other material for the Aquarius album and returned to the combination that made Stone Soul Picnic and Sweet Blindness hits. This song was initially not released as a single, but when Aquarius finally started to cool off, it was put out and soared to number 1, one of 5 that made it to the top of the charts.
The original beauty of the group was how seamlessly they flowed in and out of leading, following, and Harmonizing. Ironically, Marilyn was already engaged to Billy Davis, Jr. when this was recorded, so it made the apparent staging and singing assignments clear. And as the lead soprano with her easy style and grace, she naturally took on a larger role in the remainder of the Fifth Dimensions albums. In fact, by the end, the others were mainly the backup singers. The initial Harmony had been replaced with two singers out front… until Billy and Marilyn left the group. This left Flo, Lamonte, and Rowan to reform and execute with other members.
… what execution leads to Harmony?
That is a real challenge – how to maintain the stability of the Harmony that building something together brings. There is no easy prescription here to offer other than leaders need to be constantly looking at the Team’s relationships – to each other, and the Team as a whole. In my Team meetings, I emphasized our interdependence with each other… and the Harmonies we needed to execute together. I often aligned projects with pairs that didn’t know each other, forcing them to get to know each other deeper. There is a point in any group where the success that everyone had a hand in creating starts to be “claimed.” In the Team Formation work I do, high-performing teams have members who have been together for 2 years, but typically not more than 5 – about what happened with The Fifth Dimension…
My mother-in-law lamented once “…the good seasons seem so short, and the long seasons seem so bad”. I have noticed the same in my career, and wonder, what makes that true? I caught up with an old friend from one of the seasons that was all of the above – short (3 years) and long (150 hours a week for those years), great (changed my career completely), and terrible (I had to change because it was no longer working). He was there on all sides of that, and still smiling, laughing, and reminding me of the other thing that you notice with teams…
… when you execute together, regardless of outcomes, you build bonds that are impossible to break and hard to share. In the crucible, together “in the trenches”, the Harmony is refined by the fire to such an extent that just looks will bring giggles… and tears. After this hit, the records of The Fifth Dimension would become more set pieces for Marilyn and Billy – great in their own right, and they would go on to a wonderful career and marriage of their own. But you do wonder: could it have ended differently? And look at Laura and her producer – same song, very different result. As we start to turn from the cold dark winter into the emerging spring of possibilities, what pivot can you execute with your team to avoid …the Blues… The Wedding Bell Blues.
