Yesterday I played in a recital with my jazz combo-dedicated amateurs. Musically we have greatly improved. The devil is in the arranging. Who plays when and where, in what order. Trying to get it right one player sent an email to everyone with the arrangements. We rehearsed one last time in the morning, making a few changes. He sent the revised arrangements out just before the gig. I printed and didn’t review. One tune was a complete disaster. The changes were not what we agreed to, I was the only one that printed the changes. I noticed the discrepancy in the middle of the tune and chose to play as written, not as I remembered what we agreed to. I messed everyone up, the tune fell apart. Disappointment, irritability.
Alignment is tough in music and in health. Everyone’s talent, passion, and goodwill goes up in smoke when the alignment / arrangement isn’t there. How do we align in health care? The person at the center and their team knows and agrees on the goals and the action steps. They communicate the inevitable adjustments as they occur. A small tight group that plans is no guarantee that the alignment will hold. Sort of surprising that we expect it to be smooth or flawless. Sometimes if we listen well and hear the mismatch we can adjust and realign and sometimes we can’t. Listening. Anyway, three out of four tunes sounded great. I guess that’s not too bad. But it’s not my health.
