Finding the Balance in Team Communication

Team communication can be hard. Personality conflicts and misunderstandings create tension between team members and can extend beyond your immediate area of ministry.

Here's the thing: You can bring realign the misbalanced components and ease the tension by getting to know your people and tweaking your delivery to move your entire team forward.

Know Your People

Much of the tension that plagues worship teams comes from simply misunderstanding how others extend and receive communication. For some folks, they need details to fully understand the bigger picture and their part to play within that. For others, those details feel like a swamp, and they will do anything to get out. Then, you have to factor in whether they're extroverted, introverted, or a learned combination of the two. 

What I've found is to deliver communication that is concise, clear, and collaborative. Even for detail-oriented people, too much information will bog down your rehearsals, and you'll quickly lose the team's interest. On the other hand, you don't want to be too short with your team, especially if some members are less receptive to criticism. Clarity is key, and building your team up is crucial to maintain a stable collective atmosphere and attitude.

Let's take a look at some examples:

Can you play this part instead of this? It sounds better.

Rephrase: Can you try this figure out over this section? It'll add more interest and beef up the sound more.

What you're playing is inconsistent; can you just play this one part?

Rephrase: In this section, I like the consistency of this particular figure you were playing. Could you maintain that all the way through?

Singers, our intonation is off. Let's try it again.

Rephrase: Singers, I'm hearing some tuning issues; let's make sure we have full breath support and we're matching how we're forming our words and phrasing.

Rephrasing your communication this way achieves the desired outcome, delivering a healthy level of details with clarity and brevity. 

Make It Understandable

Remember: You must use vocabulary that is understandable to your team members. You don't have "dumb it down"—just use less "flowery" words. Trade out "intonation" for "tuning." Swap out "diction" for "pronouncing your words." "Passage" becomes "line." (Now, it's totally possible to use words that are more academic, but you'll need to introduce them very clearly and repeatedly qualify them to help your team get used to new terms.)

In the end, your communication should meet your team where they're at and point them in the direction where you all collectively desire to go. Exercise empathy, respect, and genuine build-up—and you'll be set for great things. 

Be blessed 👊✌️