A Day in the Life of an Agent of Change

"The long and winding road / that leads to your door."

Paul McCartney

I love it when things Come Together!

I've been in a major Beatles groove this week, inspired by a friend who's been eagerly preparing to attend a Paul McCartney concert with her daughter in Phoenix this Sunday. As I was listening to one of the Fab Four’s signature tracks, Sergeant Pepper’s “A Day in the Life,” I was suddenly reminded of a story about the recording session for the track – one that provides a connection to the “change journey” topic I’ve been writing about in recent articles.

“A Day in the Life” is really made up of two separate songs, one written by McCartney, the other by John Lennon. Lennon, McCartney, and their producer, George Martin, wanted the two songs to comprise separate “movements” for the work but were stumped for a way to connect the pieces.

Finally, Martin hit upon a way to fill the gap. McCartney and Martin brought in a 40-piece orchestra to play a 24-bar improvised fill – a tough challenge for classically trained musicians accustomed to an orchestrated score. In order to facilitate the process for the musicians, Martin structured the fill by using a novel approach which he described as follows:

What I did there was to write ... the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the twenty-four bars, I wrote the highest note...near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the twenty-four bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar.

As I read that, I thought: Get Back! (OK, so that’s another album.) Martin’s description struck me as a perfect integration of the two approaches to change that I described in my article about the Heath Brothers’ book Switch.

I had written that, when influencing other people to change, a change agent has a choice of two useful boundaries: Either focus on the first step just to get people started on the Change Road, or focus on the ultimate goal and leave it up to people’s improvisational abilities to blaze their own road to the destination.

Martin did both. He first made sure that the musicians had the same point of orientation before they began their 24-bar journey. But then he relied on each musician to choose his own improvised path to reach the predefined goal – the E major chord. (And not only that: He added rough “signposts” along the road to help them calibrate their progress throughout.)

Along with four lads from Liverpool, Martin – who in my estimation was the true “Fifth Beatle” – helped engineer one of the most momentous cultural changes of the 20th Century. And I think Martin’s creative solution to “A Day in the Life” provides a model for change agents in any field – especially when they're trying to influence seasoned people who might be anxious about the road ahead:

1) Paint a distinct, vivid picture of the ultimate goal;


2) Provide a clear starting point and first steps;


3) Set up rough milestones along the way in order to measure progress;


4) Then step back and let people improvise their way to success!

----------------------------------------------
 
Here is a video excerpt from the actual recording session for “A Day in the Life.” The 24-bar fill starts around 1:45.
 



PS - Enjoy your Magical Mystery Tour, Kathy and Kim!