Back to the idea of creating a positive culture in your choir:
Expectations are a large part of how our singers learn a culture. These can be (and are) the expectations we have for our singers:
- Are your expectations clear? (would your singers be able to articulate them if someone asked them?)
- Do your expectations speak to behavior? (and are they consistent?)
- Do your expectations also speak positively to what your singers are capable of accomplishing? (limits are so often imposed either by us or by the singers’ past history)
An important part of building a culture is building a common set of expectations that the group itself communicates without directly talking about them. New members of your choir will absorb a huge amount of information from observation. We look (consciously or unconsciously) for cues to how to act, how things are done. Most of us want to fit in to our new environment.
Once these expectations become part of your choir’s culture it takes much less effort to maintain them. Our job is to build a culture that works for our goals and expectations, not against them. And, of course, those expectations should ultimately have a positive effect on the individuals in the choir as well.
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