The new Beatles documentary Get Back is an eight-hour ode to the unexpectedly haphazard creative process of some of the most prolific, influential musicians of all time. It also offers some remarkable lessons about management.
In just the first few minutes of footage, Paul McCartney emerges as the band’s de facto leader—and it’s clear the 29-year-old bassist is reluctant to take on the role.
Calm but frustrated with the group’s lack of productivity and focus during rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios, he tells his bandmates, “I’m here ‘cause I wanna do a show, but I really don’t feel an awful lot of support.”
The problem wasn’t mutiny; it was that the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, had died of an accidental drug overdose 18 months earlier at the age of 32. The live show The Beatles were rehearsing for in January 1969 would be their first in years without Epstein there to coax them.
“Ever since Mr. Epstein passed away, it’s never been the same,” George Harrison says dryly. McCartney mournfully agrees: “There really is no one there now to say, ‘Do it.’ Daddy’s gone away now, and we’re on our own at the holiday camp.”
As the unproductive sessions drag on, McCartney confides in John Lennon: “It’s a united effort for us…or else I really feel like I’m trying to produce The Beatles,” he says. “And I know it’s hopeless. I just can’t do it, you know. And no one can do it, ‘cause the four individuals are too strong individually.”
How do they manage to move on from this to a rooftop concert in London with a brilliant collection of brand new songs? It’s a question you may still be asking yourself long after the credits have rolled. The answer is they find a way to become a self-managing team.
Self-managing teams, as Quartz at Work contributor Cate Huston described them in 2019, are those that “have feedback loops that make getting better over time a team effort; they respond well to failure and learn as much from it as possible…they invest in collaboration that levels up individuals and the collective.”
McCartney’s observation on individual strength—made after Harrison quit and had to be convinced over the course of two band meetings to return to the group—is enough to get the hammy Lennon to buckle down. Ringo Starr is as game as ever. With Harrison back on board, McCartney finally relaxes. And a well-timed visit by the wildly talented keyboardist Billy Preston seems to bring some joy back into their playing.
While The Beatles’ members might not have seen it this way, they have become, in spite of themselves, a self-managing team. And though there are many more hours seemingly wasted in the studio, The Beatles ultimately end up on the roof prepared and successful when the moment is upon them.
But the newfound cohesion wouldn’t last long. The group officially split up the next year, suggesting that even teams that are capable of running themselves might benefit from having a leader who can inspire them to keep at it. Even in the anti-authority world of rock ‘n’ roll, capable managers have their uses.—Heather Landy
How can you encourage the creation and progress of self-managing teams? Read more here.
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Five things we learned this week
🤖 An expert on ethical AI fired by Google is going it alone. Timnit Gebru says she can’t imagine going back to a big company, or indeed a small one.
🚇 New managers may feel a loss of meaning at work. Paris subway drivers who became managers no longer felt that individuals’ lives were in their hands.
😷 The pandemic is teaching us resilience. Lots of people will still experience stress and pain, but we’re learning to focus on what’s in our control.
😫 Leaders need to do more to address burnout. LinkedIn COO Dan Shapero says recognizing workers’ contributions can go a long way.
🤦🏽♀️ Space X and Tesla are facing sexual harassment claims. Several women say the culture fostered by Elon Musk made things worse.
New year, new attitude?
For many of us, 2021 (and, let’s face it, most of 2020) has been a punishing and confusing work year. Lack of clarity about where to work, how to set boundaries, what our companies expect of us in an asynchronous environment, and why we’re doing any of this at all has many people feeling frustrated with their jobs.
Anyone feeling this way may find a sense of community among the 1.4 million people eager to puncture the dictates of hustle culture over at the Reddit forum r/antiwork. Antiworkers, as Quartz’s Sarah Todd writes, are a politically eclectic, leaderless cohort, but for the most part they’re not saying we shouldn’t work at all. Rather, the antiwork mindset questions everything from the culture that tells us to “go above and beyond,” to set office hours, to any work structures that give primacy to the company over the needs of the individual.
However we feel about work going into a new year, it’s certainly interesting to spend a moment assessing our relationship with our job through an antiwork lens. What if we all did things differently?
If I, as an individual, changed just one thing about the way I worked, what would it be: to take more holiday, say no to 8am meetings, to go for a jog at lunchtime? And what would that do to my colleagues’ ability to make similar changes?
What stands in the way of making the changes at work you need to make? We want to hear from you.
You got the Memo!
We’ll be taking a break now until after the holidays. Cassie Werber, who put together this edition of the Memo, will be hoping UK covid rules still allow her to get to the countryside to see her parents. Sarah Todd, who edited it, plans to spend the holiday break obsessively honing her skills at building gingerbread houses.
Together with reporters Lila MacLellan and Anne Quito, and Quartz at Work editor Francesca Donner, we want to say thanks for reading the Memo this year. Maybe this is obvious, but knowing you’re out there reading is why we go to work every day. Tell us what you’d like to read more about at work@qz.com.
Happy holidays, and see you in 2022.