
This Is the Sound of All Of Us
Previously given at
Lean Agile Glasgow, 2013 Christmas Lightning Talks
Booster 2014
Internal company event, November 2014
Scaled Agile Inc, SPCT class, December 2015
Agile in the City Birmingham, March 2017 – 45 minute extended mix
London Lean Kanban Days, April 2017 – 45 minute extended mix
This is the sound of all of us
Singing with love and the will to trust
Leave the rest behind it will turn to dust
This is the sound of all of us
The Wailin’ Jennies – One Voice
Often we talk about the power of small, self-organising groups of people, working collaboratively. Lyssa Adkins gives a beautiful example of a string quartet in her powerful book on coaching on how the quartet members work together and communicate constantly throughout a performance. Some of the most powerful music of the last century has come from pairs of writers and performers working intimately together – George and Ira Gershwin. Lennon and McCartney. Simon and Garfunkel.
But music, like software, often seeks to deliver work at a larger scale and with more complexity than a single, self-organising team can manage. And seeks to do so with unpredictable skill levels of the performers. What lessons can music teach us about the problems and potential workarounds of scaled delivery of creative work?
Using more musical examples than deserve to fit in 10 minutes, Martin Burns brings 40 years of musical experience and formal education from his first career to bear on the problems of his current day job.
Lightning Talk Version
Extended Remix
Booster, Bergen
@MartinBurnsSV talking with Simon and Garfunkel playing in the background. #booster2014 pic.twitter.com/yDF1OV2u0h
— Elad Sofer (@eladsof) March 12, 2014
More talks should include Eric Johson shredding. #booster2014
— Austin Bingham (@austin_bingham) March 12, 2014
We wanna be free, and improvise! But skill acquisition (Dreyfus) means we can't just be free. We need patterns. @MartinBurnsSV #booster2014
— lisacrispin (@lisacrispin) March 12, 2014
@lisacrispin I would so love to get an audience try the Steve Reich piece http://t.co/YLRFj2NHkj #booster2014
— Martin Burns (@MartinBurnsSCO) March 12, 2014
@kjscotland @MartinBurnsSV @lisacrispin We did that at conservatory once. It’s hard even with music students!
— John Stoneham (@sirlyric) March 12, 2014
Software devs need cadence, too. But there is individual freedom to improvise around the patterns. @MartinBurnsSV #booster2014
— lisacrispin (@lisacrispin) March 12, 2014
I'd like to hear more from @MartinBurnsSV. That lightning talk was good stuff. #Booster2014
— anette (@anettebgo) March 12, 2014
Agree. As a musician what @MartinBurnsSV said about improvisation is right. BUT it takes LOTS of practice @drunkcod http://t.co/WpSLlgfSqB
— Gary McGraw (@cigitalgem) March 12, 2014
Agile in the City Birmingham
.@MartinBurnsSCO covers Wham!, Simon and Garfunkel and madrigals in the name of collaboration. Off the wall, as promised #agilecityBHAM
— (((Nik Silver))) (@pigsaw) March 30, 2017
First presentation I've ever been to where agile and music have come together! @MartinBurnsSCO @agilecitybham #agilecityBHAM #Agile pic.twitter.com/ySuhIIw472
— David Goldsby (@DavidGoldsby) March 30, 2017
Singing all together with @MartinBurnsSCO at @agilecitybham #agilecityBHAM pic.twitter.com/9MqHpDQ5kh
— Jovile Bartkeviciute (@jovilebart) March 30, 2017
Not the way i was expecting to spend my afternoon. Boom, ooh, yatatda. #agilecityBHAM in @MartinBurnsSCO talk.
— Spencer Turner (@spencerturner) March 30, 2017
The Beatles, rockstars, co-ordination and being a part of community – great talk by @MartinBurnsSCO at @agilecitybham #agilecityBHAM pic.twitter.com/DopztRUEkD
— Jovile Bartkeviciute (@jovilebart) March 30, 2017
London Lean Kanban Days
Collaboration is an essential part of creating something interesting –
@MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
"Music used to be something everyone did" and we lost that. Music got separated. ~ @MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
How does that feel?
Everyone being part of it instead only me being up front making an idiot of myself. ~ @MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
I see smiles, I hear laughter, I see belonging and togetherness.
That is what we need. @MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
Singing with @MartinBurnsSCO at #LLKD17 "Being part of it makes a difference"
— Dragan Jojic (@DrJojic) April 4, 2017
Working collaboratively is something very different from being The Star ~ @MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
Teams consist of irreplaceable parts. Take one out or add one in. And it's a *different* team.
~ @MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
I worry we say "make up your own stuff" to people who doesn't have the skill & experience yet to actually do so yet.@MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
My day is complete listening to Primal Scream 'Loaded' with @MartinBurnsSCO @BCS_Agile #LLKD17
— Giles Lindsay (@anyone4seconds) April 4, 2017
If you always do what you've always done, you'll end up doing what you've always did. ~@MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
There's many talks with heart at #llkd17 but for me @MartinBurnsSCO is really playing (literally) in his own league #llkd17
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
Patterns constrain AND enable creativity.
I can't improvise freely but I can do blues.@MartinBurnsSCO #llkd17
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
Synchronized, Linked and Regular Cadence helps us cope with irregularities and still easily create a coherent whole. #llkd17 @MartinBurnsSCO
— Tobbe Gyllebring (@drunkcod) April 4, 2017
Here are the videos used in my Lightning Talk The Sound of All Of Us
. Most of them are far better in their full versions than what I can show in a 10 minute timeframe.
Collaboration and Participation

wham, bad boys,
Photo by badgreeb RECORDS
Collaborative version of “Close to You” inspired by/stolen from
Creativity
Rock and Blues Patterns
- Blues solo from 5 Easy Blues Solos
- Backing track from 29 Blues Backing Tracks
Both by Griff Hamlin.
Cadence
Co-ordination
Would you like to hear this at your event?
This Is the Sound of All Of Us by Martin Burns is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.