How to unite a team around a shared mission: A story from Yo-Yo Ma on Spark & Fire
Masters of Scale
WaitWhat
4.6 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
What can an entrepreneur learn from a world-class musician? How to create a world-class team, and unite around a clear mission. In this special crossover episode with our sister podcast, Spark & Fire, you’ll hear world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma tell the story of co-founding The Silk Road Project — a musical collective that brings together musicians from wildly different traditions to write and perform original music.
Yo-Yo Ma had to foster a collaborative atmosphere between musicians that didn’t speak the same language — literally or musically. This, of course, brought a set of unique challenges. So how did Yo-Yo build a shared vision that resonated with his whole team? He knew from the beginning that this project was bigger than just him.
On Spark & Fire, you’ll be led inside the creative process of high-achieving creators at the top of their game. These insights are relevant to anyone in any field – because creativity and innovation are just different words for the same idea.
Subscribe to the Spark & Fire weekly newsletter for images, stories and creative prompts: sparkandfire.com/silkroad
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey listeners, this is Jordan, executive producer of Masters of Scale. |
| 0:04.2 | Nearly every entrepreneur we've had on the show has faced something unexpected in their |
| 0:08.1 | career. |
| 0:09.1 | And what I've noticed is that it's often these unexpected moments that lead to the greatest |
| 0:13.8 | learnings. |
| 0:14.8 | So, with that in mind, I want to tell you about another podcast that does a fantastic |
| 0:19.2 | job of shedding some light on the unexpected. |
| 0:22.4 | It's called 99% Invisible. |
| 0:24.9 | And it's all about the unnoticed elements of architecture and design that end up having |
| 0:29.2 | a huge impact on our lives. |
| 0:32.0 | In each episode of 99% Invisible, you'll hear surprising stories about the people, inventions, |
| 0:37.9 | and ideas that shape our world. |
| 0:40.5 | It's such a fascinating show because design is everywhere, perhaps most importantly in |
| 0:45.8 | the places where we've just stopped noticing. |
| 0:48.5 | You can follow and listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:53.0 | And now, onto the show. |
| 0:55.8 | Hi listeners, it's Reed. |
| 0:58.0 | You may have noticed we're in your feed a day early. |
| 1:01.6 | That's because what you're about to hear is a special crossover episode with our sister |
| 1:06.2 | podcast, Spark and Fire. |
| 1:09.0 | And it features, Chello Virtuoso, Yo-Yo Ma. |
| 1:13.8 | Spark and Fire brings you stories of creative journeys from first-class artists and innovators |
... |
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