I had the opportunity to participate in a three-person gospel reading at Church yesterday. In going through the preparation workbook last week, it suggested rehearsing the entire reading aloud, not just your individual part. It was an innovative idea and not something I would have thought to do; my typical strategy would be to practice only what I'd be responsible for reading at Church.
After reading the entire piece several times, the advantage of this holistic strategy became clear. My role was to be the "narrator," providing verbal connections between a variety of spoken parts representing various characters. That means I had a lot of, "They said" and, "He replied" type lines. Rehearsing the whole piece made me very aware of the emotion and point of view of the next person I was leading up to, as well as of the person speaking right before me. It allowed me to vary my tone and be a better connector within our three-person team.
In any team project, (re)define your role as being a "strong connector." Take the strategic view, planning for what comes before and after you in the process to catalyze your team's success. - Mike Brown