Digital Lessons from The Beatles

Written By Ben Perry

As I’m sure many of you did over the Christmas holidays, I sat down to enjoy the rare and special treat of watching The Beatles: Get Back documentary on Disney +. 

A short clip from the show has been doing the rounds on social media. Paul, George and Ringo sat together messing around with their instruments. They are in a bit of a funk and under massive pressure to write, record and perform what would turn out to be their final album in less than a month in early 1969. 

It's an electric 2 minutes of film as the epic song "Get Back" emerges from seemingly nothing. 

In fact, the whole thing was for me a scintillating 8 hours that offers unbelievable insights into the workings of the band. I am always looking for inspiration and it got me thinking: what lessons can municipalities looking to go digital take from one of the greatest bands that ever lived?

Iterate, Iterate, Iterate

Just as Paul, George, and Ringo show in that short clip and throughout the film, rarely does a song arrive fully formed. They take snippets, phrases, and songs and work them over and over and over with different arrangements, instruments, pacing. They try things out - they iterate, they improve. In fact, nothing is so good that they can't improve it.

Iteration is something that I think we see frequently in the technology and digital world. It's how every modern digital service - Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, Google, and TikTok - grows from an initial idea and evolves over time to what they are today. 

It's how the iPhone became the juggernaut that it is. Famously, at launch, the iPhone lacked features like cut, copy, and paste, or a video camera. It was expensive. It ran hot on a slow network. But, at its core, it was a brilliant idea - one that Apple has itself honed through constant iteration to what it is today.

The Lesson: The first go is often far from perfect and iteration is critical to success. We should incorporate this into our digital work - changing our mindset from achieving digital change through large, one-off projects and one-and-done initiatives - and think of it as a journey - an evolutionary, iterative approach to digital change.

Core Team

As they record the record, while The Beatles are surrounded by record company executives, a large recording crew, an invasive film crew, an idiotic Director, and various other hangers-on - at the core, it's the four of them + Billy Preston who make the magic happen. In the room, together, bouncing ideas around, riffing off each other - that's how these amazing songs were made.

While everyone has an opinion - and there are many painful and awkward times during the film when it seems there are way too many cooks in the kitchen - it's The Beatles who are calling the shots and making the creative decisions.

The Lesson: Keep the people doing the actual work (the talent) focused on the thing that they do best. Let them do what they do best. Small, dedicated teams, with complementary skills focused on a singular shared goal, can do amazing things. Building talented teams, with the right capabilities and then insulating those teams from the noise, from irrelevant stuff can lead to unbelievable outcomes.

Everyone Contributes

At one point, Ringo arrives early in the studio. George is there too. Ringo is fooling about on a piano and he plays eight bars of a song - the first two phrases of "Octopus's Garden". He almost bashfully tells George ".. and that's all I've got".

Imagine - you are the drummer in a band with 3 of the most talented songwriters ever and you have this little ditty that you've been working on. But, you can tell George immediately recognizes there's something great there and he starts working with Ringo refining and expanding the song, adding a bridge - encouraging Ringo. It's a great moment. 

The Lesson: Great ideas can come from anywhere. But, great ideas need to be cultivated, nurtured, and built upon. At the early stage, it is very easy to squish ideas - even really good ones. So, creating an environment where people can be creative, can share their ideas without fear, where great ideas can be recognized, nurtured, and allowed to flourish - that's absolutely critical to digital success.

Incorporate your Influences, Steal from the Best

While their talent and innovation are undeniable, the Beatles also wore their influences on their sleeve with pride. From Chuck Berry to Dylan, and from Baa, Baa, Black Sheep to Elvis, a big part of "Get Back" is The Beatles playing other people's songs and beaming with joy and excitement as they do it. 

Every lick, every riff, that they ever played, every vocal flourish they tried, they learned something from, and they incorporated into their own music. That's what made them great.

The Lesson: Don't work in a vacuum and don't fall into the "not invented here" syndrome. Find who's the best at what you are trying to do. See what they've done. Talk to them. Learn from their experience and incorporate it and build on it.

You Often Don't Know What You've Got

At one point, McCartney, growing frustrated with the recording process says of the epic and beloved "A Long and Winding Road"... "it's a bit of a plodder". He's unhappy with how it's coming out, how the recording is going, and he's almost ready to give up on it.

This reminds me that often inside the creative process, you really don't know what you've got until other people experience it. So, the sooner you can get feedback and (sometimes) reassurance what you have is good, the better.

The Lesson: We've all worked on things where someone in charge is not willing to release something until it's perfect. But, the digital way is to show the thing. Make a small thing and launch the thing. See what people think. Then loop back to the first lesson from The Beatles - iterate, iterate, iterate - incorporate the feedback, make changes.

Creative Things Should be Fun

The looks on the faces of the Fab Four as they connect in the moment and through the music are priceless. These guys love each other, they are having fun and they love getting lost in the music. When they do - everything else just melts away. 

The joy in the room is palpable, and the fun that they have together is unmistakable - even in their dog days.

The Lesson: Digital work is ultimately a creative thing. Much like making music, it involves experimentation, trying things out, learning, connections. And, just like the best things in life - it should be fun!

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Quite honestly watching the whole thing was an unbridled joy which only serves to burnish further their legend and confirm their unbelievable talent. 

I'm sure there are many more nuggets hidden away in the 8 hours of footage, but these were just a few of the things that clicked with me and that relate to the work that we do.

Ben Perry
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