Reader question:

Please explain “on the same page” in this sentence – I want everyone on the same page.

My comments:

If you want everyone from a group on the same page, you want all members to work together, toward the same goal and in cooperation with each. In other words, you want them to work in sync rather than each going their own way pursuing their own individual agendas.

“To be on the same page” is an American idiom, a great example in fact of American idioms in general – simple and expressive.

Presumably the term comes from the theatre. Picture an actor and an actress rehearsing their lines, each with a copy of the script in hand. The actor reads his line, the actress reads hers and the conversation runs smoothly. Then the man turns the wrong page and they begin to lose their way. The actress asks: “Are you sure we’re reading from the same page?”

You get the idea. If they’re not reading from the same page, they’re not going to make sense and play is not going to work.

For people to be on the same page is, therefore, for them to focus on a common goal and give a concerted effort. The Chinese ping pong team for example often gives the impression that everyone involved is on the same page. The football team, especially the national men’s team on the other hand, usually gives the opposite impression. Not only do you wonder whether everybody – the sport’s governing authorities, coaches, teams and players at various levels etc. – is on the same page, you sometimes are forced to wonder whether they are reading from the same script.

Frankly speaking, I don’t think they have a viable script to begin with.

Otherwise, you see, how could anyone explain: Why on earth is China, the most populous nation in the world, ranked a lowly 100, or somewhere in that neighborhood, amongst the world’s footballing nations?

Alright, let’s leave our sorry footballers alone and read two recent media examples:

1. The Iraqi war film “The Hurt Locker” feels incredibly authentic, not only because screenwriter Mark Boal spent time with a working bomb squad in the war-torn country, but also because the film actually shot in the Middle East, transplanting the cast and crew into the Jordanian desert to work under some of the most rigorous conditions possible.

When the 120-degree heat wasn’t pounding down during filming, and the actors weren’t itching for Starbucks, they were learning about a culture that most of them were unfamiliar with, prior to becoming immersed in it for the film. Anthony Mackie, who plays Sergeant J.T. Sanborn, even said that it was hard for him to reacclimate, once he returned home.

Here’s what he had to say, at the film’s press day, about the experience of telling such a high-stakes story:

Question: What was it like to work with Kathryn Bigelow? How was her process, as a director? Anthony: She’s visually oriented, so it’s like organized chaos. Kathryn knew the movie she wanted to make and the story she wanted to tell. There were five cameras, so you’d be talking and, all of a sudden, a camera would come up and you’d be like, “What do I do?” Barry, the D.P., and Kathryn really understood what they were trying to portray and how they wanted to really get inside these three guys, so Kathryn just let us go. The three of us would get together, before every scene, and just rehearse and talk, and Kathryn would come over and listen, and then just go away. She just wanted to make sure we were on the same page that we were when we signed onto this project. Her process was not so hands-on with us, but very behind the camera.

- Anthony Mackie Interview THE HURT LOCKER, Collider.com, June 23, 2009.

2. Since finishing a season that matched the worst in Washington Wizards history in mid-April, Ernie Grunfeld, the team’s president of basketball operations, has made his first coaching hire with Washington in Flip Saunders…

In Saunders, Grunfeld has a coach who has made the conference finals in four of the past five seasons he has coached and appears to share the same vision as the general manager. When asked if he and Saunders were on the same page, Grunfeld clapped his hands, laughed and said: “Exactly. Page one.”

- Pressure Builds on Grunfeld To Make Wizards a Contender, Washington Post, June 28, 2009.