Sergej,

Would you be willing to summarize Barrett's 7 points about jazz improvisation and its relationship to organizations?
Charles

Hi Charles, I sure do. Let me start by saying how I got across the article in the first place. It was May 2005, two years ago and I had asked Charles to coach me with my Hall-Tonna inventory of values. In a call we had to prepare for this, Charles encouraged me to look for inspiration in the arts. He mentioned the spirit of the Netherlands coming to expression in the golden age painters paintings. Take Rembrandt for example, he told me, the way he was able to bring out the light in people... I interrupted Charles and confessed that although I had respect for the skills and the largess of these artists, they did not touch me deeply enough for the sort of inspiration I was looking for at that moment. What art do you like? Charles asked next. After a brief silence I answered: Jazz! (I had to choose between Jazz and Literature, hence the silence ;-)

As part of the coaching Charles pointed me to Appreciative Inquiry, a standard to facilitate string dialogue between people in organizations. This article was written by David Cooperrider and his associates. At the time I was celebrating a holiday with my family in France. Overlooking the Dordogne's forests my eye suddenly fell on a reference to an article by Frank Barrett.

The moment I got back I asked Egbert Baarsma, a brilliant student at Tilburg University who was graduating with my team to look up the Barrett article. To my surprise and immense joy Egbert produced more than a dozen articles on the subject of jazz and organization! I was hooked immediately....

The first one I read was Frank's. Let me summarize his article here as we now tell it in the workshop.

Frank holds a brief introduction explaining improvisation and the seven principles jazz musicians use to learn, grow, perform together and learn as a network. With each principle he bridges the gap between the jazz metaphor and business by providing questions and examples. Given the fact that improvisation as such will be widely discussed on our wiki here, let me get to the principles right away. I changed the order from Franks article in our workshop because we wanted to build the tension towards the fifth (in our list) and because we wanted principles that were executable by individual musicians first and group principles later. So here's my take on his principles:

1. Relying on retrospective sense making as form.
In order to perform music in real time, to improvise, a jazz musician can't plan ahead. But how can complex music be performed in the moment? What can you do? In the workshop Armand explains it like this: Asking questions and listening deeply are the two basic skills. In addition you have to trust yourself and the moment. If you dare start asking a musical question, the question will provoke an answer. Maybe you revisit your question and embellish it and give a slightly different answer. Could the answer hold a question if you listen deeply enough? And what's the next step. Before you know it you are immersed in a solo. exploring the musical edges of your instrument, supported by your fellow musicians, who encourage you. Clear is that it comes to listening closely and asking questions. What is the standard in our culture. Is focus balanced between asking and answering? Between talking and listening? What are we doing to accept complexity and are we giving more room to the questions we need to ask and to listening deeply in our organizations? Do we trust that our knowledge and skills will get us through. Do we trust the moment and the fact that we will learn where to go just by starting? As Paul Berner, our bassist says: The song will tell you what to play.

CMS Note: Could it be true that a really good jazz musician is really alive in the moment? And why? Because this moment is enriched and nurtured by a very present past, and the excitement of future possibilities?

2. Embracing errors as a source of learning
Jazz musicians see three frequencies of errors where most organisations actively endorse two: 1. Errors out of carelessness are not accepted in jazz and in business. Errors for learning are widely accepted in all walks of life. Frank shows us that in business focus is on phasing out errors, see six sigma. In many cases this is a good thing. Jazz musicians (having the safety not to fly a plane ;-) accept that errors will be integral to performance, but add a new dimension. Some errors may be the source for innovation. Unexpected twists and turns may open pathways to new discoveries in music. Anecdotes in Barretts article say that errors have led to new interpretations and styles in the music. In our workshop Folkert improvises a melody that fits the audience and tries to make mistakes on purpose (which is quite difficult ;-) he the shows the different ways to resolve errors into variations or embellishments of the music at hand. What would happen if we saw errors (which is a value judgment of an unexpected event ;-) as unexpected events. Trying to ask ourselves what's new before deciding to learn or eradicate the error from existence.

CMS Note: Traditionally our societies "punish" for committing errors. How refreshing it is to actively embracing errors as a seed of sand that stimulates the pearl!

3. Provocative Competence
Frank illustrates this principle with the story of Kind of Blue. This legendary jazz recording was taken in two sessions in the fifties. Miles Davis had asked some great musicians to get together for a recording session. They had one hour before recording and Miles didn't allow time to practice. They were shown some basic schemes of the songs Miles had in mind. Some of the songs were in schemes never played before by jazz musicians. The recording is one of the best know jazz albums of all time and introduced a new style into jazz. What made these people perform so well? Miles knew who he asked and was confident that under the kind of uncomfortable pressure he had facilitated they would perform at their peak. And they did! A contemporary way of saying it is 'kill your darlings'. If you feel comfortable with something you're not learning and growing. Jazz musicians try to get out of their comfort zone on every occasion they can. Be it in the sessions they show up at or in the songs they play, once they start feeling comfortable they start moving to the edge of their skill and knowledge. Paul Berner illustrates the principle in our workshop by first playing a very basic walking bass. This is adhering to his job description. This is all he has to do to get paid. But it is not extrinsic motivation only that made him a jazz musician. Doing only what a bass player should do to fulfil his duty is not life to Paul Berner. What does this mean for knowledge workers. Who says you are one? What is the knowledge workers manifest?

CMS Note: This is a wonderful thought - to be creative we must step outside our "comfort zone." Why is it so difficult to do?

4. Distributed task, continuous negotiation towards dynamic synchronisation. In the fourth principle of the workshop we look at Frank’s vision on the distributed task. How do jazz musicians distribute the task of playing a song, while at the same time making sure the song still sounds as one performance. How do they know where they each have to be ‘in the song’ at what time and how do they continuously negotiate and synchronize between their individual solo’s and support and collective intros, themes and codas? The key word here is Groove. If individuals achieve ‘Flow’ when forgetting about time, when a jazz band collectively does so it is called Groove. So in our definition groove is a type of ‘Group Flow’. Essentially two time metaphors that are finely balanced together make for this disappearance of time. When the ‘external clock’ that dictates the rhythm, meter and beat. The clock that makes sure everybody is aligned to ‘where we are in the song’, is in perfect synch with the internal clock of the jazz musicians’ individual retrospective sense making, embracement of errors and provocative competence while performing the music flow and groove emerge. To use two other time metaphors: The linear time as a driving and constraining force enables time as a network of retentions and protentions to emerge for each jazz musicians. Intensive use of all senses then enables the process of letting go of time. In the workshop we illustrate this principle by starting a song by playing the melody on one instrument, a few bars later the second instrument comes in, yet a few bars on the third. In the workshop setting, the emerging force of the music on the senses, the slow emergence of groove is almost tangible! We have also discussed the role of each instrument in Groove through the metaphor of Spiral Dynamics, Where the whole spiral is in perfect balance when Groove Emerges with the purple ‘base’ of the Bass, the red power of the drums together providing the structure for the song (blue) and instruments like the piano (yellow) integrating and building on the health of that structure. When jazz musicians inadvertently lose track of time in a song – Frank provides an anecdote of such an event in his article – The soloists have to let go one by one to let the foundational instruments solve the issue and restore the rhythm.

5. Minimal structures that allow maximum flexibility.
In the fifth principle focus is on the nondual stance jazz musicians have towards the structure flexibility dilemma. Both are part of jazz. Given the desire to improvise the quest is always for the minimum structure that will open up the most space for improvisation. Structures in this case are multiple and many. In the workshop we illustrate this principle by playing a few bars of summertime (theme and one solo) in entirely different styles and keys that are called by the trio and me on the spot. The question that arises is how this is possible. How can these musicians, by exchanging two words and a few looks just start playing? Here reality kicks in. Especially when we work with consultants or others who work in professional services. To them minimal structure at first sounds like music to their ears: I told you we should leave more to improvisation and to ad-hoc. Autonomy rules! However when jazz musicians mean finding the minimal structure they are 1. Still talking about much more structure than we have to our disposal in business. 2. Know very well what structures they don't want to think about too much (tacit) and the ones they do apply explicitly. Structures in jazz are the standards, that provide frameworks for well known songs. Substructures are the themes, melodies, number of bars, tempo etc. Etc. Jazz musicians spend a lot of their learning time internalising these standards and have a large repertoire of these as they step on stage. This shared knowledge makes that they can quickly agree on them so they can focus their attention on what matters: improvisation that leads to unique new music (and evolution of the standards) Structures that are at the right minimum make all musicians present feel safe enough and challenged enough at the same time. What are our standards in business. If we had more and were to apply them from the desire to innovate, what could happen?

CMS Note: Are our companies ready for "minimal structures?" Or do they want their strategies cast in concrete?


6. Taking turns, soloing and supporting
This principle deals with leadership in the performance of a song. Jazz nusicians share leadership during a song by alternating between leading and supporting. The musician performing a solo is the temporary leader in that moment. The others support him as good as they can. In the case of the Bass player taking the solo, this means tuning down the volume of the solo-instruments to create space for the low and soft tunes to be heard. For a solo instrument in the lead going crazy this may mean performing 'subsolos' underneath to strengthen the peak performance. It doesn't really matter what happens. The soloist leads, because for his instrument he is the expert at that moment. In our workshop we display this principle by playing a blues and alternating the solo's. Some four by four's between bass and drums or piano and drums may occur. The musicians actually display all principles at once in this example, since the way solo's are distributed for this song emerges in realtime. (where we use summertime a number of times in earlier principles to help people unfamiliar with jazz to hear differences, we now assume that they are fed up with that and want to hear something else. (Not to speak of the musicians ;-)
What does this principle mean for business? Even though jazz musicians understand that outside the performance, who pays plays, that is the basic starting point in business. Do we let the expert for the moment take the lead? Do we, as managers, support our people when they are in the lead (as they may be more often than you think dealing directly with customers and partners) Do we see us as supportive of our colleagues? Do we appreciate differences in the instruments of our colleagues? Do we know how to support them while we may sound quite differently?

7. The Network as a learning and business system.