#12 🎷Creative Leadership is like JAZZ
[ 5 Min Read ]Ever tried explaining your job to a teenager?
Picture this: A talented teenage musician, curious beyond her years, innocently asks you, "What do you do exactly?" That happened to me a few nights ago during dinner at a friend’s house.
It was a simple question, but sometimes, the simplest questions are the hardest to answer.
7th graders are not easily fooled
If she were a 26-year-old business analyst, I would have answered something like:
"I’m an educator. I work with C-suite executives and managers to help them make better decisions and effectively grow their teams. I use a methodology called Creative Leadership, which focuses on distributed decision-making for complex domains."
But I suspect that wouldn't have resonated with Lea, the very curious 7th grader :)
So, how do you explain *creative leadership* to a smart yet *very* young musician?
I was ready to simplify the answer to something like “Oh, I write books and teach,” when the perfect analogy came to my mind.
For the rest of this newsletter, you can imagine Lea as a less ginger but equally sassy version of Hermione :)
Leader vs Conductor
“So, Lea, you know how an orchestra works, right?”
”Yes, of course I do.”
”I thought so! So you know that there is a conductor. The conductor follows a score and guides the full orchestra in playing this beautiful music. Right?”
”Mm-hmm!”
”But do you know what happens when they are rehearsing and the orchestra, or the conductor, makes a mistake?”
“They stop and start over until they get it right.”
“That’s exactly right, Lea! Most companies are exactly the same. But that’s very frustrating. I help them find another way of dealing with missteps.”
“How?”
“I’ll tell you. But first, have you ever played jazz?”
“No, my piano teacher is obsessed with classical music. But I would love to.”
“You should! In a jazz band, things are quite different. You don't have a conductor, but you have the band lead, and the band lead is more of a facilitator than a conductor. In a jazz band, there is room for improvisation and discourse.”
“Uhm? What do you mean by discourse? Can they talk while they play?”
“Kind of. Each instrument speaks with the others, proposing a path, and the others follow along. By doing this over and over again, new beautiful melodies are discovered. And from what apparently is pure chaos, a clear direction starts to emerge. That’s why we like it so much.”
“What, someone in the Jazz band wants to play a solo?”
“Well, the other musicians have learned to play tunes that can enhance that solo.”
“Ok, sure. So... you play jazz for a living?”
“Ahah, no, but I help companies deal with errors and decisions more like jazz musicians and less like stiff orchestra directors.”
“Ah! Got it.”
Phew, she understood, and she didn’t even seem too bored. A win is a win :)
Takeaway
Jazz is the perfect analogy to Creative Leadership, as Jazz Teaches us to:
Improvise:
In Jazz, you are constantly in a conversation with your band. You listen to what they play and respond appropriately with your take on their phrasing.
Innovate:
Jazz Musicians have to have the courage to explore the unknown, solve known problems in a different way, and quickly react to any given condition. A loud stage, a booing crowd, a broken string.
Actively Listen
The Band lead is a facilitator rather than a conductor. Every musician has the opportunity to solo, and together, the band creates something NEW. But to do so, They have to Listen carefully and respond.
Inspire
To create beautiful music, you don’t always have to be a conductor. As a manager, you always have the option to be a facilitator or even a simple contributor.
Challenge
If we don’t have a defined & precise “score,” aka a clear and proven “strategy,” we have to learn to improvise, adapt and embrace. Be mindful: in complex scenarios, a “proven” strategy seldom exists, as no situation is exactly the same as the one before.
Disrupt
In your next meeting, act as a Jazz band. Keep meetings to 4-5 people, allow each one to have a solo, and make each member contribute with one sentence that enhances that solo.
🚀 Share this piece with someone who can help and sustain you in your Creative Leadership Journey. Leadership is better when shared.
Here are three ways to kick off your creative leadership journey.
[The Art of Creative Leadership] Book. If you want to know more about Creative Leadership. Grab your copy of [The Art of Creative Leadership] and gain access to our [online community] of creativeldrs.
[Join The Creativeldrs Community]. Share and learn from a community of like-minded people who want to be leaders and create a true impact. Discover Practical tools (Plays). Share and Learn from others, discover 100+ resources and Monthly meetups to grow as a Modern leader.
[Multiply Time Challenge]. If, like me, you feel constantly overwhelmed and out of time. You struggle to find the time to grow as a leader and empower your team. Join the multiply time Challenge. Free-up at least 3 hours per week.