Comments from the Focus Group discussion about this topic….
Watch the video….
Michael Devlin’s conclusions from the group disucssion..
I was fortunate to host a Future Work Forum focus group exchange last week that explored the ideas from our article: A fresh perspective on leadership: Playing music as inspiration for self-organizing teams, co-authored with my Forum partners with Samreen McGregor and Sabine Hoffmeister for the Global Focus Magazine of European Foundation for Management Development.
Our focus group participants jumped in from UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore and the US to exchange on what business leaders and teams can learn from the experience of jazz ensembles – as these players organize to prepare, interact and support each other to make beautiful music together. Our interesting collection of professionals included senior managers, consultants and leadership coaches, where three of the team are also involved in playing or publishing music.
Improving team performance
Can the approach of playing jazz and similar styles really improve the performance of business teams, and inspire leaders to let go and encourage self-managing groups, with a light touch leadership style? This group thinks so. We explored parallels between musical dynamics and effective team management, learning from the attributes that musicians need as they cooperate to deliver stellar results.
Through personal experience I gained a deep appreciation of the dynamics of playing music in a small ensemble. And how this can inspire what the Forum calls a human-centered leadership style that increases team performance and motivation.
I am not a professional musician but have experience playing in different formations over the years. As a manager, team builder and team player I have seen how the approach of some of the world’s leading jazz players can inform the business community to inspire self-managing teams.
How professionals see their leaders
The starting point for this topic grew out of my two previous investigations for Future Work Forum publications – learning from 20 mid-career professionals across several cultures, countries and professions. I asked them what they liked and disliked about their current leadership…and what they would do differently if they were in the leader’s chair.
Key takeaways: they wanted more recognition of their talents and abilities, more autonomy, and would be motivated by a less directive approach. Playing music together supports this.
The magic of musical interaction
Musical interaction brings a magical aspect to a team. A music groups is composed of highly trained, well prepared and talented professionals. Their roles and skill sets are not interchangeable. But they can only succeed in creating one incredible outcome if they work tightly together, fully support each other – and above all, become excellent listeners.
It’s a team that follows an agreed path, self-organizing and adapting to achieve an agreed outcome. But this is also a dynamic experience. Depending in the situation, the teams’ journey can be different every time to deliver the agreed result.
Our FWF partner Patrick Cowden neatly summarizes the key attribute of this kind of team interaction in one word: trust.
So, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?
One group member shared his practical experience of linking jazz playing with organizational leadership. He says that practice to continually build experience and individual uniqueness are critical in both fields. In his work, he uses jazz as a model to help business professionals to better appreciate how their unique skills and style bring value to a team or business unit. Each team member, as each musician in a band, has unique responsibilities and contributions, and daily practice – life-long learning. He says that this is the key to remaining relevant in both musical and in professional settings.
Achieving a state of harmony
Another group member highlighted the importance of ‘attunement’ – achieving a state of harmony – between team members. This is how music groups and sports teams synchronize. He says that attunement is an under-recognized skill, a style that is at the core of the world’s best functioning organizations. It’s maintained by daily practice, not just in occasional off-sites, and is most effective when embedded in daily interactions, for example as a quick exchange of appreciation of at the beginning and end of every meeting, or workday, just as jazz players show mutual appreciation with strong support for soloists and applauding individual solos in the team performance.
The group advises leaders to see then benefits of orchestrating and coordinating rather than micromanaging. Experienced musicians and employees have the skills and motivation to deliver, so don’t need to be told how to do their jobs.
The interactions centered around the agility of a group of jazz musicians, but the contrast with the more centrally controlled approach of an orchestra was also discussed. A group member commented that an orchestral approach is suitable for regulated environments, while jazz can represent entrepreneurial settings. Improvisation will not help a cockpit team or operating theater team.
Creating music together is less about the notes and the theory, and more about feeling, enthusiasm, listening and the enjoyment of delivering together. Sure, each team member needs a high level of skill and uniqueness, but whether its business or music the most effective teams happen when a group of people enjoys working together.
For Michael’s original thoughts on the topic, read on….
Many of the qualities that players of jazz and similar ensembles need to deliver a successful result together are the essence of what business teams need to be empowered and effective.
How these musicians interact offers useful clues for business leaders, hinting how they can create the conditions that create and motivate high-performance teams. They include harnessing the power of experts with diverse skills, guiding rather than prescribing, facilitating a culture of mutual support and dialogue, encouraging dynamic rhythmic interaction, and championing the values of empathy and listening.
In their article Future Work Forum Partners, Michael Devlin, Sabine Hoffmeister and Samreen McGregor reflect on how business leaders can be inspired by the way musical groups interact and self-organize by embracing how musicians interact to create beautiful music. They look at how musical dialogue happens in a jazz or small ensemble setting to give business leaders new insights into how they can develop highly motivated and effective teams.
As they perform their music, the most respected jazz groups are self-organized, and guided by a light-touch leadership style. Faced with the imperatives and ambiguity of day-to-day business and competition, we forget that effective leadership is less about mantras, checklists, and frameworks – and more about bringing people together, inspiring them, and giving the team the space to letting flourish.
We know what management gurus say about the qualities needed to be transformational leaders. So let’s hear from some musicians that have inspired the world (and if you don’t know them this is the ideal moment to stop and discover their magic). Maybe the innovators in both these communities are saying the same thing – but the musicians have the benefit that they can touch our hearts and emotions.
Anyone who can get another person to express himself freely is powerful because he allows all those involved to recognize their collective and individual power. Victor Wooten
A great teacher is one who realizes that he is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students’ creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves. Herbie Hancock
I didn’t write out the music for Kind of Blue but brought in sketches … because I wanted a lot of spontaneity in the playing. I knew that if you have great musicians, they will deal with the situation and play beyond what is there and above where they think they can.
Miles Davis on his approach to recording his album Kind of Blue.
He had the awareness and foresight to look at people’s music chemistry and select the chemistry of different musicians. He knew even before they played together that it would work. Eddie Henderson on Miles Davis.
Listening is the key to everything good in music. Pat Metheny
