The Jazz Ensemble A model for social creativity in the workplace

1. The Jazz EnsembleA model for social creativity in the workplace • Erroyl D. Rolle • Associate Professor • Business & Information Technology • Sullivan County Community College • State University of New York

2. The Jazz EnsembleA Catalyst for Improvisation & Social Creativity Large Jazz Ensemble Small Jazz Ensemble Designed to navigate through an environment of minimal structures while liberating its performers to improvise using creative chaos to achieve new discoveries

3. Individual Creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created. Traditionally, western philosophy has associated “Creativity” with individual contribution. However, some creative individuals need feedback.

4. Social Creativity ......most scientific and artistic innovations emerge from joint thinking, passionate conversations, and shared struggles among different people, emphasizing the importance of the social dimension of creativity (Bennis & Biederman, 1997; John-Steiner, 2000) Social Creativity offers a Distinct Creative Advantage

5. Today’s Workplace Landscape • High Velocity World - Infused with Technology • Filled with Uncertainty & Unexpected Change • Dynamic Competitive Environment • Challenges: Often Have Incomplete Information

6. Traditional Solution Path • Plan • Control • Plan Again • More Control • Initiate Systems & Routines to Insure Control

7. Let’s Explore Some Common Barriers to Social Creativity in the Workplace Jazz Ensemble Solutions for Social Creativity in the Workplace

8. Barrier #1 - Build Routines • Avoid Risks - “The Big Goof Can Go Viral” • Safeguard Products & Services - Instant Replication • Will Defend Against Ferocious Competition - Surprises • Solidify Market Shares/Margins/Customers - Evaporate

9. Jazz Solution: Abandon Routines

10. Abandon Routines • `Step Outside of Routine Comfort Zones • Abandon Habitual Thinking > Creative Growth • Shift: Predetermined Solutions > Spontaneity • Recognize Emerging Coherence Amid Flux • Elevate Performance > Move Beyond Expected

11. Barrier #2 - Resist Change • Managers are Genuinely Resistant/(Slow) to Change • Managers Guard Against Disruptions & Mishaps • Avoid Stress - Adapt Tunnel Vision / Circle Wagons • The Housecleaning Habit is Hard to Break • Traditional Organizations Feature Static Principles

12. Jazz Solution: Develop Explorative Competence

13. Explorative Competence • Welcomes Experimentation - Learn by Doing • Embraces a Democratic Shared Reliance • Belief in the Potential of Innovative Moments • Ability to Re-direct, Reinterpret, Defy Expected • Rely on One Another to Adjust & Amend Paths

14. Barrier #3 - No Mistakes Allowed • Managers Tend Not to Disclose Problems & Disappointments - Fear of Having to Defend Errors • Mangers Create Monuments to Organizational Breakdowns - Establish Company Legends of Horror • Pressure to Pretend Mistakes/Messes Did Not Happen • Hierarchy Status Affects Reporting of Error Causes

15. Jazz Solution: Performance With Experimentation “If your not playing a mistake ... It is a mistake” - Miles Davis

16. Performance & Experimentation • Build a Culture Allowing “Constructive Failures” • Convert Trials & Errors Learning Opportunities • Freedom to Tinker and Infuse a “Bricolage of Ideas” • Achieve Full Engagement via Creative Experimentation • Dislodge Patterns to Discover Wonderment/Curiosity

17. Barrier #4 - Control & Lead • Assumption: Systems Need Hierarchy to Organize and to Have Some Stable Order. • Assumption: Individual Leaders are Most Important for Keeping Organizations On Track. • Organizations Often Standardize Procedures to Avoid Changes, Disruptions and Ambiguities

18. Jazz Solution: Freedom From Constraints

19. Freedom From Constraints • Achieve Coherence Continual Dialogue & Exchange • Improvisers Enter a Flow of Ongoing Invention • Shared Awareness of Common Task & Group Progress • Avoids “Consensus Traps” - Encourage Dissonance • Encourages the Open-Source, Crowd Source Effect

20. Barrier #5 - Learning is Bankable • Assumption: Executive Learning is easily Acquired, Controlled, Stored (banked) and Dispensed. • Assumption: Employee Education is Only Achieved via Storing Knowledge in Histories, After Action Reports and Other Forms of Data Memory. • Rote Memorization, Habitual Practice Patterns and Skill Routines are Efficient Leaning Strategies. • Story-telling, Naive Questions, Casual Conversation and Off-hand Observations are Not Legitimate Forms of Learning.

21. Jazz Solution: Collectively Share & Learn

22. Collectively Share & Learn • Fraternity - Serious Playfulness & Safety • Social Experience Cultivates Learning/Wisdom • Scaffolding - Supporting through to Competence • Sharing the Engaged Absorbed Activity • Encourages Mentor/Apprentice “Diversity of Thought” • Higher Knowledge is Personal, Rooted in Action and not easily Articulated or Codified. However, Collective Performance and Sharing are Transformative.

23. Some Additional Jazz Ensemble Insights

24. Jazz Solution:Embrace Being a Follower

25. Embrace Being a Follower • Spark Social Listening & Vivify Unselfish Openness • Collective Dialogues Generating Diverse Inputs • Suspension of Ego to Make Others Brilliant • Surrender Pre-Planned, Controlling Efforts • Mobilize Others Insights / Provoke Emerging Ideas • Ensures Participation/Inclusion/Shared Ownership

26. Jazz Solution: Orchestrate Potential Winners Duke Ellington created musical arrangements that highlighted his Soloist

27. Orchestrate Potential Winners • Creating Situations that Demand Action • Design Conditions That Accelerate Creativity • Affirm the Best in Your Workers • Hit the Groove - Foster a “ Balanced Flow of Ideas” • Create a Culture That Exhilarates Experimentation

28. Social Creativity - Achieved by developing a culture of shared ownership; that triggers “bottom-up accidental discoveries” and encourages “top-down guiding structures”

29. The Jazz EnsembleA model for social creativity in the workplace • Erroyl D. Rolle • Associate Professor • Business & Information Technology • Sullivan County Community College • State University of New York • 112 College Road Loch Sheldrake, NY 12759 • (845) 434-5750 - ext.4453