Learning how to BE more like a jazz band
Patterns of connection + creativity in distributed leadership
#GCSIWOL7 — Here we share principles and observations from our fortnightly reflective sessions called Chimes, this time about what we can learn about distributed leadership from a jazz band.
This is the seventh in a series of blogs in which we work out loud (WOL), putting to ‘paper’ our experience of building the practice of Being while Doing. By sharing these we hope to solidify the themes that emerge for ourselves, share those emergent themes with others who may be traveling along similar paths, and also reveal ‘by doing’ how this ancient practice brings value to modern workplaces. You can read the introductory blog here.
In a recent Chimes gathering we chose to read the article Why teams need to be more like a jazz band than a symphony. Like a well-timed rainstorm during a dry spell, this provocation helped us think about our own evolving organisational structure. At GCSI we are trying to create a culture and learning process that embraces principles of distributed leadership.
Gustavo Razzetti’s article prompted us, through multiple conversations, to explore characteristics of organisations that look like orchestras and jazz bands. A reflection on our working patterns and flows showed us that we aspire to be more like Coltrane. More like a team that ‘does’ distributed leadership.
Jazz bands and distributed leadership
Once we started looking deeper, we found ourselves falling into a wombat hole! Many others have contributed their musings to the article that sparked our conversation. Clearly, the idea of connecting jazz bands to distributed leadership merits some deeper thinking.
We found that Jazz bands can perform distributed leadership in the way the players support each other to take turns in leading.
“The best band leaders encourage their sidemen [sic] to think and play however they wish, knowing that the entire group, in turn, will get more ideas and be inspired to play better individually and collectively. The leader and the sidemen work through each song as a team, learning from, complementing, and enhancing each other as they go along. Jazz musicians realize that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
Herbie Hancock, Institute of Jazz
What does it take to make a jazz band ‘sing’?
Our conversations and readings about making a jazz band that embodies distributed leadership surfaced these key ingredients:
- Individual responsibility: where team members understand how to perform their role in the shared journey and are prepared to jump in to support the development of new tunes!
- Mutual trust: team members have the skills to support each other through improvised ambiguous moments and know they have each other’s backs.
- Adaptability: members create as they play, improvise and build on each other’s notes.
- Experimental and learning mindsets: all team members value and respect this.
- Deep listening and responsiveness: team members are aware of who is playing what and how each player’s artistic insights can contribute to the overall composition.
- Creativity and improvisation based on core competencies: team members have to know the rules before they can break them.
Why is embracing distributed leadership, well, attractive to us?
It’s important to us because we’re a small, committed team with big goals and we need each team player (musician!) to have the confidence, capabilities and agency to contribute to a piece of music that is greater than the sum of its parts; to easily respond to improvisation; and when needed, also be confident to belt out a solo.
Like a jazz band, each time we play a song we play it differently. We see every iteration as an opportunity to tweak, improve and to adapt the work we are doing to align with the context and participants’ needs. We might change the process, or have a new person lead, but the purpose and underlying conceptual framework (the rhythms and support) remains the same.
Like a jazz band, we’ve worked intentionally to build structures and patterns of behaviour that create strong foundations for building capabilities. All of the projects and courses we embark on integrate these strong foundations, and aim to spark opportunities for individuals to experiment with the creativity and innovation that practicing distributed leadership can generate.
Like a jazz band, we understand that working with complexity in systems innovation means we experience moments of syncopation, where things are not falling into predictable rhythms and moments of atonality, where ideas may clash. We see these moments as integral to the process, as these are often the times we learn the most. But despite these moments — or maybe because of them — we recognise this is integral to working towards better music.
How does a ‘jazz band culture’ metaphor help us in our work at GCSI?
Over the past five years we’ve experimented and evolved continuously, always working towards our directional goal (to accelerate shifts towards regenerative and distributive futures through systems innovation).
We realise that to Be like a jazz band, all the players need to share foundational skills and commitment so that the sum is more than the parts and so when it’s time to take on a lead riff, other players can support the solo moments. We also recognise that we’re just starting our journey around exploring what it means to really ‘do’ distributed leadership.
Foundation 1- Regular Beats
These are the structured points in time that support our culture, learning processes and contribute to our coherence. We are disciplined in practising the beats which build understanding across the whole team about where the music is heading and how each player contributes to the whole. We have learnt that it is the discipline of the beats that holds our busy team together.
- Convenors WIP — weekly whole team meetings where we share updates on prospects, proposals projects, engagements.
- Learning Circles — quarterly gatherings where we work on building our own capabilities and practise supporting each other’s work — making sure we have the skills to work as a team and as soloists.
- 1:1- fortnightly check-ins with our ‘lead’ where we have opportunities to work on individual wellbeing and professional development.
- Reflective and generative conversations (Chimes): fortnightly guided reflections on what we are learning and how we can weave our energies for greater coherence and future creative imaginings.
- Co-WIPs: bi-weekly team pulse checks to support a variety of other beats.
Foundation 2 — Metronome
Creating the space in our busy calendars needs more than open time. We also need tools, like a metronome that keeps the beat, to help us stay on track.
- Project Tracking Master List — It’s taken us some time to create the process, the form and the habit to update each other on a weekly basis, but our current Master Tracking List does this job well. We are committed to completing the updates and following a pattern so that the whole team is kept in the loop about projects they are not closely involved in, and to intentionally create space to explore cross-fertilisation opportunities.
- DWSW (Do we shall we?) — a decision-making ‘guide’ that helps us determine what new ‘songs’ we are able to learn and whether the direction fits for our ‘band’.
- Project Convenor and Ethics Guide — a set of guiding principles and a process that we work on internally and with our partners; building coherence across our projects and our reflective practice ‘muscle’.
- Challenge-Led Innovation map — this is one of our jazz band’s signature sounds which we are experimenting with as we learn towards our directional goal. We are currently refining an approach involving key learning questions designed to help each band member to contribute to ‘the music’ we’re playing more deeply.
- Gathering Canvas — a set of principles and guidelines, based on Priya Parker’s Art of Gathering, that we use when designing a GCSI event/gathering/learning opportunity so that no matter which player is hosting, our signature GCSI sound and vibe is represented.
Expanding the foundations: Experimenting with Rhythms
As the team has developed a deeper understanding and confidence with our foundational practices, we’ve noticed that we are becoming more creative with the rhythms that carry the songs along. We are intentionally practising distributed leadership by supporting team members to take on roles and responsibilities where they have more agency and voice. We believe the foundation processes are building confidence, agency and understanding so that all team members have supported opportunities to take a creative path. As we aspire towards a jazz band culture we are:
- Intentionally spreading the ‘project convenor’ role across the team enabling leaders to change over time as context and project needs evolve.
- Playing with different tempos depending on our partners’ context, constraints, and capacities to work in complexity.
- Building the confidence to intentionally acknowledge the rhythms that are working, and call out those that feel out of sync — accepting we need to maintain this discipline and awareness of how the band is helping support each other when things evolve in unexpected ways or when external dynamics require a shift to a different tune.
What we’re learning (besides the language of jazz!)
The reflections and insights generated through thinking about the jazz band metaphor reminds us this is an evolving piece of music — we will continue to practise the foundational skills for good music, listen deeply to each other’s instruments, and respond flexibly to support different team members as they step up to play. We will continue to weave together each other’s learnings and insights, supporting the creative jazz ensembles needed for practising distributed leadership in complex contexts. We leave you with a few riffs from our Chime:
“What does it actually take? Its not just randomness it’s based on deep trust and ability to take risks and knowing that everybody who’s playing with you will be able to say ‘yes, and’… and the trust that people will add, not just follow.”
“Synchronicity is required when there’s no conductor. They still begin together and end together. There’s structure in the creativity.”
“Trust is between individuals and the safety is in the culture.”
“Jazz musicians create space for other members of the band to fill. Playing solos is not the only way that leadership is shared. Adaptive teams require a fluid approach to authority distribution. To improvise, they must control their own decision-making.”
Contributors to this piece:
Rena Frohman
Michelle Smith
Athanasia Price
Based on notes and contributions from generative conversations at Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation
