Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz by Frank J. Barrett

Author:Frank J. Barrett [Barrett, Frank J.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781422161104
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2012-07-23T14:00:00+00:00

Clearly, Burton’s story demonstrates that leadership means taking risks, leaping in, and violating rules—all broad principles of jazz as well—but it also illustrates more specific tenets of the art form as it relates to minimal structure. Consider, for example, the following moments from Burton’s story and their broader implications:

Burton began simply by making calls. This is reminiscent of jazz players’ starting their solo with “almost any group of random notes.” Instead of searching for a path and then taking it, musicians learn to take action before the actual action paths emerge. They begin by groping, searching through the mess, working with the resources at hand—the chords, motives, riffs, and like Burton, the people who are around at the moment.

In retrospect, calling the scaffolding company seems like a silly miscalculation. But from the perspective of improvisation, something else is happening here. By reaching out for resources, even when they were the wrong ones, Burton was experimenting with how to take action in an unparalleled situation. He was creating an identity, surprising even himself as he discovered he was capable of something he had not previously imagined. In jazz and in life, this is how you learn who you are and what you’re capable of.

Knowing that heavy equipment and crews would be needed, Burton ignored the “legal” bidding procedures and called the four construction companies he was most familiar with. Good improvisers have a knack for knowing when to break rules. Burton activated his network; he drew upon the people he had known over the years. This is bricolage in action—dealing with the available tools and resources, tinkering with what he had on hand, and combining resources as a way to proceed.

Dividing the pile into quartiles and assigning each one to a specific construction company was like creating a jazz quartet. Burton was letting people loose to discover what they needed to respond to, where the priorities lay, and which problems they needed to address first. This move ceded maximal autonomy to the construction workers, while freeing Burton to create a mini-structure for coordination. (In contrast, consider what happened after Hurricane Katrina when the situation spun out of control while everyone was waiting for the authority structure to activate.)

Burton imposed simple rules and a minimal structure for coordination—regular, twice-daily meetings. Just as happens with a jazz ensemble, the two daily meetings coordinated action through time, both allowing each player significant autonomy to respond as the situation required and also providing an opportunity to adjust to one another based on new information. Once these baseline understandings were in place, Burton and others were free to improvise.

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