Growth Igniters Leadership – and All That Jazz

Pam Harper (00:00): How can jazz music be a metaphor for leading to ignite game changing growth. Join us for our quick take on this issue. Episode 220 of Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper.

Chris Curran (00:22): This episode is brought to you by Business Advancement Incorporated, enabling successful leaders and companies to accelerate to their next level of success on the web at businessadvance.com. And now, here's Pam and Scott!

Pam Harper (00:38): Thanks Chris. And welcome everyone. I'm Pam Harper, founding partner and CEO of Business Advancement Incorporated, and sitting right across from me as always is my business partner and husband, Scott Harper.

Scott Harper (00:52): Hi, everybody. It's wonderful to have you with us again. And as always, our purpose here is to spark new insights, inspiration, and immediately useful ideas to help visionary leaders to accelerate themselves -- along with their companies, -- to their next level of game-changing innovation, transformation, and growth. Now, Pam, over the years, quite a number of our listeners and guests have commented that they really enjoy the music we use for the intros and outros on our podcast. It's excerpts of the piece, "Heartbreakin' Blues," by Slapstick.; we use it under license. And people like the way that it moves ,that it's dynamic. It's exciting.

Pam Harper (01:34): This isn't the first time that music has been used as a metaphor for leadership. But there's something different here.

Scott Harper (01:40): The music that we're using here, actually doesn't always harmonize. Heartbreakin' Blues is blues, which is of course very tightly related to jazz. And sometimes there are strange chords. Sometimes soloists can get off track a little bit. They're going into new territory. In fact, one of the things I love about "Kind of Blue "by Miles Davis is that there are obvious clinkers in the classic recording track, and yet they chose that track because of the amazing magic of the improvisation.

Pam Harper (02:13): So there's structure and improvisation

Scott Harper (02:15): Right, there's structure and improvisation, and that's what really brings out the excitement of jazz music.

Pam Harper (02:20): So taking this into business... This balance is especially important when you're leading for game-changing growth in your company. If you stay too close to the established structure, it can seem really rote.

Scott Harper (02:32): You're just playing the notes. The notes are there, but there's no soul to it,

Pam Harper (02:36): But the best musicians interpret the score. And in jazz, they go even further. They can experiment with entirely new versions

Scott Harper (02:47): And people don't always know what to make of it. Remember when a few years ago we saw Herbie Hancock at a concert?

Pam Harper (02:54): I remember that.

Scott Harper (02:55): Now they had advertised the music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. And everyone loves Davis and Coltrane. It's Classic jazz. And at times they played the classic pieces, highly recognizable and melodic.

Pam Harper (03:10): And the audience loved it.

Scott Harper (03:12): Oh, of course they did. We loved it too. But there were times when Hancock and his combo went off and did some improvisation, and really went out onto the edges. There were times when the music was dissonant, even squawky

Pam Harper (03:27): Right, and there was very sparse applause for one of the pieces. Remember?

Scott Harper (03:33): Yes, I do.

Pam Harper (03:34): Here's the thing that was so great: Herbie Hancock turns to the audience and decides to address it head on. Instead of apologizing, he stands up for what he's doing. He comments that music, especially jazz, needs to go beyond where we're comfortable in order to find new ways for the musicians to discover the unexpected. And this goes for the audience, too.

Scott Harper (04:01): And in the end, of course, we appreciated their balance of structure and improvisation, and the spirit of innovation.

Pam Harper (04:09): So now let's apply this to Growth Igniter's leadership. When you're leading for game-changing growth, you're going into dramatically different territory. And it can be ambitious, of course. It can seem uncertain. It can throw others off balance. Think about all the experiences we've had, where people are feeling almost seasick with the uncertainty of transformation.

Scott Harper (04:35): Right. "Well, we were doing this; but now we have to do that..."

Pam Harper (04:37): But it's easier when there's a structure and a sensitivity to what other people are doing to create the whole.

Scott Harper (04:43): That's right. It's just as in a good jazz piece.

Scott Harper (04:47): So in the spirit of jazz, let's talk about some immediately useful questions to build upon this so that you out there can lead your company for game-changing innovation, transformation and growth starts. It With creating new conversations.

Pam Harper (05:03): So the first conversation is what are we doing to ensure that we're going beyond the established score, to use the musical metaphor here. All of us can imagine a time where we've been part of something that just seemed to no longer be appropriate.

Scott Harper (05:22): But, the party line was, "this is how we do it. This is how we're gonna keep doing it." That doesn't always work.

Pam Harper (05:30): And not only is it not great for the market, but it's hard for anybody who is an employee. I mean, we're talking about the great reinvention and things like that that are going on. It can be very frustrating to people when they feel compelled to do the same thing over and over again, especially when they can see the potential for something else. So we need to be flexible to new markets needs and emerging trends. I think many leaders know this. They know that strategies have a much shorter shelf life than ever. But the thing is when you're in your own system and you're attached to a particular outcome, I've seen that it can be very hard to separate from that. So that's the challenge as well as the opportunity.

Scott Harper (06:20): And so, building on that, going to a second idea: conversations about creating an idea of whether we have a good balance between structure and improvisation. You know, this comes down to really looking at whether we're innovating in ways that are responsive to the needs that are evolving and opportunities that are coming up.

Pam Harper (06:41): And you were able to see some of that when you were working in corporate innovation, right?

Scott Harper (06:46): Well, sure. We were always looking at new technologies that were emerging and matching that to evolving needs of our customers. And it's very important when you're doing that to go beyond your usual stakeholders, the people that you always talk to. And if any of you out there want to, get a list we've compiled of some of the conventional and unconventional stakeholders out there , you can go to Growthignitersradio.com, episode 220, and go to resources and download that list.

Pam Harper (07:20): And here's a challenge: sometimes all of those voices can sound squawky, because they're going to be saying different things sometimes.

Scott Harper (07:28): Right; you have to find that balance and get to where's the harmony in all the squawks. Now, let's go to a third conversation that we should be having.

Pam Harper (07:38): The third one is, "What are you doing to increase people's ability to foster the sensitivity of individual contributors and the group to the whole Oo what's going on?" For example, we know of a company called Jazz Pharmaceuticals...

Scott Harper (07:54): How appropriate...

Pam Harper (07:56): Yes... The leaders of Jazz Pharma take this very seriously. They make it a point to provide all of their employees with the opportunity to share regular feedback on whether the company is staying true to their purpose and their stated values. And this communication though is two ways. They then share that data with employees, along with their plans to address areas for improvement. So there's a holistic approach that creates harmony even as they're innovating in uncharted territory.

Scott Harper (08:28): So Pam, let's have some final thoughts.

Pam Harper (08:31): As the world is changing in so many ways, faster than ever before, the spirit of jazz can help us stay relevant. While structure and movement is certainly important for growth, improvisation and even occasional dissonance can enable us to stay fresh and continue to create new value.

Scott Harper (08:53): Thanks, Pam. And thanks to you out there for listening to Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. If you're enjoying listening to this podcast, spread the good word. Open Growth Igniters Radio on whatever app you use and write a review. And to find out more about our strategic growth advisory services, learn about Pam's latest keynote speech, and access our full podcast archive, go to businessadvance.com

Pam Harper (09:18): Until next time. This is Pam Harper...

Scott Harper (09:20): And Scott Harper...

Pam Harper (09:21): ...Wishing you continued success, and leaving you with this question:

Pam Harper (09:24): What can we do, starting today, to incorporate the spirit of jazz into our leadership?

Chris Curran (09:45): Growth Igniters and Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper are registered service marks of business advancement incorporated. All Growth Igniters Radio episodes are copyrighted productions of Business Advancement Incorporated, intended for the private use of our audience. Except as otherwise provided by copyright law, all other uses, including copying, editing, redistribution and publication without prior written consent of business advancement incorporated are prohibited all rights reserved.