There are so many powerful business lessons we can learn from the world of jazz. This fluid, improvisation art form is all about taking risks and trying new things. Going out on limb can be scary, but it is where the magic happens. Extending yourself outside your comfort zone is where the best rewards will be discovered.

Jazz is also about listening. Listening to your fellow musicians, the audience, and your own creative voice. In business, that means listening to your team, your customers, your competitors, your industry, your suppliers, the latest trends and best practice, and of course, your own creativity. Through focused listening comes adaptation. Allowing the environment and your collaborators to influence the outcome as a group. Seeking inspiration and creativity from others, and adapting in real-time to your own Creative Challenge.

The most in-demand jazz musicians are not typically the ones with the most blazing technique or dazzling solo ability. The ones who always find work are those that support the collective output rather than being a diva. What makes jazz performances memorable is not breathtaking speed or technique; it is all about establishing a connection and crafting true, artistic, musical expression. It’s about creating something special that resonates with your audience.

The same is true in the business world. The best leaders and the people who get promoted are not selfish, me-centric show-offs. Instead, the new era of business rewards those that collaborate and work to serve their colleagues and their customers. Individual brilliance is great, but purposeful group engagement is worshiped. Any one person can be strong, but a tightly integrated group becomes unstoppable. As the African proverb states, “When spider webs unite, they tie up a lion.”

Finally, look out for what I call “The Jazz Trap”. This is the situation where musicians get so caught up in a look-what-I-can-do mindset that they lose connection with their audience. These musicians add complexity for the sake of it, and are so busy showing off their technical brilliance that their art suffers (as does anyone who happens to be listening).

Don’t forget that your creativity must always be directed at a specific business challenge. You should be focused on solving problems in the best way, not the most complex way. There have been many ad campaigns that have won awards but failed to sell any products. Let your creativity flow completely unrestricted throughout the creative process, but don’t forget to ultimately select the solution that will create the best results, not the one that is the most dazzling.

Jazz improvisation is like a fluid conversation among friends; you make it up as you go. There’s no script, and the best discussions are never rehearsed. Think of yourself as a jazz musician, taking risks and using these techniques to improvise fresh and original ideas. Imagination will flow. Inspiration will hit. Sparks with ignite. And that blank page will be no match for your unbridled creativity.

Click here to view the entire six-part series, Creative Sparks from the World of Jazz

Earlier this week, I launched a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Jazz music is all about spontaneous creativity and improvisation – skills that are critically important in the business world. We’ve covered a number of powerful concepts already (to read the full series, visit http://CreativityGeneration.com/blog ), and I’ve saved one of my favorites for last: Substitutions.

Substitutions. Great jazz musicians love to substitute one thing for another. Like a chef who decides to swap out one ingredient for another, jazz musicians find fresh ideas by “subbing it out”. The piano player, for example, may substitute one chord for another. A trumpet player may “sub-out” one scale in place of another during her solo. A drummer may swap one rhythmic pattern for another. By leaving other things alone and purposefully substituting one element of their music for something else, creative sparks often begin to ignite for the seasoned jazz musician.

You can also put this technique to use to generate sparks of inspiration. Maybe you are working on new type of packaging for your product. You could decide to keep most of your original idea, but swap out the way the opening of the package from the top to the side. Perhaps your Creative Challenge is to streamline a 12-step assembly line. What if you left 11 steps alone, but swapped out one step for something different? If you are working on a TV commercial, what if you swapped out a male actor for a female one? Or rock music in the background for classical.

Substitutions are easy to use, and can open up fresh perspectives and ideas. Think about your creative challenge (or even the status quo) as several unique and inter-connected parts. Then, simply take one part at a time and try swapping out something fresh. What if we swapped aluminum for plastic? What if we used contract labor instead of full-time employees? What if we sold our product direct instead of through distributors? Let your imagination run wild as you substitute ideas to unlock your creativity.

Jazz musicians will tell you that the worst thing that can happen is not all that bad. If you really hit a clunker in jazz, the wisdom is to play it three more times to make it appear that you did it on purpose the first time. “Wow, that piano player is really avant-garde! How creative!”

What’s the worst thing that will happen if your substitution doesn’t work? Keep trying new combinations and you will discover untapped resources of sparks and imagination.

Look for the final post of the series, Blog 6 of 6, coming next.

Earlier this week, I launched a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Jazz music is all about spontaneous creativity and improvisation – skills that are critically important in the business world. The first post covered a technique called Trading Fours. The second post was on Contrast. Next, I covered a technique called Mixing it Up. Now we are on to the fourth approach, Lean on the Masters.

Lean on the Masters. When learning the art of jazz, students not only learn technique but spend a significant portion of their study learning from the masters. Understanding how Dexter Gordon crafts his solos, or how Sonny Rollins builds excitement, or how Oscar Peterson uses the special technique of playing in unison octaves helps an up-and-coming jazz musician gain both perspective and inspiration.

Studying other musicians helps in three ways: it provides a context and broad understanding of the past which gives you a platform on which to build; it offers a source of inspiration and ideas; and it provides specific concepts that you can use and adapt to your own musical challenges.

You can benefit greatly in the same way jazz musicians do by looking to the masters. How would Edison have approached your product design challenge? If you’re not sure, you can easily find dozens of examples, books, diagrams, whitepapers, and artifacts at your fingertips thanks to Google and Wikipedia. How did Einstein approach his research? What did Henry Ford do when he was stuck on a problem? Where did Picasso go when he needed a fresh perspective? How would Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) attack your new social media strategy? What would Apolo Ohno (currently the American with the most Olympic gold medals) do when faced with a challenge like yours?

Through free and ubiquitous access to information, you can easily answer these questions and more. In addition to examining what specific approaches various masters would have, you can learn from them just by understanding how they think. I’ve read biographies on business legends ranging from railroad baron Henry Flagler to Andrew Carnegie to Steve Jobs. Besides their amazing stories, you can start to see patterns in their thinking which can be applied to your own situation. Grabbing a book, article, or online story about masters in any field is almost like having the ability to sit down and have a conversation with them.

Jazz musicians often use a favorite musical quote or approach that they learned from a master. I have a few riffs that I learned by studying jazz guitar virtuoso Wes Montgomery, for example. Sometimes when I’m stuck in a solo, I will play these licks to not only regain my footing but also to spark ideas. I also know that McCoy Tyner used something called “quartal harmony”, which was an unusual and creative way of voicing chords. When I am looking for ideas, I sometimes try using this technique to see if it sparks something fresh for me.

To apply the age-old practice of leaning on the masters, try to discover some patterns or approaches that you can use as part of your overall creativity arsenal. Start small by learning one or two approaches or ideas from only one legend in any field (business, art, science, politics, etc) and see if you can apply the same approach to your own creative challenge. As you continue to build your creativity muscles, you can keep adding to your repertoire and before you know it you’ll be creating like the masters.

Finally, when you need a spark, are frustrated with the blank page or stuck on a problem, try stepping away and look to the masters. I have been in situations with my eyes glazed over and completely unable to get moving, only to read a story or article about a legend and become instantly inspired with a fresh approach. As you continue to build your creative career, you may just be a master to someone else in the future as they look to you for ideas and inspiration.

Look for Blog post 5 of 6, entitled Substitutions, coming next.

Earlier this week, I launched a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Jazz music is all about spontaneous creativity and improvisation – skills that are critically important in the business world. The first posted covered a technique called Trading Fours. The second post was on Contrast. Now let’s look at the third technique – Mixing it up.

Mixing it up. If you listen to jazz group playing the same song every night for a month, it will never sound the same twice. A core aspect of jazz is trying new things and keeping your work fresh. One way to accomplish this is to change styles. For example, one night a group may play the classic jazz standard “All the things you are” as a medium-swing. The next night it may be played in a smoking-fast bebop style. The next night as a slow and touching ballad. Another session could feature the song with a groovy Latin feel.

In addition to the feel and style of a song, jazz groups often play around with instrumentation. One night may include the entire combo on the song, while the next night features only guitar and saxophone. The order in which the musicians take turns soloing frequently changes to keep it fresh. Perhaps one night the piano player begins the song and plays the first three or four minutes alone with no accompaniment by the other musicians, creating a cool contrast when everyone else begins to play along.

Mixing it up not only keeps the music fresh for audiences, it keeps the musicians fresh with new ideas. The same is true for you and your creative project. Mixing things up will not only help you overcome the blank page with exciting sparks, it will help throughout your creative endeavors. Here are some ways to mix it up:

• Use a different room for each brainstorming session
• Alternate who is the facilitator each day
• Begin each session with a different warm-up exercise
• Change the order of your meetings around frequently
• Conduct your meetings at different times of the day

In addition to the context of your meetings, you can also try mixing up your idea flow. For example, you may challenge the group to focus only on the very beginning of your creative project, and later challenge them to only focus on the ending. You could have the team generate small, incremental, safe ideas one day and the next day switch to giant, audacious, world-changing ideas only. Maybe one day your generate ideas only for a certain type of customer, and the next day you go for the opposite. One session could focus on low-cost solutions and the next could focus on expensive ones. The key is to mix it up like jazz musicians to unlock hidden gems of creativity.

Look for Blog post 4 of 6, entitled Lean on the Masters, coming next…

Yesterday, I launched a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity. Jazz music is all about spontaneous creativity and improvisation – skills that are critically important in the business world. The first post covered a technique called Trading Fours. Now let’s look at the second technique – Contrast.

Contrast. One of the most engaging elements of a great jazz solo is contrast. If a trumpet solo, for example, was simply an all-or-nothing thing with constant 16th notes played non-stop from beginning to end, it would sound incredibly boring. Great solos are not turned on and off with a switch; they develop and build, weaving in and out while telling an exciting story. It is often the contrast created by the musician that creates the most beautiful solos, and the most appreciative audiences.

Great business improvisation is no different. By exploring contrasting elements, you will find a wellspring of creative inspiration. However, most business people don’t approach creativity in this manner. You are much more likely to hear an approach such as, “Okay team… we have 15 minutes and we’d better come up with a bunch of good ideas for this problem right now or the boss is going to blow a gasket. Ready…go!”

As you can imagine, this on/off approach is not the way to generate your best ideas. You’ll see a better result and have a lot more fun by using the jazz concept of contrast. A jazz guitar solo may start slow and quiet, for example, and gradually build to a peak that is fast and loud. Once the peak has been reached, the solo may begin to retreat as if climbing down a mountain, until it ends in a quiet and slow fashion just like it started. Throughout a sax solo, a musician may weave in and out of many crowded notes to open measures that are sparse. A piano player may choose to go from harsh to delicate, and then from intense to mellow. A bass solo may build tension with dissonant notes that make you squirm in your chair, only to release that tension to create a feeling of being grounded and calm.

Try putting contrasts to work for your own creativity. Rather than thinking of creativity as an on/off switch, begin with a simple, easy idea and then explore the contrasts. For example, your creative challenge may be to “increase the close-rate of our sales team”. Using contrast, you would first begin with an idea such as “provide better training to the sales people.” From there, play around with the idea using contrasts. This may inspire thinking such as:

• Start with two weeks of intense training, then taper it down to three hours a month for six months, then bring the team back for another intensive week-long workshop.
• Alternate trainers. For the first day, use a warm and nurturing trainer. Next, use a drill sergeant type that shakes the group up. End with a motivational trainer that pumps up the team to hit the market hard.
• Break up each two-hour training session into four equal 30 minute parts: product knowledge, role-playing exercises, overcoming objections, and competitive insight.

Even if your initial spark is totally unrelated to the problem at hand (the best creativity often flows from random, unrelated concepts such as Italian dining, stamp collecting, or youth soccer), try using contrast to play around with the idea and see if you can solve your challenge in a non-traditional and more compelling manner.

Look for Blog post 3 of 6, entitled Mixing it Up, coming next.

If there was a PhD for creative sparking, jazz musicians would graduate with high distinction. Smoke-filled, late night jazz clubs are hotbeds of spontaneous creativity. I’m going to post a six-part blog series on techniques from the jazz world that can be easily translated to driving business creativity.

Having studied jazz improvisation for nearly 30 years, and having played thousands of gigs all over the world, I can tell you that instantaneous sparking is the language of jazz. Jazz is a real-time art form; there’s no going back to re-do or touch-up your work. It is intense, fluid, and high-energy instantaneous creativity. Let’s take an inside look at some of the best jazz musician secrets, and then apply these techniques to helping you unleash your own fresh thinking.

1) Trading Fours. There’s a fun improvisational technique in which jazz musicians alternate short, four-measure solos appropriately named “trading fours”. This round-robin is separate from the longer, more involved solos from each of the musicians. As a backdrop, think of a jazz solo as telling a story. Rather than one musician telling her story with her own extended solo, the group works together to tell a collective story by handing off the story-telling every four measures in the trading fours process.

Trading fours sessions work best when each musician listens carefully to the other player who is soloing, and then tries to take the ideas from that solo and build on it when it’s their turn to solo. To better understand the concept, think about gathering a group of five people with the plan to tell a story. One person begins by sharing an opening sentence out loud. Instead of continuing on his own, the next person in the group invents the next sentence, taking the initial idea and expanding on it. The third person takes it from there, and the group continues to go in a circle – one sentence at a time – as the story unfolds. You might call that ‘trading sentences’.

This legendary jazz improvisation technique can be a powerful way for you to spark your own creativity. Sit in a circle with your group, and give it a try. Instead of four measures of jazz melodies, you’ll be trading ideas and concepts around your Creative Challenge. Start with a single creative spark – It could be anything from a vague thought to an image to a vision of the completed project. It could also be something totally unrelated and random. For example, you could be working on designing a new computer chip and you may start with “skiing in Aspen”. From there, let the natural creativity of the group unfold and try to build on the initial idea and weave back to your topic. The ski lifts could end up becoming an inspiration for a new type of vertical assembly line for your computer chips. Or the pattern made by skiers in the snow could be a new imprint architecture on the silicon. Trading fours has inspired jazz musicians and their audiences for 70 years, and can certainly help you spark your own imagination.

Look for Blog post 2 of 6, entitled Contrast, coming next.