Organizing for Jazz

Parallels between jazz performance and organization are given. In organizations, people need to understand what's happening in order to help their organization perform flexibly. The more they know about what the organization does—what it's up to, what's going on in the world, what the customer wants, what other people do, what shape the organization is in financially, what the possibilities are—the more they can take action freely without fear of causing problems for someone else. Developing this knowledge takes time, like practicing a musical instrument.