There is more emphasis than ever on the need for change. In this essay on organizational change, a senior practitioner reflects on some parallels between the art of jazz and the art of management consulting.

“The real power of Jazz…is that a group of people can come together and create…improvised art and negotiate their agendas…and that negotiation is the art.”
Wynton Marsalis from Jazz, a film by Ken Burns


What is the connection between change, consulting and jazz? Even as a child I was attracted to jazz music. I recently noticed that this great American art form was influencing how I viewed my clients and my role as an organizational change consultant.

Jazz is an art form as social process. Jazz is a social process that results in the constant creation of new ideas and innovative musical interaction between musicians and their audience. The audience is both consumer and co-creator.

Organizations are social inventions and change is a social process. Peter Drucker said that organizations exist to serve a priority need of society. Organizational change, if properly done, involves its audience – management, employees, customers, other stakeholders.

Studies of successful and unsuccessful change initiatives consistently show the critical importance of people and organizational issues. The failure of change programs is almost universally the failure to appreciate that organizational change is a social process.

Technology change is also a social process. Examples in the consumer world are plentiful: Microsoft’s Vista operating system boondoggle, Google’s search success and the ubiquity of Apple iPods and iPhones.

In the workplace however, the human side of technology driven change is almost always given short shift. On such programs, I often explain my role as an advocate for the ‘end user community’. When technology driven change programs go off-track, it is typically when they have lost touch with their constituents – their audience.

The core of jazz is improvisation. It’s what sets jazz music apart. A jazz musician was asked: "Don't you get bored playing the same standards all the time over and over again?" He replied, "Every time we play, it is different… we seldom know what's going to happen next."

Improvisation in consulting is what keeps it fresh for me. Yes there are patterns but no two client organizations, situations and sets of people are the same. I’m excited, on a continuous basis, by ‘playing’ with clients, identifying their needs and inventing the right approach, the right intervention, for them, at that moment in time.

Respect for tradition is integral to jazz innovation. In its birth jazz drew on many roots and continues to in its evolution. Jazz musicians, even those that consistently push and expand the music’s boundaries, retain a deep reverence for what and who has come before them. Jazz is a conscious, purposeful search for new opportunities – the ability to engage the unexpected, incongruities and problems as opportunities for new discovery.

As an organizational change agent, I must respect the client’s culture and remember too Drucker’s axiom: Never try to change a company culture; work with what you've got. I often look to an organization’s origins and its founders to inspire a new way forward.

Assisting clients to rediscover their original mandate, mission and values is often an effective way to link the heritage they hold in esteem and the new direction they must take. Like jazz, a source of business innovation is frequently creating the new by reinventing the old – in a new context, and in so doing, providing a bridge from old to new.

Jazz is about collaboration, inclusiveness and team work. The elements that create a successful jazz group are the same that sustain a successful business team. Good jazz and a well performing business depend on creativity, agility, empathy and flexibility. Whether world-class jazz or business, both require teamwork, multitasking, cross-functional awareness, innovation and responsiveness to change. As one jazz musician put it: “That’s how the creativity stays alive … we all bring what we do best to the table.”

A jazz ensemble is an autonomous, self-governing, self-regulating high performing team – adaptable and independent, in support of individual excellence and expression (e.g., the solo) and the interdependent structure and purpose of the whole. In jazz there is a constant transition between leading and supporting – as strengths and capabilities of both the individual and the team are expanded.

A project team – the organizational platform on which I am usually doing my consulting, can be characterized similarly. Leadership is no longer a static position but fluctuates depending on the ability to respond to changing needs and expertise. Leading successful project teams transcends traditional job descriptions. It depends instead on the organizational ability to balance the need for structure with the need for flexibility – to consistently blend individual intention and behavior with group intention and behavior. This dynamic is at the core of a well-performing team – business or jazz.

If it ain’t got that swing. Central to the jazz idiom is swing, that pulsating back beat of syncopating African rhythms through the rumble of the drums, or soft sound of the brush to the snare. Syncopation is placing an accent or emphasis where it is you least expected. It can happen on a part of a beat or a part of a measure. It gives the music life and richness that provides tremendous variety in the rhythm of a given piece.

I find parallels in organizations and the change process. All organizations have their rhythms – the business day and business week, the quarter and annual budget cycle, the product lifecycle and new product launch – are but a few examples of the rhythms of business. Projects, project teams, and business change also have their natural cycles and rhythms.

In organizational change work, as in jazz, timing is everything. Knowing ‘when’ relies on being in touch with the organization and applying judgment about the ‘right activity’ at the ‘right time’ with the ‘right audience’. In so doing we can create and leverage the organization’s readiness for change.

If we can feel the organization’s rhythm and find 'an opening', we can use syncopation – an emphasis where it is least expected, to get organizational attention and create a dynamic tension and forward momentum. Creating a unique rhythm for the change initiative, as it interacts with all the other things happening (or not) in the organization, is essential to successfully collaborating with my clients.

Passion and motivation in jazz are generated by a sense of authenticity. Jazz works within a zone of improvisational freedom where trust and accountability are critical factors. Jazz is a process in which risk is a resource rather than a condition to limit capabilities or expression.

The single most important resource for any company lives in the diverse nature of its employees’ hearts – the quality of emotional vibrancy, zest, commitment, and energy to pursue excellence and the course one believes to be true. When we believe what we are doing is important and has a purpose larger than ourselves, we develop passion that energizes not just ourselves but also the people we work with.

As an organizational change consultant, I work with my clients to tap into that emotional commitment. When people feel an emotional commitment to what they do everyday, it quickly generates a sense of purpose. When people feel a sense of purpose, they feel passion for what they do. When this is aligned and reinforced by organizational authenticity and integrity, the business has a sustainable source of energy and competitive advantage.

Jazz is communication; there is no jazz without listening in the moment. Again jazz has lessons for consulting and business. Darwin observed that the most successful species were those that readily adapt and change. In a world of increasing complexity and diversity, survival depends on the ability to listen beyond the ‘comfort zone’ of what we already understand.

Listening in the moment – suspending assumption and expectation, is critical to effective communication. Truly hearing and feeling the communication of new ideas, of passion, of meaning and the rhythms of others are central to engaging with the uncertainty of change. When we truly listen, we allow ourselves to hear the dissonance and friction that new ideas can often generate. To listen in the moment means to listen empathically – to suspend assumptions and judgments that are rooted in our past experience so we can hear what we don’t yet understand.

Jazz inspired. We all need sources of inspiration, of seeing differently, of creating insights into ourselves, others and our world. I trust this essay inspires you ‘to look a new’ at your role as a consultant and the ‘what’ and ‘how’ you bring value to your clients.



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Vic Rocine, CMC, is a Managing Consultant with the Organizational Change Practice of Axon – a global leader in business transformation for organizations using SAP as their business and technology platform. www.axonglobal.com