If you're hoping to enhance your creativity as an
entrepreneur, you might want to listen to a stack of John Coltrane
records. Follow that up with an earful of Charlie Parker and
Thelonious Monk. Once you get into the groove, you'll be all
the more prepared to delve into Jamming: The Art andDiscipline of Business Creativity (HarperBusiness, $23
cloth).
Author John Kao cleverly likens the creativity in jazz music to
the creativity in business. Think it's a stretch? Not really,
considering that both encourage freedom within a set of established
guidelines. "Like jazz, creativity has its vocabulary and
conventions," writes Kao, himself a jazz pianist. "As in
jazz, too, its paradoxes create tensions. It demands free
expressiveness and disciplined self-control, solitude in a crowded
room, acceptance and defiance, serendipity and direction."
The title of Kao's book springs, of course, from that
magical moment in music whereby inspiration gives way to
innovation. You can jam in business, too-what else are
brainstorming sessions for?-which makes Kao's metaphor such a
good one.
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