The Art of Improvisation – with Alex Steele

I’ve known Alex for many years, and I have a lot of memories of working with him on some amazing stages. The snapshots that come to mind right now are:

• Working with 300 senior associates of a major law firm, where we used the lessons of jazz improvisation to invite everyone to approach this freshly created role by really listening to each other and allowing something new to emerge.
• In Amsterdam, we asked 200 global leaders from a materials sciences company to collaborate with their customers using a beginner’s mind way of being.
• Near Bristol, we worked with the next generation of executive team members of a FTSE branded company to look to a future beyond their current range of products and services – an act of “out of the box” daring for a group of leaders driven by the day-to-day numbers of share and margin.

And that’s the power of Alex and his work, and it’s why I have trusted Alex to work alongside us for twenty years now.

Last week was just as brilliant. I never know quite what Alex is going to do, but I know that it’s going to be terrific, and that the improvisational lessons that flow from the musical experiments will always be spot on as a portal through which to invite deeper exploration and collaboration. The jazz musicians’ skills of really listening, accepting the invitation, going with what is emerging, and knowing that no one is really an expert in what is being created … these are incredibly rich insights into how we all need to be in a shifting and turbulent world. It’s not that there is no place for skill, on the contrary, there is immense craft in being able to turn up and create. But what makes the magic happen is not technical expertise alone. Being accomplished on the instrument isn’t enough, it’s the way you approach the music that makes the difference.  It’s as true in any complex organisation as it is on stage.

We’ve worked hard alongside Alex to create ways of drawing out the lessons from his jazz work and amplifying and reinforcing the application in the day-to-day of organisational life. Our Alchemist process is one example of how this shows up in organisational life. Our Thinking Partner work, one-to-one and with teams is another. Helping people to do the real work of becoming beginners so that they can collaborate and explore well. Philippa Hardman and I have written about that a lot, indeed it’s at the core of our book Disrupted! How to create the future when the old rules are broken This is our passion and it’s why we created GameShift – to take richer ways of knowing and exploring into the world in ways that work in practice, that expand people’s horizons and allow new actions and outcomes to become possible.

If you’d like to explore how Alex and his colleagues could inspire your teams, please do let us know. And if you’d like to talk about how this energy can land effectively and rigorously in your executive team and beyond, we would love that conversation.

In the meantime, enjoy the recording of the session below, do follow up our links, and we look forward to the next time we see you.

Our next GameShift pop-up event is on September 7^th with the wonderful Dr Eve Poole. An old friend and colleague, Eve has written another timely and topical book – Robot Souls – in which she takes a deep dive into AI and ethics and why this needs to be on everyone’s agenda. You can find out more and sign up here.