Let's jam

This site is dedicated to an exploration and discussion of collaborative excellence.  Specifically, how do high-performance teams innovate and respond with agility to changing conditions and the unexpected?  My research and personal experiences in the arts as a leader, conductor and jazz bassist and in business as a software developer and manager have shown me that the practices employed by successful teams are widely applicable.  Whether it’s performing jazz, playing basketball, developing software, or executing business, political or military strategies, there are specific actions that can make or break a team’s collective efforts to succeed.  The Jazz Process specifies fourteen best principles that I believe are worth focusing on.  Yet there is so much more that’s important and worth exploring.  I’ve been fascinated with the concepts of collaboration, innovation and agility for as long as I can remember and I’m always eager to learn more and to share my own experiences.  To that end I’ve taken a few steps toward facilitating and contributing to an ongoing discourse on these topics.  Firstly I have started this new blog - you’re reading the opening post now.  I am finalizing a book that has taken over a year of my “spare” time and I am glad to say it should be published sometime in early 2010.  I am also hoping to post jazz performance videos that will support the book and the blog and forum discussions.  I hope you’ll be inclined to read, watch, listen, comment and/or discuss and I look forward to exchanging experiences, ideas and opinions with you.

Cheers

Adrian