It is obvious that the world is caught in the process of constant, rapid and unpredictable change. Such changes are challenging the time-honoured business models that we hold, as we strive to understand the changes around us and survive. This book offers a lens through which we search for new ways of thinking about, and working in our dynamic complex world. The search draws on the science of complex adaptive systems. Organizations of today need ‘Extraordinary Leaders’ who can ‘dance’ with these changes by embracing the principles of complexity science to create highly adaptable and innovative organizations that recognise the value of intangible assets. The success of an organization usually depends on those working closest to the value-adding end of the business. It is those employees and their immediate leaders, who seem to have the greatest impact on the success of an organization. Managers-as-leaders can ease the way for those who depend on them for support and encouragement. People are the only true agents in a business or organization. All assets, whether tangible or intangible, are the result of human actions. Therefore, it is essential that people in organizations experience high levels of commitment to their work and value relationships and respect. These are fundamental requirements if rapid, timely and comprehensive information is to flow to the decision points within the organization in productive and sustainable ways. This book places people at the centre of the organization working within the theoretical framework of complex adaptive systems and shows how and why it works to create wealth and dignity. Organizational Jazz symbolically represents the joining of the certain with the uncertain creating an environment for innovation and performance.

What Duke Ellington and Miles Davis teach us about leadership How do you cope when faced with complexity and constant change at work? Here’s what the world’s best leaders and teams do: they improvise. They invent novel responses and take calculated risks without a scripted plan or a safety net that guarantees specific outcomes. They negotiate with each other as they proceed, and they don’t dwell on mistakes or stifle each other’s ideas. In short, they say “yes to the mess” that is today’s hurried, harried, yet enormously innovative and fertile world of work. This is exactly what great jazz musicians do. In this revelatory book, accomplished jazz pianist and management scholar Frank Barrett shows how this improvisational “jazz mind-set” and the skills that go along with it are essential for effective leadership today. With fascinating stories of the insights and innovations of jazz greats such as Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, as well as probing accounts of the wisdom gleaned from his own experience as a jazz musician, Barrett introduces a new model for leading and collaborating in organizations. He describes how, like skilled jazz players, leaders need to master the art of unlearning, perform and experiment simultaneously, and take turns soloing and supporting each other. And with examples that range from manufacturing to the military to high-tech, he illustrates how organizations must take an inventive approach to crisis management, economic volatility, and all the rapidly evolving realities of our globally connected world. Leaders today need to be expert improvisers. Yes to the Mess vividly shows how the principles of jazz thinking and jazz performance can help anyone who leads teams or works with them to develop these critical skills, wherever they sit in the organization. Engaging and insightful, Yes to the Mess is a seminar on collaboration and complexity, against the soulful backdrop of jazz.

The story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere "This is an essential tool for parents and teachers to share with children whether those kids identify as trans or not. I wish I had had a book like this when I was a kid struggling with gender identity questions. I found it deeply moving in its simplicity and honesty."—Laverne Cox (who plays Sophia in “Orange Is the New Black”) From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. Jazz's story is based on her real-life experience and she tells it in a simple, clear way that will be appreciated by picture book readers, their parents, and teachers.

There are over a million jazz recordings, but only a few hundred tunes have been recorded repeatedly. Why did a minority of songs become jazz standards? Why do some songs--and not others--get rerecorded by many musicians? Shaping Jazz answers this question and more, exploring the underappreciated yet crucial roles played by initial production and markets--in particular, organizations and geography--in the development of early twentieth-century jazz. Damon Phillips considers why places like New York played more important roles as engines of diffusion than as the sources of standards. He demonstrates why and when certain geographical references in tune and group titles were considered more desirable. He also explains why a place like Berlin, which produced jazz abundantly from the 1920s to early 1930s, is now on jazz's historical sidelines. Phillips shows the key influences of firms in the recording industry, including how record companies and their executives affected what music was recorded, and why major companies would rerelease recordings under artistic pseudonyms. He indicates how a recording's appeal was related to the narrative around its creation, and how the identities of its firm and musicians influenced the tune's long-run popularity. Applying fascinating ideas about market emergence to a music's commercialization, Shaping Jazz offers a unique look at the origins of a groundbreaking art form.

Much has been researched and written about the emergence of improvisation processes within organizational contexts. Although still scarce, research on organizational improvisation has evolved from a jazz and theater metaphor to empirical and conceptual organizational frameworks, creating a consolidated organizational theoretical body. This Elgar Introduction discusses major theoretical advances in organizational improvisation, which the authors view as the process of improvisation that occurs within an organizational context, whether at the individual, team, or organizational level. Grounded in rigorous academic work to date, this book speaks both to scholars interested in developing research on organizational improvisation and to managers who face rapid change with crucial consequences.

Hailed by corporate, philanthropic, and governmental organizations as a metaphor for democratic interaction and business dynamics, contemporary jazz culture has a story to tell about the relationship between political economy and social practice in the era of neoliberal capitalism. The Jazz Bubble approaches the emergence of the neoclassical jazz aesthetic since the 1980s as a powerful, if unexpected, point of departure for a wide-ranging investigation of important social trends during this period, extending from the effects of financialization in the music industry to the structural upheaval created by urban redevelopment in major American cities. Dale Chapman draws from political and critical theory, oral history, and the public and trade press, making this a persuasive and compelling work for scholars across music, industry, and cultural studies.

Thought-provoking papers on the relatively new field of organizational improvisation, which consider the pressures on organizations to react continually to today's ever-changing environment.

In Workplace Jazz, the author raises a battle cry for individual and corporate responsibility in building cultures that are healthier and more productive for those working in them. What should leaders do to address this workforce engagement and productivity gap? Should companies keep implementing culture improvement processes and procedures that do not address the emotional connection that teams need? Workplace Jazz offers a step-by-step process, enhanced with stories, neuroscience research, case studies, metaphors, and a strategic blueprint for developing connected and high-performing project teams based on the author’s experiences as a professional musician, certified conversational intelligence coach, and certified business consultant.

The collapse of Barings Bank was a commercial catastrophe that resonated worldwide, showing what kind of secrets can lie behind an apparently successful organization. Following Nick Leeson‘s arrest and subsequent conviction for fraud, investment banks anxiously reviewed their risk management controls to make sure that it could never happen a

This insightful Elgar Introduction comprises the first effort to provide a succinct overview of the field of organizational paradox theory, exploring contradictions and tensions in organizational settings. By conceptually mapping the field, it offers guidance through the literature on paradox, making space for new interpretations and applications of the concept.