Menu

About Jazz Impact

Jazz, a technology for collaborative innovation.

Jazz is an art form unique to the modern world. Jazz isn’t about producing an object of art like a painting or a sculpture. Jazz is actually a social process that results in the constant creation of new ideas and innovative musical interaction.

The members of the high performance team called the jazz ensemble possess and practice a set of shared behaviors that we call the Five Dynamics of Jazz. These five dynamics captured in the acronym APRIL are:

  • Autonomy
  • Passion
  • Risk
  • Innovation
  • Listening

Through hands-on interaction and the compelling performance of a World Class Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Impact demonstrates:

  • What skills are needed for improvisation
  • How jazz musicians mitigate risk
  • Why improvisation is critical
  • How these principles relate to the interactive dynamics of your business.

 

Negotiating Change

The members of a jazz ensemble possess and practice a set of shared behaviors that we call the Five Dynamics of Jazz. These five dynamics, whose acronym is APRIL are:

  • Autonomy

    Self-governing, self-regulating, adaptable and independent—yet in support of—and interdependent with, the structure and purpose of the team. More ›

  • Passion

    The single most important resource for any company lives in the diverse nature of the heart of each of its employees—the quality of emotional vibrancy, zest, commitment, and energy to pursue excellence and the course one believes to be true. More ›

  • Risk

    Taking risk in jazz means minimizing the confining elements of process while maximizing the output of constructive new ideas and perspectives. It means the ability to take chances and explore new territory and methods in pursuit of shared goals, and the ability to support others in their explorations. More ›

  • Innovation

    A conscious, purposeful search for new opportunities—the ability to engage unexpected change, incongruities and problems as opportunities for new discovery. Innovation means the skill to create the new by reinventing the old in ever-changing new contexts. More ›

  • Listening

    In a world of increasing complexity and diversity survival depends on the ability to listen beyond the comfort zone of what we already understand. To truly hear and feel the communication of new ideas, of passion, meaning and the rhythms of others. More ›