Yes to the Mess

PREFACE

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I learn by going where I have to go.

—Theodore Roethke, “The Waking”

On the surface this is a book about jazz improvisation. But relatively few of you who are reading these words are musicians, and many may not even like jazz music—although I hope that one consequence (not entirely unintended) of reading this book will be a deeper appreciation of jazz. This is really a book about the leadership mind-set and the kinds of activities and skills that help leaders understand and facilitate the innovation process.¹

My own path may seem improvisational, or accidental. In the late 1980s when I was a graduate student in Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University, I was at a conference ...