Jazz and the New Models of the Enterprise
Posted on Jan 11, 2013 | Categories: Collaboration, Enterprise2.0, Innovation, Learning, Open Business | 6 Comments
Over the course of the last few years there have been plenty of metaphors that people out there have been making use of to describe the transformation the traditional world of the enterprise is going through with the emergence of social networking tools to help improve the effectiveness of how we collaborate and share our knowledge across. Some of them have been incredibly helpful in describing how we are moving away from that traditional taylorism method of managing businesses top down driven by hierarchies into something a whole lot more liquid, permeable, flowing, flexible and network driven (A la Wirearchy). But if there is one metaphor out there that surely keeps grabbing my attention every time I bump into it is that one of associating the Enterprise with one of those creative activities that makes us all, humans, unique in this world: Music.
It’s Friday afternoon, and I am sure plenty of people out there would be finishing up the first pretty packed up work week of the year. For me, the last day of the week that will see the end of my vacation, since next week I will be back at work as well after having enjoyed quite an amazing holiday recharging my batteries, unwinding, disconnecting (from almost everything) and, eventually, resuming my long time dormant blog and a couple of other things I have got on the side that I will be writing about shortly over here as well. But, first things first. How about finishing off your work for the week, and my last vacation week, with one of those videos that will not only inspire you tremendously (I am certain!), but that will also be a pure treat for your ears, just to get you in the mood before the weekend kicks off? That wouldn’t be too bad, right?
Well, here you have it. Earlier on this week I bumped into this absolutely delightful YouTube video presentation from the one and only, Don Tapscott, that he did at the Association of Fundraising Professionals in Toronto, Canada, where he presented on The New Models of the Enterprise (With a slight touch on Philanthropy) covering a good number of relevant topics that have clearly set the stage of how the corporate world is slowly, but steadily, moving into that Open Business modus operandi. Key elements like Collaborative Innovation, Openness, Molecularisation, Self-Organisation, Interdependence or Dynamic Leadership were covered on that presentation by Don, but with a rather peculiar touch: playing some amazing jazz with an improvised orchestra lead by the brilliant Shannon Butcher.
For the rest, I am afraid I no longer have words to describe how wonderful and inspiring was to spend a bit over 30 minutes going through each of those topics and how some very talented jazz musicians, and the heartwarming and rather touching voice from Shannon herself, make them their own when playing several songs together, even if they have never played together in the past at all, making you realise how unique that experience could well be. Well, it surely was! … Talking about creativity and intent with a purpose!
I am not going to add further more into this blog post other than highly recommending you all that if you are at the end of your work day, or perhaps way into your weekend already, take these 30 minutes to watch some pure brilliance of what makes us, human beings, unique in this world by letting music (Jazz in this case) do its magic, go through your ears into your brain, close your eyes and prepare to be wowed big time! on what the enterprise world could very well look like:
See? If Open Business is all about this, and so much more!, I am all IN for it! And you? Hope you, too!
What a stunning way of starting off the weekend! Have a good one everyone!
