So is teamwork.  And, as we’ve been demonstrating at Jazzthink for  8 years now, great teamwork arises from the music of great conversations.  Jazz great Cannonball Adderley once pointed out that music is pretty simple – it’s melody, harmony, and rhythm.  That’s it! 

So is teamwork.  If we are clear about what is to be done, if we take the time to think through with each other how best to align our talents in mutually supportive ways, and if we keep each other moving at a pace and to a rhythm that creates productive flow, then our teams will be healthy and effective. 

In the organizations with whom you have worked over this past year, I am curious about the degree to which you have found clarity of expectations, mutual support, and processes that sustain the rhythm of the work.  I’ve become convinced that these elements of teamwork are essential if the music of our collaboration is going to connect with the emotions, especially love, that will keep it healthy and productive.

So, what gets in the way of this quality of collaboration? The 3 most commonly identified barriers are lack of a compelling direction, lack of clear communication, and undisciplined egos. When any one, let alone all three, of these dynamics are in play during a jazz performance, the result is disasterous. It’s simply discordant confusion. I’ve seen far too many teams like this within organizations. And the tragedy is that they’ve simply accepted their dysfunctions as the way things are, often blaming those things on others.

To open up new possibilities of productivity, every team member, with the inspiration and support of the team leader, has to take responsibility for their contribution to the team.

They can do that as soon as their next conversation, carefully considering how that conversation can stimulate clarity of direction, clear communication, and genuine cooperation.

The tone that works best in generating these most lacking qualities of productive teamwork is curiosity. Questions invite people into the common space by seeking to understand their attitudes and perspectives, by respecting their views, and by soliciting their suggestions. They become co-creators of the results.

And that’s the only way I’ve found that productive teamwork actually works.

I’m curious about your views. What have you found to be the top 3 barriers to productive teamwork? And what have you found to be the most effective remedies to them?

Patrick Ryan spoke last month at the Vancouver chapter of the International Coach Federation.  He reminded us of a Sufi saying about the gates through which conversation should pass before it is spoken.  Over the first gate is written, “Is it true?”  Over the second gate, “Is it kind?”  And over the third, “Is it needed?”  Are your conversations aimed at discovering or expressing the truth?  Are they kind in their impact?  Are they necessary in making a positive difference in the quality of civility that marks your community at work, at worship, among your friends, and with you family?

John Gottman’s research on relationships over the past 40 years has confirmed that human beings seek positive emotional connections with each other.  That’s how we flourish.  Every conversation is a bid or an invitation for that kind of connection.  Some work.  Many don’t.  It’s a complex dynamic, as all of us know from experience.  But each of us has a choice with each conversation about behaving in ways that create civil connections. 

This is a very granular approach to productive teamwork.  It involves the same kind of attention to the sounds and choreography of our conversations that jazz musicians pay to the sounds and choreography of their performances.  It happens, as Gottman points out, one small interaction at a time.  It involves extending the invitation or bid, and responding to those of others, moment by moment, in positive ways. 

But the more I work with teams and coach team leaders, the more I realize that sustainable change really is this granular.  It proceeds one conversation after another.  Those conversations either generate civility and constructive connections, or they destroy them.  My choice is clear.  How about yours?

Jazz musicians know this dynamic, as do great teams.  The joy of great teams, whether in music or in the office, is the delight that comes from discovering news ways of being productive and beneficial.  It’s the process of generating a pleasing performance.

The lesson is to just get on with doing the work, all the while keeping your senses open to new possibilities that emerge between the lines of the project.

It’s easy to point out this different, and much more effective, perspective, but difficult to make it a habit.  It takes mindful practice – paying attention to when we let negativity define our reality and consciously and consistently choosing to change our approach in that particular moment, in that particular conversation.

Jazz groups model SOAR all the time.  If they let the weaknesses in their abilities and the threats to the flow of their music dominate their minds and hearts while performing, the results will be tentative and terrible.  Instead, they focus on what they can do well and how to do it best, often discovering in the process that they are capable of doing things better than they ever imagined.  Every performance is an opportunity to build on their strengths, achieve new aspirations, and create remarkable results.

Success depends on where you choose to focus your energy – not SWOTing madly at all the problems but SOARing confidently into the most highly-leveraged possibilities.

One of the most commonly noted qualities of great teamwork people see in a jazz performance is the mutual support among the musicians.  Ask the musicians themselves and they will say it’s the trust that the other musicians have your back.  With that kind of confidence flowing throughout the group, taking the risks that lead to creativity and innovation happen much for frequently and successfully.

We generate ideas by convening conversations in which people can connect and communicate their values and aspirations.  Surprisingly, most teams don’t take the time to do this.  As a result, they spend a lot more time in confusion and conflict.  

Think of what a jazz group would sound like if they did not have a lead sheet or core chart form which to play, something that told them what the melody and rhythm were going to be as they started.  That may shift and be revised as they play with each other, but nothing pleasing is going to happen without agreement on the basics at the beginning.  Individual talent and passion is not enough.  A riverbed within which that talent and passion can flow is needed.  For productive teamwork, that riverbed is the team charter – what we are going to do and why.

You can’t lay that course within which talents and passions can collaborate without exploring the ideas of the whole group – in order to focus on the ideas that make the most sense to pursue now.  Letting everyone be heard, letting everyone’s wisdom be present, is a prerequisite of effective team effort.

It does take some time at the beginning, but it’s more than worth it if you can save the time and energy consumed by confusion and conflict down the road.  Jamming (having open and unfettered conversations) generates great ideas.

In a 2007 article he sent me recently he wrote, “Rather than trying to control the activities and various people’s efforts, we succeed much better by: 1) encouraging others to take initiative; 2) supporting the actions they freely choose to help achieve the collective goals; and, 3) tapping their energy and enthusiasm, as long as it continues to contribute to the overall harmonious flow toward our common goal.”  For John, we can also learn a lot from jazz about rhythm and pacing, wise judgment, and harmonic rapport.

John’s insight into the fact that command and control tactics don’t generate productive teamwork is a lesson that needs to be learned – over and over again.  A coersive approach to team leadership actually debilitates and demoralizes team members.  They withdraw their discretionary effort and settle for the mediocre.  Good jazz musicians simply refuse to work more than once with that kind of leader.  They are looking for someone who will respect, inspire, and support their contributions.

I find that sensitivity to being inspiring without being dominating particularly present in the best jazz musicians as well.  A person’s signature strengths are disciplined and contributed for the benefit of the team, in ways that invite others to do the same.  That’s how really productive teamwork is cultivated.

I find that a compelling list of qualities to cultivate.  This is about building your signature presence in the world from within, from deep in your soul where your unique gift to the world is being constantly refined.  It takes practice and more practice to master and express the best you have to offer.  It takes an openness to wisdom that resonates with that best to really learn what is possible, what you are capable of.  It takes laughter to keep things in perspective – not taking yourself too seriously and not taking your genius too lightly.  It takes courage to follow your truth in creating the space and grace for other truths to enter into a creative dialogue that generates new possibilties.  And it takes forgiveness – of others, but especially of yourself - to leave your confining past behind and step into an expansive future filled with possibilities to flourish.

Measha Brueggergosman has done all of those things.  So can you.  So can I.  When we show up in this fashion, we will be of great value to the teams upon whom we depend for our influence and impact.