Jazzcode in Reykjavik

Today I am giving a talk in Reykjavik to the Federation of Trade & Services (www.svth.is) about Jazzcode. I will be playing with my favorite pianist, Lars Jansson and Icelandic musicians Sigurdur Flosason (sax), Björn Thorddsen (guitar), Gunnar Hrafnsson (bass) and I will play drums. We have never played together before, and it will be interesting to see how it pans out. I am told that Iceland is struggling, and I will talk about how change forces us to think differently, and that we always have a choice in terms of what we extract from the situation we are in. Everywhere we see change. We are approaching a realtime world where you can´t stop. At the same time increased specialization is moving collaboration -- not just the division of labor -- to the center stage. Plus -- complexity and interdependence is forcing us to adjust to rapidly changing environments. More than ever, context is king! Lately I have been thinking about how jobs where every delivery is different ("value from difference") need a different mindset and configuration than jobs where every delivery is the same ("value from sameness"). If you create value from sameness -- e.g. mass production, then the focus is on optimization -- how to do things right. You don´t need to think about what to do because that has already been defined by someone else. The difference between doing things right and doing the right things is the difference between management and leadership. So we have less time to make things work. We MUST work together. And the devliverable is expected to be different every time, shaped by the context, rather than by a mastermind. This is where jazz comes into the picture. In jazz we have a method to enable deep collaboration among experts without plans, but with a rich set of standards (tempo, key, style, history), an environment where presence in the moment is a given and where each player is expected to both interpret the conversation and add value based on some rules and lots of professional judgement.

Comments

[Hakon Gunnarsson]

Dear Carl,

I attended your performance yesterday at the Federation of Trade & Services. Thank you Carl!! It was my second time - I also was at Kronborg in September. The message you gave to us here in this country was very appropriate. How we should think differently and move ahead. Context is King! The same message my collaborator within the Icelandic geothermal cluster, Michael Porter has put it: "It is not question about being the best, there is no such thing. It is question about being unique" A life long jazz fan and trumpet player I will bring my instrument with me next time. I hope you and your heroic wife have had a good time in Iceland. All the best. Hákon

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=121958]

Thank you Hákon for your kind words. It was a great pleasure to attend your session and to share with you both music and hopefully useful insight. Iceland is a wonderful place. More people should visit!