“Transformational Engagement: Unbundling the Skills of Jazz Musicians” by Stephen Jeddeloh, Article Review Example

The article “Transformational Engagement: Unbundling the Skills of Jazz Musicians” by Stephen Jeddeloh is not directly connected with virtual team-building, organizational development or building a community. In fact, this reading discusses a topic which is relatively distant from the regular management theories. However, after a closer look it turns out that the jazz band that gathers together to play for the first time reminds of a team that is working on the same assignment.

Such a comparison is rather relevant, as both the executive team and the jazz band have a number of similar characteristics:

1. Both are teams of skilled individuals that have to collaborate
2. They share similar goals (successful performance and effective project)
3. Both teams do not meet regularly and consequently have to achieve maximum unity for the sake of higher results

Author defines five main findings that are present while the jazz musicians collaborate: 1) Socio-Cultural Conventions, 2) Shared Consciousness, 3) Deafferentation, 4) Assertive Sense-Making, 5) Intuition as a Stimulus for Non-conscious actions (Jeddeloh, S. 2006). I suppose that these findings may be directly implemented to study the collaboration of the managerial team that does not meet regularly.

Socio-Cultural Conventions are defined as sets of certain preset behavior and knowledge patterns, which are common for the certain categories of people that have to collaborate. In the case of the jazz band, this is experience in jazz music that unites the band that has just gathered. Even despite the fact they do not know each other, musicians may perform well as they are familiar with the rules in jazz (Jeddeloh, S. 2006). Same can be said about a team that has met for the first time to work on some project. These people are professionals in their field and therefore do not need to use precious time to set the “rules”. Taking a team of managers as an example – all of the team members are expected to be informed about the basic economic concepts, state of the market, etc. This way, possessing some vital basic information about the sphere in which the tram is expected to work is already a small contribution to the final success.

The second finding that Stephen Jeddeloh addresses is shared consciousness. In case of the jazz musicians it is striving for better overall performance and not stressing personal traits. Author claims that through developing personal relationships, the jazz band starts playing better. This is 100% applicable to the other teams that work on the same task. Mutual trust and respect contributes to the higher results to a very high extent (Nemiro, J. E. 2004). This is just another proof to the theory that positive atmosphere inside a team is great asset that eventually turns out to be a recourse which enhances productivity.

“Deafferentation” is term describing the very high level of concentration on the current task and getting rid of all the unnecessary thoughts (Jeddeloh, S. 2006). This approach is not usually discussed as the team-building mechanisms are described. Surprisingly, this factor can be implied as well – high level of concentration is a positive feature in any team. This term is also described as concentrating on the team achievement rather than on oneself. Such approach towards the achievement of common goals is also highly valued in building a community inside a team (Nemiro, J.E. 2004).

Assertive Sense-Making and Intuition, as defined by Stephen Jeddeloh are the findings that are rather specific for the Jazz band and are hard to imply for the regular teams. Some useful conclusions from the jazz bands’ experience can still be made – concentration on the synergic effect for the entire team and socio-cultural conventions.

References

Jeddeloh, S. (2006) Transformational Engagement: Unbundling the Skills of Jazz Musicians. Personal Communication, July, 2007

Nemiro, J. E. (2004). Creativity in virtual teams: Key components for success. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. ISBN: 9780787971144.