Embracing Mistakes: Lessons from Jazz for Leadership and Innovation

What can jazz great Miles Davis teach us about leading for innovation?

“I love Miles Davis’s quote. He says, if you’re not making a mistake, it’s a mistake,” says jazz pianist and management professor Frank Barrett. “So if everything you play is clean and fresh and slick, that means you’ve given up experimentation. And so, for jazz improvisation to work, there’s going to be mistakes and wrong notes.”

Barrett tells IdeaCast guest host Jeff Kehoe that jazz also teaches leaders the importance of forgiving mistakes that happen as part of exploration and experimentation, as well as why it’s important to move beyond problem-solving and embrace an improvisational mindset.

Key topics include: leadership, creativity, experimentation, collaboration and teams, and innovation.

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• Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: What Leaders Can Learn from Jazz (August 2012)
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