About a decade ago I wrote a post about Playing the Live Jazz of Project Management a PDF paper discussing the similarities between project management and the playing of improvisational jazz. At that time there was a website named projectjazz.com which has since passed on. Here’s a quote from the paper:
“General characteristics for projects and jazz are compared and the five most important linkages between projects and jazz are discussed. The paper also explains why disorder is not chaotic and projects can be successfully managed. Jazz might show us one way of looking at the structure of disorder.”
Then a few years later I saw an article, Jazz – The New Metaphor. It can be summerized with a quote from Warren Bennis:
“I used to think that running an organisation was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation.”
While cruising the Internet over the long weekend I found the Music and Management website.
“Music & Management works with the world’s leading companies and organisations to create corporate training experiences that explore the parallels between music and business.”
This music-business metaphor has been around for some time. Is management an art or a science? The strange brew of being creative and process-driven works for both management and music. The thing now is what style or kind of music describes your project or business?
