generous listening

Jazz thrives on improvisation; there's no clear road map that tells people how to act in order to coordinate with one another. The only route available to them, in fact, is listening. Jazz musicians have to heed one another closely; they need to be attentive not only to what each member is doing and saying but also to what no one is doing or saying. When someone asked Miles Davis how he improvises, he said that he listens to what everyone is playing and then plays what is missing.

So open, appreciative, and generous was Davis's ear that he could hear strengths even when weaknesses were shining through. When Davis first heard John Coltrane play, he might well have picked up on what so many others noticed: Trane's occasional awkwardness or the squeaks that would intermittently disrupt his lines. But that's not what caught Davis's attention. He heard Trane's creative impulse -- his willingness to take risks, his unique voice, and unpredictable phrases. Davis heard what could be, not merely what was: a huge difference.

This is generous listening at its best, an unselfish openness to what the other is offering and a willingness to help others be as brilliant as possible. Being generous is not the same as simply being uncritical. In jazz as in any other endeavor, people get stuck in phrases and modes. Not everyone has to suffer until he or she finds a way through. But generous listening does mean being acutely aware of where the other is heading -- of someone else's sense of future possibilities. There's a selfless suspension of ego in these moments when you make the other primary and seek to further his or her contributions. In essence, generous listening means you are willing to become the thinking partner of your immediate colleagues, helping them navigate through the terrain of obstacles they face while fashioning a way forward.

In jazz, generous listening expresses itself first and foremost in what is known as "comping": the rhythms, chords, and countermelodies with which the other players accompany a solo improvisation. ("Comp" is short for "accompany.") Not surprisingly, comping goes to the very soul of the art form.

Is it possible for members of an organization to do the same -- to accompany others' thinking so that ideas achieve fruition, just as jazz players comp each other's playing to bring the music to its fullest expression? Yes, of course, but doing so requires letting go of automatic patterns. Organizational members have to make room for one another, suspend efforts to manipulate and control outcomes, relinquish investment in predetermined plans, and often surrender familiar protocols. To agree to comp, in other words, is to accept an invitation of openness and wonderment to what unfolds.      

Frank J. Barrett

What biz leaders can learn from jazz. Fortune Magazine. 9/10/2012