Now jamming - which is about collaborative improvisation - has to do with getting people together to be creative musically. But it is a very powerful metaphor for understanding the grammar of the creative process. It applies to business and to other pursuits as well.

You are able to create an environment so that the creative process can take place and that you can get people to perform at their highest levels.

In a corporate context, companies have to try very hard to oppose the enticements of conventional wisdom. They must aim for the leaps, which means that companies have to do more than simply manage their knowledge, which is composed of the insights and understandings they already know. They also have to manage the knowledge-generation process. It's not just about, "Oh, we're going to create a data warehouse and we are going to invent a computerized filing system to get at all the stuff we know."

I would argue that the management of creativity requires a skill set that's relatively different from the traditional management skill set that is appropriate to a large, complex, industrial-era organization.

The traditional managerial mind-set is an analytical mind-set. It is about creating accountability and defining responsibilities.

Jazz has to work. It has to play with the audience and with the marketplace. I think that is relevant to business.

People must get respect for their new ideas.