The capacity to creatively improvise is an important factor that differentiates successful companies - or teams - from those that are not successful.

The creative process is different from the traditional production and work-flow process. It is not so linear.

In the end it is the musician who actually plays the notes. The impresario - or the project leader - is only there to make sure that happens. That is a very different type of management mind-set.

Conducting a creativity audit can be very illuminating because it can tell you how the process is working internally and against the competition.

Organizations are about putting ideas through one or more types of gating procedures. In this way, ideas go from being a whim to becoming a project, from being a "skunk works" effort to becoming an official, mainstream effort, from being an unfounded program to a funded process, and so on.

Tunes have notes and tempos and rules. If the tune is "All the Things You Are," you have to adhere to its structure and to the tradition behind that structure.

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.