Jazz musicians can be great teachers of business. Their creativity is not dependent on their mood, it does not have to be coaxed out of them, it has nothing to do with the phases of the moon or even how they feel that day. They go on stage and start playing. Being creative is their job.

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

You are able to monitor and police your standards of quality once you have defined them.

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

You would not let your kids do whatever they want. So the challenge is to create accountability in a non-mechanistic way. You cannot come in with a clipboard and check off boxes and figure out why something has not been done on schedule.

The imagination is like a muscle: it strengthens through use.

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.