What's the Point?

 

Teams are only as good as the conversations they use to do their work. If their conversations are confused and conflicted, that's how the team will be. If their conversations are coherent and collaborative, that's how the team will be.

The three most serious mistakes teams make are:

  1. Lack of clarity about purpose
  2. Lack of space for contribution
  3. Lack of respect in relationships.

Jazzthink delivers an engaging, entertaining, and effective way of learning from those mistakes and creating a better future for your team one conversation after another.

What's the Connection with Jazz?

The most common form of jazz in human experience is ordinary conversation. Teams are formed and perform through conversations, so every team can be seen as a jazz group and every team member as jazz musician.

What might you learn from master jazz musicians about composing and playing better conversations to generate SMARTer teamwork?

That's what a Jazzthink keynote or workshop helps you do. We provoke you to discover and develop the kinds of conversations that are guaranteed to generate SMARTer teamwork.

Jazzthink's acronym for SMARTer is based on 10 years of research into the qualities of exceptional teamwork that people have seen and heard in the performance of the Jazzthink Trio. We've concluded that 5 essential kinds of conversations flow in sync to produce positive teamwork.

Soulful conversations focus on your passions and strengths.
Mindful conversations focus on the positive relationships you are building.
Astute conversations focus on good analysis and decision-making.
Responsible conversations focus on mutual accountability and support.
Trusting conversations focus on monitoring for continuous improvement.

When your team members are engaging consistently in these kinds of conversations, their performances will rival those of the best jazz groups.

Book

A great jazz performance provides a provocative model for personal growth and development. Find out how in Dr. Fraser's first Jazzthink book, Jazzthink: Playing with Stuff
of Success.
Order Book

The Jazzthink Trio performs and Brian is interviewed on Winds of Change TV


Booklet

We've just published a 16-page booklet outlining the core benefits and processes – the 5 essential conversations – that will generate SMARTer teamwork. Every participant in a Jazzthink gig will get one as a core chart of what they can carry forward into their teamwork. You can download the e-booklet version to use with your colleagues byclicking here.




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For a one-page summary of what we can do to provoke productive teamwork in your organization click here.

For a one-page summary of our session for executive teams, click here.