This week, I have a great opportunity for writers, musicians and business leaders. I have just been appointed “Rock’n’Roll Innovation Editor” for a US based Global Innovation Company called Innovation Excellence. The company is run by Julie Anixter, who worked with Tom Peters and Seth Godin amongst other leading business thinkers around the world. Innovation Excellence is the most popular innovation website in the world with over 10 000 readers per day and counting. As part of my job there, I am planning interviews with people in the coming year such as Ahmet Ertegun’s biographer, CEO of Atlantic Records, Bill Nelson, Professor Adrian Furnham, Bernie Torme, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Paul McCartney. We’re starting shortly with a piece about the enigma that is Richard Strange, leader of proto-punk pop-art group The Doctors of Madness and perhaps punk’s godfather,
So, what then does the Rock’n’Roll Innovation Editor do? Good question! You don’t see many RNR Innovation Editors on the staff at the Financial Times or the New York Herald Tribune! My job is to interview, write or commission articles with any of the following types of people:
Innovative musicians – Names that spring to mind include Robert Fripp, Lady Gaga, Brian Eno, Madonna – people who have either innovated within music or are gamechangers in the music industry.
Innovation leaders – Especially those who get the idea that innovative leadership requires both discipline and improvisation – Virgin, Toyota, First Direct, Google, 3M, The Eden Project spring immediately to mind.
Innovation authors and academics – Again those who have a ‘Rock’n’Roll outlook’ on the subject – Brian Clegg, Tom Peters, Adrian Furnham et al are on my list of suspects here.
Innovation Excellence is also open to sponsors who wish to help build the best educational resource in the world for innovation. Contact me via e-mail at peter@humdyn.co.uk to see what’s on offer.
So, in the warped words of the hymn “Come all ye faithful … and also a healthy dose of firestarters …” Drop me a line and let’s see if we can create a guest article or interview.
Speaking of firestarters, time to finish with a bit of that…
Firstly, may I thank all of you that have been reading the Rock’n'Roll Business Blog through 2011. We have had a whopping 14 000 views since it started in earnest in June last year.
In terms of 2012, if we are to turn the UK plc round, its going to take every bit of adaptation, learning and innovation. You may care to reflect on some of the more popular posts of 2011 - Lady Gaga and adaptive strategy, Deep Purple, improvisation and innovation, The Beatles on creativity, Prince on excellence, Britney Spears on becoming a learning society, Hendrix v Clapton on innovation and Personal mastery in business and music – lessons from Jeff Beck, Les Paul and Bill Nelson.
So, what does 2012 hold in store for us? Well, here’s some views taken in the course of my travels recently, with the themes linked to pop and rock songs of course!
There is power in a union?
2011 was marked by a resurgence of industrial relations unrest in the UK. However, the recent public sector strikes was marked not by braziers, banners and protest songs, but by the best shopping day in 2011, as retail sales soared. I saw people leaving local government picket lines to go to Costa Coffee at 10 am. Is shopping for Ugg boots and flat screen TV’s the hallmark of the new rebellion?
Can we look forward to more industrial unrest? From talking with people in local government, it seems that there is still plenty of scope for downsizing and it also appears that quite a few people are basically happy with their pension, so it appears that the current industrial unrest may not develop. When I talk to my self-employed friends, there appears to be little sympathy with the strikes – as one remarked “Pension, what pension?” One thing is for sure, in an age of unrest we can expect more performances by proto punk protest singer Billy Bragg:
What’s new pussycat?
During 2011 I met Evan Davis of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills. During our conversations we touched on the vexed question of what we should do to rebuild Britain. There are no easy answers here and a debate has since been raging on Linkedin over this issue. There seems to be broad agreement that the UK plc desperately needs more innovation, especially the type that can be exported and that which builds out of our strengths in ways that are hard to copy or appropriate. At the same time the service sector needs to shrink, whether this is through a smaller public service component to the economy or in service industries that merely consume wealth at a local level – for example tanning rooms and burger bars. The change is going to be hard to swallow for some. Doing more of the same will not do, we need to do things differently. Musically, it’s more a case of ‘What’s new pussycat’ rather than ‘Do the standing still’.
We’ve got a meeting with the Department of Business Innovation and Skills to explore some of the ramifications of the UK’s innovation needs coming up. More on innovation coming up in future posts.
What are your hopes and fears for 2012? Post a comment on this blog.
In other cases, creativity can pour out of people, at the speed of sound and almost to order. Such was the occasion about 6 years ago, when I wrote a song and recorded a demo of the song all in less than an hour. The piece was inspired by my 8 year old son James, who seemed to demonstrate an ability to wrap my wife and I around his fingers at a level of competence well beyond his years and quite different to my older boy. One day, the idea of a song called “Cowboy James” came to me – words and music flowed and the whole thing was finished in minutes. I previously wrote about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the state of flow and this is a good example of flow in action. I recently re-recorded the piece with my friend dannylee on piano and percussion at his custom built studio-34 (mail@studio-34.co.uk) Please take a listen to this product of naïve and rapid creativity:
The business lessons?
Sometimes the first thing we do is the best thing. Resist the temptation to refine and overanalyse if your creativity feels right the first time.
Steve Jobs was known to trust his intuition as much as a spreadsheet. Balance head and heart if you want to convert creativity to innovation
As part of my MBA teaching and innovation consultancy over the years I have practiced with a suite of about 120 creativity techniques which improve the speed and effectiveness of brainstorming. Technique is only part of the equation to get an innovative climate, yet it can help produce creativity ‘on demand’ and certainly more reliably than a poorly run brainstorming session. Contact me via e-mail at peter@humdyn.co.uk to find out more.
Bill Nelson has just released a beautiful box set album covering 40 years of continuous creativity and flow. It is a testament to an intuitive approach to creativity, matched by discipline. Check it out at The Practice of Everyday Life
The Practice of Everyday Life - Picture by Martin Bostock www.martinbostock.co.uk
Mastery, unconscious competence, effortless genius. These are all ways to describe what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called the state of ‘flow’. What can we learn about ‘flow’ from music that we can transfer to the world of business and personal development?
Let’s begin, not by talking about the state of flow but by experiencing it through looking at masters of their craft operating at a state of effortless genius. Let’s start with jazz master Joe Pass:
What then is flow? Are there any ways to learn how to be in this state and what can we learn from professional musicians?
John Howitt is a professional session musician, who has performed with Celine Dion, Anastasia and Shirley Bassey. He also works with us in our business and music masterclasses. As a session musician, John must be at peak performance with every engagement. I asked him to reveal some of his tips for staying in the flow:
Flow master - John Howitt with Peter - Picture by Jason Dodd - master photographer www.jasondoddphotography.com
Peter : Can you tell us something about your career and the role of practice as a spur to personal mastery?
John : “Mastery comes out of preparation. In business circles, people talk of the need for 10 000 hours disciplined practice to master an art or discipline. Contrary to what amateur musicians might think, to do what I do, it’s all about practice and preparation. I have probably exceeded the 10 000 hours in my career as a session musician and still spend 5 hours a day playing an instrument if I am not actually engaged in a piece of client work”
Peter : Many so-called ‘creatives’ say that they feel they would lose their creativity / mojo if they overprepared. What do you say to that?
John : “Practice gives you ease AND versatility. Playing routine pieces of music almost goes on auto pilot allowing you to concentrate on what is needed to add that extra piece of sparkle. I feel this is just as applicable to business and personal excellence as it is to performing music”
Peter : As well as your stage and session work, I know you also record soundtrack music for films. In your experience, how do you move from a performance role to one that is perhaps more introverted?
John : In one way, there is no difference. When performing, you still need to keep your focus both internally on the mastery of what you are doing, whilst keeping your antennae open to hear those around you. It’s what the business gurus called ‘emotional intelligence’ – living inside your own head AND paying attention to your co-performers. Good musicians and leader do both. Bad musicians and leaders just listen to themselves.
That said, when I’m recording soundtracks, I can focus completely in on the point of detail that I’m working with, PLUS keep in mind the overall piece. The big picture AND the small detail are essential if you are to achieve what Peter Senge calls personal mastery. As a musician or leader, I find it essential to be both gregarious AND solitary.
Peter : On innovation excellence, can you share one important insight for us?
John : I’ll offer two. In music, the innovation challenge lies in breaking away from habits. Practice can force you into habit but it need not. It’s what companies like Toyota, Nokia and First Direct have achieved, rather than just repeating themselves. Furthermore, it’s like Miles Davis says “There are no mistakes”
Please share your thoughts on what gets you in the high performance zone. A recent interview with Tom Peters on the related topic of personal excellence can be found at Innovation Excellence. I found flow is vital when writing perhaps the shortest business book known to man or woman – Punk Rock People Management – get a FREE copy via the link.
If you enjoy this blog, you may also enjoy related blogs at Prince, Deep Purple, Hendrix and Bill Nelson. To finish, let’s see some more masters of music immersed in the art of effortless genius. None other than Jeff Beck giving a tribute to Les Paul, plus the original, plus a tribute to Les Paul by Bill Nelson:
I interviewed Dave Wakely who works for ASK Europe – a premier HR and coaching consultancy on music, business, life etc. Dave had kindly given the thumbs up to my books ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n'Roll’ and the new one – Punk Rock People Management – available for FREE by clicking on the cover below:
Punk Rock People Management - Click the pic for your FREE copy
Firstly Dave, tell me something of what you do for a living?
I manage and edit the ASK blog, providing food for thought for people in a range of HR, L&D and management/leadership roles. My role at ASK is mostly about language and organisational culture: finding and using a public voice for the company that reflects its values and style, but also exploring themes, topics and ideas and posing questions where conventional wisdom seems heavier on the first of those words than the second. (My role here also includes a whole range of other ways in which we put words in front of the wider world. As an occasional sailor, a non-musical metaphor springs to mind: I may not be steering the vessel, but I’m adjusting the cut of the jib and how closely to the wind we sail.)
The remainder of the week I work in web development, scoping and defining website projects, evolving email campaigns, advising on or helping to create content – much of which involves subtly reminding organisations that whoever operates the mouse calls the shots: the web isn’t just broadcasting. Those who don’t work in a similar role would probably be surprised how much of that role consists of asking people about different aspects of their business, including its culture, values and ethics – but I’d counter by saying that you can’t build an effective web presence for a company if you don’t understand that company in the first place. That’s the difference between ‘being present’ and ‘presenting an advert’.
Along the way, I’ve been a poetry librarian, a learning resources database manager, an information officer in many a setting, an author and editor of open learning materials, a senior university administrator, an events organiser: a very 21st century ‘portfolio worker’ CV, although ‘patchwork’ is perhaps closer to the mark than ‘portfolio’. My life is an abstract quilting concept in motion!
What do you gain from music as a metaphor for thinking about business and organisational life
Apart from solo performers (which I shall therefore just duck entirely as an issue!), music is something that requires multiple inputs and some kind of organising principle. (I see even something as general as ‘everyone improvise simultaneously’ as a principle, although I’m aware that I’m the kind of person that starts from a ‘how shall we behave’ point of view – something MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) recently reminded me.
Sometimes music starts with a closely scripted score where everyone’s part is prescribed for them to play, sometimes there’s a general theme and the arrangement at any given point is a matter of interpersonal interaction and negotiation: either way, there are many contributions and at some level an approach to deploying them. If it weren’t for the word ‘music’ at the start of that description, that could easily be a description of work.
Having played in a wide range of musical combinations (including jazz quartets, big bands, orchestras – and working as a session musician), there’s another important element that is about making music rather than about music in the abstract: the relationships between the players. Each group, band or orchestra needs the right mixture of people, just as it needs the right combination of talents; likewise, each musician has situations that either do or don’t inspire, satisfy and so on. (This is the ‘engagement’ issue: if the music, relationships or people don’t inspire, you probably won’t play your best.) Editors note – too true!
Sticking to popular music, most bands have a culture, a defining spirit, which has arisen from the combination of individuals and their shared values. Although most organisations are perhaps more like backing bands: an entrepreneur (read songwriter/singer/front-person) who develops a repertoire and a style, and builds their outfit around them. How much of their total potential contribution their band members get the opportunity to make might make a good metaphorical question to ask of organisational managers? (In other words, are you giving your staff the opportunity to show what they can really do or add, or are you just directing them? Being a supplier feels rather different to being a colleague, even if – in the context of the relationship – your role is pretty much just to supply. I’d brave a rash conjecture that most people want to give more at work rather than less, as being able to give more makes them feel they have a voice and a contribution to offer.)
How do you use these ideas in your professional life? Any favourite examples?
An interesting question – especially having recently completed a series of psychometric questionnaires, which confirmed or underlined my impression of myself as someone who’s more interested in the potential of collaboration than competition. Amusingly, when I interviewed you in 2009, I referred to Brian Eno’s published diaries and the band James. Another idea I remember from the same book is James’ realisation that “an arrangement is when some of the band stop playing some of the time”. Editor’s note – only the tiniest prompt needed to play some of Eno’s music:
To me, in any given working situation, there’s probably one approach that will be more appropriate than others: to me, that’s not so different to the idea of identifying which instruments, arranging in which way, would make the most effective soundtrack to the moment. It’s a matter of understanding the particular contribution that different individuals can make and deploying your combined human resources to maximum effect. It also goes back to the point about ‘making music’ rather than music in the abstract: the masterful conductor knows how to work not just with music but with the musicians. If you want a great example of how someone helped (you could even say ‘lead’) a group of people to realise and actualise their potential, I think George Martin’s work with The Beatles is a classic case. ‘Produced’ is a very broad adjective, that doesn’t convey the other roles – adviser, arranger, and motivator are just some. He could have simply adopted a managerial line, but he chose to adopt more of a coach’s role. Some of the methods may have stretched a few envelopes, but not as far as they were stretched by the money that subsequently rolled in: there can’t have been too much arguing about the bottom line. If he had been more interested in efficiency and control, Sir George could, of course, just have typed up some sheet music and ordered them to play it …
Kant said that music is the language of the emotions. How does music affect our emotional lives and what implications does that have for people in business and organisational life?
I had to pause and read around on Kant before replying, but found a reference to him classifying instrumental music as “more pleasure than culture” – without words, it can appeal to our senses but not to reason. My understanding is that he was awed by its ability to convey or evoke emotion, but had no role as a conduit for ideas. (Kant lived, of course, many years before Late Junction on Radio 3 or the John Peel Show, so perhaps we can forgive him?)
Within minutes of arriving home in the evening, two things will happen: I will put on the kettle, and I will put on music. There are a few thousand CDs in the house, but I’ll spend a few minutes while my tea brews to select something that gives voice to a feeling that has been suppressed throughout the day, or that has been invoked by the day, or to a feeling the day has generated that needs something to counter-act it. My partner has little interest in music, but gets an instant emotional update as he crosses the threshold from whatever is coming out of the speakers in the kitchen. I think of it as akin to hydration: you have water when you’re thirsty, you play fado when you’re rueful or wistful, and you play kora music when you’re optimistic and thoughtful (or you aren’t but you’d like to be). It’s a restoration of emotional balance, or a purging of an imbalance of one emotion.
My musical choices are overwhelmingly instrumental, which might either offend Kant or lead him to dismiss me as tasteless or shallow. That’s fine: he could still stay for a cup of tea, but we’d have to agree to differ. I have nothing against vocal music per se, but I’m too interested in language to accept perfunctory twaddle: I demand a decent lyric.
As individuals, identifying something that we can use to help us to maintain our personal emotional poise has obvious value; this is harder to think through in an organisational context – one person’s ideal background music is another’s fingernails down the blackboard moment. (I’ve promised not to play that John Surman CD in the office again: the finance team are still recovering.) I cringe a little at the idea of the utility of music, but I can’t deny that I do it.
In terms of implications for organisational life, anything that can encourage us to recognise our impact on others – and help us to deal with their impact on us – has merit in itself. (A couple of organisations I’ve worked with have had no problem with people who rarely have to answer phones working with headphones, choosing their own soundtrack. Others would sternly ban this as inappropriate, but if it helps personal productivity and improves people’s mood I’m not sure I can see the harm.)
More broadly, the example of the impact and importance of something as hard-to-define and non-verbal as ‘atmosphere’ is probably a neglected aspect of working life: it was interesting to note that The Work Foundation highlighted a sense of team atmosphere as a common attribute of those leaders most admired by those who work for them.
Music is one of those things that remind us that human beings cannot be boiled down to process manuals, spreadsheets, job definitions and bottom lines: there are ineffable aspects to us that we should not ignore. Even at the broadest level, if the existence of music can remind us that our moods and emotional tone affect others, then that’s a valuable lesson. And very few valuable lessons come with the bonus of a beautiful tune.
What can we learn from the music business about business in general? More importantly, what should we NOT learn from the music business about business in general?
A hard question, having kept my distance from the music business for many years, although I can’t help but feel that mainstream business could probably draw more and better lessons from the art form than from the industry that has evolved around it. I think we can safely learn that management and creativity are distinct skills, and that the music business requires a balance of both. I’d like to think we can learn that authentic branding trounces manufactured branding every day of the week, but I very much doubt that we can. And the more shameless examples of amateurism or lack of skill – and ethics – in the music business are something we’d do well to avoid importing into other sectors.
It’s very difficult to generalise about a business that embraces everything from The Saturdays to Radiohead, Leonard Cohen to Justin Bieber, indie-labels to global corporations and many other dichotomies. But I’m not too sure it generally provides a healthy model in its treatment of its ‘talent’: “build ‘em up, milk ‘em, drop ‘em” and an urgent sense of churn aren’t characteristics that bode well. Each golden goose is expected to lay all its eggs as quickly as possible and then surrender to the stockpot, to be replaced by the next goose: any development on the goose’s part seems to be coincidental, accidental or self-motivated – at least in the mainstream.
Beware laying all your eggs in one session ...
The cricketer Ed Smith has said some very interesting things about striking a balance between the passionate amateur and the schooled, consistent but less inspiring professional, and about the dangers of putting academies on some kind of pedestal. I’m more concerned by the business people within the music industry than the performers, too many of whom seem to be treated shoddily. As an industry, it’s parasitic: the business depends on the performers, without whom there’s no product.
The story of the music business in response to the rise of the net and the iPod is also a powerful lesson in the importance of keeping an eye on the longer-term and being as interested in that as in maintaining an urgent sense of churn in the present. (I was going to say something about the potency of adolescent dreams of glory, but even if it’s harsh it’s fair to say that those are just as prevalent in many other sectors.) It’ll be interesting to see how musicians use the net and structure their careers in future – I think there’s an unexplored parallel there with knowledge workers and their relationship with employing organisations.
It is thought that attention spans have shortened in a world bombarded by media of all sorts. Perhaps that plays itself out in a nation of people that prefer to consume ‘The X-Factor’ over progressive rock that requires longer and more detailed attention. What do you think to this? What might be the implications for people working in the field of human development?
I think you have a good point, and I think we see its effects in many ways – the familiar death by PowerPoint syndrome, the number of times any writer/editor is encouraged to use bullet lists (‘people won’t read this stuff …’), the tickertape nature of rolling news. Lots of pans with lots of flashes in them, and a comparative lack of metaphorical hearty slow-cooked stews. I do see a contemporary world more fascinated by – and expectant of – the ‘instant’ than 20 years ago: I suspect a lot of this is down to technology and the abundance (of ‘information’, to flatter some of it) that it’s enabled us to generate. Waiting more than a few minutes for something now feels not just like an eternity, but an affront. (One of the many points made in Michael Bywater’s excellent and very funny Big Babies, and a point explored more fully in Michael Foley’s The Age of Absurdity.)
As someone primarily concerned with communication, I can understand the pressures that have produced a culture that’s more heavily slanted to the soundbite, the headline, the nugget, although it’s hard not to be concerned that all this haste might be coming at the price of not just more in-depth understanding, but more especially of nuance and of perspective. We seem more interested in the idea of having news 24 hours a day than in the content of that continuous news (often the same handful of 3 minute clips circulating on a playlist that shifts slowly as the day goes by). While I wonder if I’m turning into a Grumpy Old Man, the questioning approach of such tech-literate commentators as Sherry Turkle and Jaron Lanier makes me feel less alone. And I haven’t forgotten a very ahead-of-the- curve book by Marshall McLuhan’s son Eric, Electric Language, that was first published back in 1998 – and mentioned in an earlier blog – that now feels like a topic in need of a significant update.
(The two things that have struck me most about ‘The X-Factor’ have been the umbrage taken at that cover version of ‘Hallelujah’ – and seeing a performance as fine as Jeff Buckley’s version in the singles chart was an uplifting communal response – but also the lack of longevity of most of the winners. The programme has always struck me as a firework display: buckets of wow, whizz and bang, but precious little left the following morning beyond a lingering bad smell. There’s an immense urgency and drama about something that really doesn’t matter that much, except to the contestants and the programme owners, which seems emblematic of rather too much of our times. )
From the work we do at ASK, in terms of implications for human development, we’re conscious that it’s the transfer of learning that ultimately delivers value and improved performance – both for the individual and the organisation – but that this (and the techniques used to enhance it) takes time. Organisational impatience for instant results means that outcomes are measured at the earliest opportunity (Kirkpatrick’s Level 1 – the proverbial ‘happy sheet’), and therefore don’t measure appropriately. What organisations want is the long-term impact of the learning event, but what they measure is the degree of satisfaction with the event itself. Misleading data feeds back into the process, and allowing time for transfer – or factoring in its importance – take a backseat. I’m not sure how we can counter this tendency – which impacts on more than our approach to learning and training: perhaps the answer is a new series of motivational posters. (“There is no F in magic bullet” springs to mind.) Suggesting an organisational equivalent to the Slow Food movement sounds both fatuous and pretentious – and implies there’s a merit in taking your time for its own sake – but I think most of us would benefit from more frequent reminders that there are multiple timescales in life and that something we might give more attention to is the signal to noise ratio in the ‘messages’ we receive.
Finally, tell me about your personal music tastes. What do you gain from music, both personally and professionally?
My own musical tastes are free-ranging, as colleagues would probably agree. (I often get Amazon to deliver CDs to the ASK Office to save all those cards through the door, and most weeks 3 or 4 albums will arrive. They tend to fall into the jazz or world music categories more than pop and rock, and I have some particular loves (30s/40s jazz songs, fado, Nuevo flamenco, modern tango, gypsy jazz, ambient electronics, a good torch song) and total blindspots (reggae, ‘African desert blues’, klezmer and Celtic folk – the last of which makes me cringe on impact). This week’s stack includes Lokkhi Terra (who describe themselves as ‘Banglafrolatinjazz’), Argentine composer Guillermo Klein, Portuguese guitar maestro Carlos Paredes, Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier who’s heavily influenced by Turkish folk music, and a Lebanese oud trio, Le Trio Joubran. I’m as obsessive about the guitar as about music, so everything has a plucked stringed instrument of some kind involved, but the styles range very broadly – musically and geographically. Two of these are performers I saw at this year’s WOMAD Festival, where I remember a conversation with an old friend – a singer – about what drew us to different musicians. For her, possibly as one who loves to dance, it’s often a rhythmic pulse, while for me it’s almost always a captivating melody or an interesting way with harmony. (I dance like an Englishman – badly and rarely – so a beat is not enough.) She wants to be moved, while I want to be captivated and entranced.
If I could put fully into words what I get personally from music, I’d have linguistic powers of such astonishing prowess I might be tempted to abandon music – but its music’s ability to go beyond words and to evoke emotions, situations or places that is so compelling. It’s almost like our sense of smell – the way fresh bread can bring back the corner baker’s shop from your childhood, or a particular flower’s scent can recall a grandmother. There are pieces of music that made such an impact the first time I heard them, I could describe exactly where I was when I first heard them – even the stranger stood in front of me in the crowd and the temperature of the room. If we could do that so powerfully with words, music might become redundant!
Professionally, I think I’ve gained at two levels. Given the chance, there will be background music where and while I work, and the soundtrack can really influence the mood: I can enhance – or undermine – my own performance depending on my choices on the day. Less superficially, I think music has taught me about team-work and collaboration, about knowing that there are times to play to the gallery and times to provide thoughtful unobtrusive accompaniment. And that not playing, or providing an unconventional counterpoint, or combining instruments in different are all available options. And, of course, that even the most exquisite harp and flute duet is a waste if your audience want Status Quo, burgers and a knees-up. (No problem, but can the harpist blag it on a Telecaster or how adept is the flautist with a pair of BarBQ tongs?) It’s that point about making music again, but it’s about using your ears as well as your instrument: musicians don’t just play together, they listen very closely to each other too. Might this be their biggest lesson to humanity?
Well, I don’t think I can follow that Dave – thanks everso for your time and we’ll finish with one of the artists you have mentioned here. In the spirit of what Dave has said re premature evaluation, let’s give this piece its proper time and space:
Finally, on the subject of the pace of business life and the need to balance this with life experiences that require more gradual and careful attention, here’s a plug for a one-off concert taking place on October 01 by the musical genius Bill Nelson. Bill produces beautiful soundscapes mixing electronica with his virtuoso guitar work. Just a few tickets left. Here is the master at work at the ‘Sensoria’ art festival in Sheffield earlier this year:
The genius that is Bill Nelson - Photo courtesy of Stewart Cowley
Bill Nelson performs a special one off concert and art exhibition at the Clothworkers Hall in Leeds on October 1st. This provides me with the perfect excuse to rave on about this man’s genius in terms of the sorts of capabilities that great business gurus such as Peter Senge, Tom Peters and Seth Godin write about. Before we begin, let’s see the master at work, performing a song he wrote for Stuart Adamson of Big Country and the Skids as a tribute at his funeral – “For Stuart (Triumph and Lament)”. Bill Nelson produced some of Stuart’s work and Adamson was a great admirer of Bill’s musicianship, which Bill incorporated as a series of ‘musical ornaments’ within this piece.
In case you are wondering just who Bill Nelson is, he led 70’s Art School band Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise. In spite of his huge success, Nelson left considerable wealth and fame to pursue his own artistic and musical direction. However, like so many great influencers his footprint on modern music is immense and pervasive. Nelson is admired by a catalogue of rock’s monarchy, including Mc Cartney, Brian May, Kate Bush, Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Prince, The Foo Fighters, The Darkness, My Chemical Romance and so on. If any of you saw MCR at the Reading Festival, you will have heard the opening lines from Bill Nelson’s song ‘Maid In Heaven’ towards the end of MCR’s emo anthem ‘Dead’:
Turning to the transferable lessons for people in business, Bill Nelson articulated his principles for personal reinvention in his online diary. Although they are artistically expressed, they are directly transferable. Bill kindly allowed me to do some ‘translation’ in my book ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll’. We explored a couple of his reinvention principles in a previous blog. Here’s some more:
Reinvention Principle No. 1 – Trust the muse – she knows best
In the context of business reinvention, ‘trusting the muse’ means that we should trust intuition rather than relying on research as a means of doing new things. We live in a world that is drowning in data. As a result we downplay intuition. New stuff does not always come out of a detailed analysis of old stuff!
"Act when there are no alternatives to stasis" Photo courtesy of Stewart Cowley
Reinvention Principle No. 2 – Act only when there are no alternatives to stasis
‘Acting only when there are no alternatives to stasis’ reminds us to examine all alternatives before making a decision on critical issues. This is not a recipe for not making decisions! Examining alternatives requires us to synthesise options, to bring alternatives together that will produce better options rather than compromises. It requires the use of analogue (and/also) thinking rather than digital (on/off) thinking. The pressure of business life often forces us into action rather than reflection / synthesis, with the result that we get sub-optimal decisions and / or performance. I’ve written more on this subject in previous posts on creativity.
Check out Bill’s extensive catalogue of music at SOUND ON SOUND. To study Bill’s 12 principles for personal and corporate reinvention in more detail, read Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll. If you fancy seeing Mr Magnetism Himself check out the Clothworkers Hall in Leeds. I am proud to know Bill Nelson, who has integrity and creativity written into his DNA, even at the expense of fame and fortune. Integrity is easy when it does not mean you have to make tough choices, but most people fall by the wayside when the going gets tough.
Bill Nelson has a wonderful skill of making classy pop music, a skill which he has largely left on the shelf due to his desire to pursue his own artistic vision. Lest we forget what a great talent he has for producing catchy pop hits, I’ll leave you with a film of Be-Bop Deluxe performing one of these 2.5 minute wonders on the Old Grey Whistle Test – “Maid in Heaven”, the song whose opening guitar lines are quoted by My Chemical Romance. To see more of Bill’s work in this area get yourself a copy of his ITV Legends Concert, which includes “For Stuart” and an entire catalogue of Be-Bop Deluxe, Red Noise and Bill’s solo material:
p.s. For a series of 2.5 minute lessons on business and Human Relations check out my new book ‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’ – available FREE via the Punk Rock People Management webpage.
Very short post here to mention two performances of a special show written by Joe Blair, on the life, loves and music of Leonard Cohen at the Edinburgh Festival – Follow the link to Blue Raincoat.
The evening offered a selection of Leonard’s most special songs alongside a narrative that reviewed his life as a poet, lover and songwriter.
I met Joe a couple of years ago at a management seminar in Northern Ireland and he has been trying to infect me with his obsession with for Leonard Cohen ever since. Speaking personally, I only travel as far as Morrissey and Lou Reed on the scale of moribund reflective music but it takes all sorts etc. I agreed to provide much needed coaching on the musical performance aspects of the event and to provide some accompaniment using the haunting tones of the e-bow, an unusual guitar effect that makes guitars sound more like a violin, hence the name ‘energy-bow’. I bought my e-bow around 1978 after seeing the music genius Bill Nelson play one. Read more about Bill’s next show on October 1st at The Art School Ascended on Vapours of Roses.
Copies of our latest album “Music from the Basement of Cognition“ will be available at the Leonard Cohen show. For now here’s one track, aptly titled “I always knew you would come back to Earth” after a week of madness on the streets of England. I did once record a Prince styled version of Cohen’s “The Butcher” and an electro-pop version of the same song in the style of Erasure, but I am not posting them here for fear of reprisals by ardent Cohen fans!
I’ll finish with my favourite interpretation of Leonard’s ‘Hallelujah’ by John Cale:
Postscript: The highlight of the Festival was meeting up with the Jimi Hendrix styled blues guitarist Richard Blues - Check Richard’s work out by e-mailing him at richardsgottheblues@yahoo.com and here’s a brief excerpt of his performance at the Fringe:
Also very much enjoyed meeting Will Gracie. As one third of the outrageous group Hot Gusset, Will’s journey started at the age of 7 when he saw Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman. We did some impromptu Queen and Prince songs on the street to the amazement of the festival goers. Later that day I saw him appearing on BBC Newsnight. It’s no wonder, for Will is a great talent. “Gimme fried chicken” in the words of Freddie Mercury !
Whist developing the show, I discovered to my surprise that even Leonard Cohen was sensitive to his musical environment and did change his musical style towards songs that people could almost dance to in the 1980′s when synthesisers became popular. I guess that’s where Lady Gaga got it from !
Last night I had the great pleasure of spending an evening in the pub with Bernie Torme, lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple. We have a superb event coming up with Bernie soon – Take a look at Monsters of Rock Business and some of Bernie’s work:
As well as his high profile work with these monsters of rock, Bernie is a talented songwriter and recording artist. As well as a good chat about Prince, Bill Nelson, Gary Moore and other musicians, we spent some time exploring music – business parallels:
1. How the creative process works in music and how that translates into businesses looking to innovate as a source of long term advantage – from songwriting to inventive business thinking. We explored this issue at a global science conference with the Pfizer a while back.
2. How working with rock stars with massive egos has a parallel lesson for people attempting to lead creative / precocious people in intelligent / artistic businesses. This was a key discussion item at London Business School’s strategy summit recently.
3. Improvisation and creativity in music and business – Bernie’s life has been about adding amazing guitar work to polish other star’s performances. He works largely intuitively to do this. How can you tap into a natural intuitive flow? How do organisations such as Google, Imperial College and 3M encourage ‘intuition to order’?
4. Presentation, performance and impact – You have only one chance to make a great first impression on stage with Ozzy! See picture below.
Master of the universe
5. Dealing with conflict and trouble at work – Rock’n'Roll is an excellent arena for learning such skills. Some of Bernie’s stories here are x-rated and outside the scope of a public view!
6. Parallel lessons from the music business for business leaders – contracts, money, changes of plans and so on. I have had personal experience of ‘Rock’n'Roll accounting’ having sponsored a world tour with cult punk rocker John Otway and lost my shirt on the enterprise.
These days Bernie divides his time between his recording studios and work with his band GMT. He is also available for business events and conferences where representatives of your business get to interview him on a range of topics. Bernie also provides cameo performances of his work if an ‘aftershow’ element is required at a conference or event.
On stage Bernie is a mighty force to be reckoned with. Yet, in the pub, he is a thoughtful raconteur with fantastic insights and stories about the crazy world of rock’n'roll. Contact me here or via MUSICAL EXPERIENCES if you would like to book him for an Academy of Rock experience!
Finally, here’s Bernie playing a solo with his band GMT:
On March 26th 2011 ITV filmed a special concert in London, featuring guitar legend Bill Nelson, leader of pop art bands Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise. Bill Nelson left high profile music some years back, due to his dislike of the music industry / media circus. However, his influence on modern music is immense. Admired by Paul McCartney, Big Country, Brian May, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Eno, Prince, The Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance et al. I’m delighted to announce that the video of this unique evening at ITV Legends is now available on to buy on AMAZON. In case you are still wondering who Bill Nelson is, here’s some background.
Bill Nelson’s career started with 1970’s Art School band Be-Bop Deluxe, where he had considerable success with classic albums like Futurama, Sunburst Finish and Drastic Plastic. By the mid 70’s Be-Bop Deluxe were conquering America but Bill was disaffected by the celebrity lifestyle and its requirements of him. He disbanded Be-Bop Deluxe and formed Red Noise, a synth / new age band way ahead of its time, paving the way for 80’s acts like Gary Numan, A Flock of Seagulls and many others. Red Noise’s music was jagged and edgy, although it has undoubtedly stood the test of time, influencing artists such as Razorlight and The Kaiser Chiefs.
EMI dropped Nelson at this point since he refused to perform ‘more of the same’. Shortly after Bill pioneered Indie music, releasing albums made in his own studio on his own ‘Cocteau’ record label. Many of these home-made creations were of superior quality to what others have since recorded in the most professional of recording studios.
Bill Nelson’s heart is firmly fixed within the inventor’s domain, with a more or less continuous stream of musical creativity. Much of Bill’s work can be accessed through his website ‘Dreamsville’.
Nelson’s latest works are mostly lush ambient soundscapes, not typical of his recent ITV release, which is a must-have release for Be-Bop Deluxe / Red Noise / music lovers. Almost literally ‘maid in heaven’. Here’s an example of Bill Nelson’s less commercial work, called Imperial Parade, taken from his recent performance at the Sheffield ‘Sensoria’ Arts Festival – music which owes no regard to an X-Factor culture.
I wrote a personal cameo about Bill Nelson, who I am proud to know, in the book Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll, as he is a master of continuous creativity and reinvention. A copy of the cameo can be found at the Academy of Rock. A video comparing the reinvention qualities of Bill Nelson and Prince Rogers Nelson can be seen below:
Today, I’m looking at what makes a master of personal reinvention. Not through the usual business suspects, but through the example of the music legend Bill Nelson. I’ve been inspired to write this as I have just managed to get a ticket to see Bill at the filming of his ITV Legends concert in London on Saturday March 26th. Check out the concert details if you want to be a part of this once in a lifetime experience to meet a true master of personal reinvention.
You might be wondering, just who is Bill Nelson? And what can a rock star teach us about personal reinvention? How is that relevant for us in our lives and work? Some background…
Bill Nelson led 1970’s Art School band Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise. In spite of his huge success, he disliked the ‘rock’n’roll circus’ and left considerable wealth and fame to pursue his own artistic and musical direction. However, his influence on modern music is immense and pervasive. Nelson is admired by Paul McCartney, Brian May, Kate Bush, Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Prince, Bowie, The Foo Fighters, The Darkness, My Chemical Romance et al.
Reinvention is hard enough for most of us. It’s even harder if you have a Rolls Royce, five sports cars and a mansion calling you to just do ‘more of the same’. This is the situation Bill Nelson faced with EMI music in the late 1970’s. Most of us are being asked to do some personal reinvention at the moment. You may be trying to learn new things to get a new job? Maybe you run a small business, struggling for contracts in a changing business landscape? Or you might be instigating corporate reinvention to keep your company in tune with ever changing customer moods, wants and needs? All these things require you to be excellent at personal reinvention and mastery of change. Check this video out which compares Bill Nelson’s approach to the artist Prince:
So, what are Bill Nelson’s secrets for personal reinvention? He wrote these down when contemplating a new album release and wishing to break away from simply repeating himself. Bill kindly allowed me to interpret them in my book ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll’. Let’s explore a couple of his principles:
Bill Nelson says “Do not be afraid of the ‘off’ switch”. In my experience of composing and recording music, this means not continuously adding more layers to a piece of music and losing the simplicity and resonance of the piece. It also means stopping when what you are doing isn’t working. Many businesses would be better off if they were to adopt this principle, i.e. stopping things that are no longer wanted or needed rather than just carrying on regardless. We are all creatures of habit to some extent. There is often irresistible temptation and pressure to continue in the face of compelling evidence of a need to do something different. Kodak experienced this with the death of conventional film processing. Had they chosen to notice the trend some years back, they might have been in a better position to respond to market change.
Bill Nelson adds “Refuse to sing when no words appear”. An excellent lesson for most of us to learn. Why do most songs have to have lyrics? Why do most websites have to have text? Why do most businesses have departments they don’t need? and so on. Masters of personal reinvention don’t slavishly copy success recipes. They adapt and improve upon them to precisely meet their needs and those of the people they serve. If you want to serve yourself well and your customers, by all means use success recipes as basic ‘templates for life’. But also question their relevance and precise fit for your particular circumstances. In the words of the master himself “Stay young, and keep in touch”. This means that you should approach new opportunities with a fresh mind. Always check to see if your success recipes are still up to date with the world around you. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, there can be a tendency to think that you are invincible. Hubris in business is a killer, as Marks and Spencer, Sony and many others nearly found out.
The coaching lessons from this are:
If what you are doing isn’t working, stop, think and do something different
Question the things that are the essence of your success from time to time
I’ll be writing more about Bill Nelson’s principles for reinvention in future blogs. If you want to read more about personal and corporate reinvention, come along to our next free event on March 22. If you fancy meeting Bill Nelson in person at a champagne reception after the ITV Legends show in London, check out the ITV Legends concert.
Footnote – The Legends concert DVD is now out on AMAZON.
The Legends DVD cover featuring Bill's Campbell Nelsonic Guitar
