Creativity is a strange beast. Pursuing creativity involves a paradox: seeking creativity seems to be self-defeating as the creative urge is often regarded to arrive when you least expect it. I recently encountered this paradox while working with organizational narratives. The storytellers of one organization both yearned for a more creative time they had enjoyed in the past, when they were active participants in a future yet unmade. Yet this longing for past glories is a contradiction, escaping the creative urge.

The album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis is one of those creative legends. It has been canonized as the jazz album that best captures the momentary creative urge. Ashley Kahn has written an informative book about it which I am in the midst of reading. The only musician from these sessions still alive, Jimmy Cobb maintains that "it was just another session for us back then", which I find plausible. Creativity hits you when you're ready, but not when you expect it.

A jazz metaphor I have found useful lately is the notion of "groove" or a "pocket". In organizational life, often a fruitful tension must be found between freedom and structure, for instance between individual disgression and official policy. In storytelling, for instance, one needs a certain amount of coherence, yet individual voices should not be smothered. In organizational culture, an "integrated enough" culture is needed, yet not a monolithic one. In jazz, there are "tight grooves" and "loose grooves", characteristics of individuals and subgenres. Similarly, in organizational life, the official policy and an individual need to negotiate between tightness and looseness.