Looking for inspiration as a leader? Dominic Alldis can tell you how to conduct your team using orchestral and improvisational techniques.

One of the great movements in modern music nearly didn't happen. The story goes that sax player Charlie Parker was playing in a late-night jam session when the drummer, fed up with 'Bird's' experimental licks, frisbeed a cymbal at his head. Had its aim been truer, Bebop, and the multifarious forms of modern jazz that followed it, may never have happened.

Such are the occupational hazards of being an innovator. I was worried something similar might happen to Dominic Alldis. Alldis, jazz musician, conductor and founder of Music & Management, was booked for a dinner date with 82 senior systems managers from a leading car maker away-daying at Ettington Chase, a Midlands conference centre. His mission was to talk about improvisation and creative dynamics within musical ensembles. There was an England football match on the TV at the same time. It looked like a tough gig.

They were soon entering into a lively debate about teamwork, leadership and working together. Alldis promised to offer a new language for describing management issues, a change from the dog-eared thesaurus of sporting and military terms. So we hear how a conductor - CEO if you like - sets the direction, takes an overview, brings in different performers and makes a harmonious sum from the parts.

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The mood was con brio - upbeat, sunny, optimistic. That's the way of these courses: nastiness and negativity never get a look in. So I thought I had better introduce some. "Isn't conducting also about ego?" I asked Alldis. "And just like some CEOs, don't you get some real tyrants on the podium?"

His answer was interesting: the era of the huge conductor-ego passed with the death of Von Karajan. The new breed are a milder, more democratic lot. How often do you see a similar phenomenon in business? One minute swashbuckling entrepreneurial types are in fashion; the next, the analysts are all crying out for a consolidator.

Then it was on to the jazz bit. Alldis laid down the baton, took to the piano and called up a bassist and sax player. Here we learnt about Allowing Maximum Flexibility Through Minimal Structures, Listening And Responding In A Chaotic Environment and Disrupting Familiar Habits And Routines... The hip cats from the car company got the metaphor pretty smartly. They were especially taken by the idea that mistakes can be good - they lead to new ideas, new themes. It was refreshing to see the senior people of a great British engineering institution embracing creativity and experimentation so much...

Mark Jones
Business Life Magazine
January 2006