As Henry Ford may have once said, “If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said, ‘faster horses’.”
This is why a real innovation culture in a business is really, really hard to cultivate. People’s first instinct is just to copy the competition with a tweak, and hope for the best.
But that’s not how transformational innovation is built. It never has.
This sounds like “best practices” to me. Why pursue mediocrity???
She’ll be coming round The Mountain when she comes!
#jazzchurch 51 – Sunday, April 18, 2021 – featured music by Charles Lloyd, McCoy Tyner, Christian Sands, Darrell Grant, Ellis Marsalis Trio, Jen Chapin, Tuck & Patti, Jill Scott & Chris Botti, John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Marquis Hill, and Orrin Evans. We made a #JoyfulNoise! 🎶🎙🎵
Here’s an Apple Music Playlist containing songs from this episode of #JazzChurch:
Next week’s #jazzchurch livestream can be found at postbop.com/jazzchurch Streaming live from 1-4ish PM PDT. Past episodes are available here as well.
I’ve been on PTO for two weeks and return to work on Monday. This vacation has been timely because, even though I’ve acquired the nickname “Dr. Zoom,” I was suffering definite Zoom fatigue. Maybe work fatigue! We had a quarterly team planning session a few days before my time off. I noted that I was on the verge of burnout and that hopefully, my vacay would help. Then I found myself needing to take a timeout from the meeting.
Yeah, I needed to, and did, get away! Now I’m heading back into the fray and am facing an age-old question: “How do I want to be when I go back to work?” What changes do I want to make? What do I want to do differently?
It seems my most memorable vacations came when the stress became too much to bear. That wasn’t the plan. Maybe I was oblivious? I wrote about this a couple of years ago, of course, while on vacation.
Here’s a related experience I had early in my career:
Once upon a time things weren’t going so well at work. I can’t remember what we were arguing about, but I left my boss’s office, walked back to mine, and kinda sorta slammed the door. I sat at my desk for a few minutes – in the dark – pissed!
After a while, one of my colleagues came in and said, “Bill you’re obviously having a bad day. Why don’t you just go home?”
I thought, “you mean I could do that?” While it hadn’t occurred to me, it was great advice!
I grabbed my coat and briefcase, told my assistant I was leaving for the day. And left.
I walked across Central Park South. When I got to Lexington Avenue, the proverbial lightbulb went on.
I ambled into Bloomingdales and took the escalator up to the seventh floor. I went to the American Express Travel counter, where a young woman asked how she could help me.
“Send me away,” I said.
“Where would you like to go?”
“I have no idea but I obviously need a vacation.”
Man, that vacation was so timely!! Anyway, my current one is ending, and I’ve got just a little time to face that question:
“How do I want to be when I go back to work?”
I don’t have answers just yet. Maybe a future blog post will reveal how it all turns out?
Of course, if you have some advice, hit me with it. Soon! Thanks!
April 15, 2012. Our first visit to Jazz Alley. Waiting for The Real McCoy. That would be McCoy Tyner. Not sure who was on bass. Thinking it might have been; oh wait, let me go find out:
Bb’s Journal Notes
Ballad For Aisha - 4/15/12
McCoy Tyner !! @ Jazz Alley!! with Gary Bartz!! on Alto, Francisco Mela on drums. Not sure who’s playing bass – don’t know the name.
Opened with Fly with the Wind, I think. Awesome! McCoy wrote Ballad for Aisha for his wife, who’s in the audience tonight. McCoy said they’ve been together since they were teenagers. (Not the only such couple in the house!!!)
McCoy looks frail when walking but sounds like the Real McCoy when playing.
I’m Living the Dream!!
I love seeing McCoy smile at Francisco and vice versa. Cool interaction. Everyone is Present. Right. Here. Right. Now!
Moment’s Notice!
Suddenly popped up. There it is!
Lot’s of young kids in the audience!
Blues on the Corner!! – McCoy sits out for two choruses of Gary’s solo, then BAM!! Then he does it again.
The bass plays along with part of the melody. Gerald Cannon?!
Solo Piano –> For All We Know
Francisco Mela is a revelation!!
In a Mellow Tone! (No Peresina???? Oh, welly welly!)
Walk Spirit. Talk Spirit.
Great memory. I’m so glad I documented it, most likely journaling during the concert (which may explain why my only photograph is above???).
McCoy Tyner is the musician I’ve seen the most during my lifetime. I really love him. I’m sad he’s no longer with us, but his music and memory live on.
”Of course it’s nice that we’ve managed to gather virtually. But I don’t know, it’s just not the same.“
– Sandy Boynton
Even Dr. Zoom agrees!
Yesterday, the third Thursday of April, was the second National High Five Day in a row during which I, self-proclaimed Chief High-Five Officer, gave zero high-fives!
Why are high fives important to me? Here’s a bit of brilliance from one of my esteemed former colleagues:
“As Bill and I ‘High-Fived’ at the end of our meeting today, it occurred to me that you can’t really effectively High Five by yourself. It takes more than one person. It is a shared validation of a positive outcome or success (which can be any step achieved along the way), agreement of ideas, vision, or action plans. And, it feels good, brings inspiration, acknowledges, carries momentum and gives positive reinforcement. Have you ever experienced a negative High Five?”
So, I started high-fiving everyone, becoming a high-fiving fool.
I can’t wait for this pandemic to be over!!!
Early in my career, a colleague suggested I send a “brilliant, yet difficult” employee to an American Management Association training program formally called Executive Effectiveness, and euphemistically referred to as “charm school.” I reached out to the AMA instructor, who assured me that the class was appropriate. However, he also suggested I first take the workshop myself, so I’d be better nable to support my direct report. He told me, “no one ever takes this advice.” Challenge accepted!
Not only did I learn a lot, but his advice also set a pattern for me. I go first. It helps me help you. If I’m open, it also just helps me. I wouldn’t be where and who I am without following this idea of taking the training first!
P.S. Charm school taught me that I should be less charming, that I should speak what’s on my mind because the team needs to hear it. Still #workingonit!!!
Message on the way to dinner this perfect day!
It’s 3:45 PM PDT. It’s also 79° where I sit. Not exactly because, well, I’ve got it made in the shade! :-)
This is my last day of extended PTO. I still have a weekend in front of me before I have to start thinking about fixing to get ready to possibly maybe go back to work on Monday.
In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy it! Great weather! Best of the year so far!!
Unfortunately (not really), I have to go inside and get ready for dinner! I’ll put on real clothes for a change. Looking forward to Primo Grill!
Great quotes on writing from James Baldwin.
Travel.
The story of what can happen to an American Negro writer in Europe simply illustrates, in some relief, what can happen to any American writer there. It is not meant, of course, to imply that it happens to them all, for Europe can be very crippling, too; and, anyway, a writer, when he has made his first breakthrough, has simply won a crucial skirmish in a dangerous, unending and unpredictable battle. Still, the breakthrough is important, and the point is that an American writer, in order to achieve it, very often has to leave this country.
-from “The Discovery of What It Means To Be an American”
Don’t be too ironic.
You are speaking to an old rat. I find much of so‐called avant‐garde writing utterly trivial. If there is no moral question, there is no reason to write. I’m an old‐fashioned writer and, despite the odds, I want to change the world. What I hope to convey? Well, joy, love, the passion to feel how our choices affect the world … that’s all.
-from a 1979 interview published in The New York Times
Remember why you write.
The bottom line is this: You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can’t, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world. In some way, your aspirations and concern for a single man in fact do begin to change the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks or people look at reality, then you can change it.
-from a 1979 interview published in The New York Times
Yes, I know. I shouldn’t be reading this. Dilly-dallying. Lollygagging. I should be writing!
The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which “Congress itself is the target.” But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob, according to a scathing new report by the agency’s internal investigator.
In a 104-page document, the inspector general, Michael A. Bolton, criticized the way the Capitol Police prepared for and responded to the mob violence on Jan. 6. The report was reviewed by The New York Times and will be the subject of a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday.
…
“Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled,” the message read. “Get violent … stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”
Civil War
#jazzchurch 50 – Sunday, April 11, 2021 – featured music by Ahmad Jamal, Betty Carter, Christian McBride, Damian Erskine, Dr. Buzzard’s “Original Savannah Band”, LaBelle, Luther Vandross, Sam & Dave, Tom Harrell, Wes Montgomery, and the Yellowjackets, among others shown below:
Here’s an Apple Music Playlist containing songs from this episode of #JazzChurch:
Next week’s #jazzchurch livestream can be found at postbop.com/jazzchurch Streaming live from 1-4ish PM PDT. Past episodes are available here as well.
Here’s a great podcast episode about The Real Book and the impact it has had on jazz. There’s a really cool backstory as well!
Since the mid-1970s, almost every jazz musician has owned a copy of the same book. It has a peach-colored cover, a chunky, 1970s-style logo, and a black plastic binding. It’s delightfully homemade-looking—like it was printed by a bunch of teenagers at a Kinkos. And inside is the sheet music for hundreds of common jazz tunes—also known as jazz “standards”—all meticulously notated by hand. It’s called the Real Book.
But if you were going to music school in the 1970s, you couldn’t just buy a copy of the Real Book at the campus bookstore. Because the Real Book… was illegal. The world’s most popular collection of Jazz music was a totally unlicensed publication. It was a self-published book created without permission from music publishers or songwriters. It was duplicated at photocopy shops and sold on street corners, out of the trunks of cars, and under the table at music stores where people used secret code words to make the exchange. The full story of how the Real Book came to be this bootleg bible of jazz is a complicated one. It’s a story about what happens when an insurgent, improvisational art form like Jazz gets codified and becomes something that you can learn from a book.
I have an iPad app called the unrealBook filled with every song from at least 15 fake or real books. It’s a good starting place, but the very idea of jazz music is to invent new ways of playing songs.
I love this cartoon by Brian King.
It reminded me of this song by Joe Williams👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
I noticed these signs while taking a walk along the Cushman Trail…
Alas, a couple of days later, the signs were missing.
I found one though…
Not everyone buys-in to the dream!
#jazzchurch 49 – Sunday, April 4, 2021 – featured music by Wynton Marsalis, Joe Williams, Tom Harrell, Robert Hurst, Andy Bey, Martin Luther King, Jr., Marcus Miller, Darrell Grant, Richie Havens, Richie Havens, Rickie Lee Jones, Norah Jones, and Jessica Williams, among others shown below:
Here’s an Apple Music Playlist containing songs from this episode of #JazzChurch:
Next week’s #jazzchurch livestream can be found at postbop.com/jazzchurch Streaming live from 1-4ish PM PDT. Past episodes are available here as well.
Why is there no April Fool’s Day this year? This is incredibly disappointing. #AprilFoolsDay
– Sandy Boynton
A. Nothing seems funny (COVID-19, deaths, Jan. 6 insurrection, mass murders, political division, etc). We feel guilty if we even smile?
”I’m not the only one on-screen right now who has been falsely accused of a terrible sex act…“
– Rep. Matt Gaetz
When facilitating a DIOM workshop for fellow City of Tacoma employees, I’d frequently photograph the class from behind while working together on an exercise. The photographs would end up on LinkedIn and Facebook to memorialize our time together and show folks how much fun we have.
That all came to a halt last March, and our workshops have become virtual on Zoom. I told our most recent class about that practice and asked if I could record a brief video. All the cameras turned on, and I hit record. Someone mentioned that my pre-pandemic photos would only show the backs of their heads, so we tried that too!
Great group! We learned a lot together and had some serious fun in the process!!!
#jazzchurch 48 – Sunday, March 28, 2021 – featured music by John Coltrane, Hugh Masekela, Cedar Walton, Stevie Wonder, Donald Byrd, Oregon, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Talking Heads, and James Brown, among others shown below:
Here’s an Apple Music Playlist containing songs from this episode of #JazzChurch:
Next week’s #jazzchurch livestream can be found at postbop.com/jazzchurch Streaming live from 1-4ish PM PDT. Past episodes are available here as well.
True?
Cabin in the Woods! Free yoga classes in the morning, followed by awesome coffee (or tea) and all the bacon you can eat!!! #Winning!!!!
Here’s a series of screenshots from tonight’s Rachel Maddow Show that shine a bright light on what Republicans are up to all across the country:
If you hadn’t noticed, a full-fledge civil war is raging, and democracy is ragtime on the corner (to quote the very great Gil Scott-Heron). Not just now. It’s been like that since the beginning.
From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
And to the buffalo who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
Looking for the rain
Looking for the rain
Just like the cities staggered on the coastline
Living in a nation that just can’t stand much more
Like the forest buried beneath the highway
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it’s winter
Winter in America
Yes and all of the healers have been killed
Or sent away, yeah
But the people know, the people know
It’s winter
Winter in America
And ain’t nobody fighting
’Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your soul, Lord knows
From Winter in America
The Constitution
A noble piece of paper
With free society
Struggled but it died in vain
And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
Looks like it’s hoping
Hoping for some rain
And I see the robins
Perched in barren treetops
Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it’s winter
It’s winter in America
And all of the healers have been killed
Or been betrayed
Yeah, but the people know, people know
It’s winter, Lord knows
It’s winter in America
And ain’t nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your souls
From Winter in America
And now it’s winter
Winter in America
And all of the healers done been killed or sent away
Yeah, and the people know, people know
It’s winter
Winter in America
And ain’t nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
And ain’t nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows, nobody knows
And ain’t nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
“You’ve stumped me!” Not the best way to respond to a question, perhaps, but certainly truthful and human! #cantpossiblyknowitall!!
On the other hand, we received approval for debt-related transactions that saved our customers over $140 million since 2015.