Retrospective sensemaking

As promised, I will repost some of our experiences with Frank Barretts principles in our workhop here. This is the first installment. I have edited the entries, so they may differ from the ones published on our wiki at: http://impronomics.wetpaint.com/page/Notes+on+Frank+Barrett

Relying on retrospective sense making as form.In order to perform music in real time, to improvise, a jazz musician can't plan ahead. But how can complex music be performed in the moment? What can you do? In the workshop Armand explains it like this: Asking questions and listening deeply are the two basic skills at play here. In addition, you have to trust yourself and the moment. If you dare just start asking yourself a musical question, a question that is provoked by the moment, the question itself will provoke an answer if you listen carefully. Then, maybe you revisit your question and make an embellishment on it and maybe you give a slightly different answer. Could the answer be hiding a new question itself if you listen deeply enough? And what's the next step? Before you know it you are immersed in a solo, improvising, exploring the musical edges of your instrument, supported by your fellow musicians, who encourage you.

Clear is that it comes to listening closely and asking questions. What is the standard in our culture? Is there a balance between asking questions and answering them? Between talking and listening? How are we trained? What are we doing to accept complexity? Are we giving more room to the questions we need to ask and to listening deeply in our organizations? Do we trust that our knowledge and skills will get us through, or do we need to control things in advance? Do we trust the moment and the fact that we will learn where to go just by starting? We could learn from the courage and skills in questioning and listening that the jazz musician displays. We could start to find a balance by taking this attitude as our starting point. By accepting that we do improvise most of the time and by focusing on basic skills that are at play there. As Paul Berner, our bassist says: The song will tell you what to play.

What are your questions? Do you listen deeply?