School of Business
Yonsei University
Innovation &
Improvisation
Sung Joo Bae
Assistant Professor
Operations and Technology Management
Realms of Individual & Collective Action
in Organizations
Novelty
High
(Divergence
from prior
experience)
Low
Improvisation
Composition
(Jazz improv.)
(Classic concert)
Algorithmic
Execution
Algorithmic
Planning
(Operators in nuclear
power plant)
(SOP Generation for
NPP)
Low
High
Temporal Separation of
Conception and Execution
Source: Fisher & Amabile
A Model of Improvisational Creativity
Conception
Preparation
-Provocative
competence
(Interrupting
habit patterns)
External
Problem
Presentation
Execution
Source: Fisher & Amabile + Barrett
Improvised
creative outcome
- Can feed into the idea
generation stage of
compositional creativity
- Retrospective
Sensemaking
Improvisation
(Simultaneous/Synchronous Processes)
Expertise
-Well learned
facts & routines
Creativity-relevant
Processes
- Distributed Task
- Soloing & supporting
- Continual negotiation
- Risk orientation
- Hanging out: CoP
Intrinsic Motivation
Focus on
problem/opportunity
Work Environment
- Embracing errors
- Experimental culture
- Real-time info flow
- Minimal structures
Seven Characteristics of Improvisation
Related to the Creative Organization
• Provocative competence – Interrupting
habit patterns
– The difficulty of trying new things 
Consequences!!!
– Remember “Kodak”?
• Embracing errors as source of learning
– Errors often lead to a great invention, but it has
to be embraced and nurtured by other members
in the organization
Seven Characteristics of Improvisation
Related to the Creative Organization
• Minimal structures that allow maximum
flexibility
– Music: patterns of melodies, chord changes,
sections and phrases
– Organization: stories, myths, visions, slogans,
mission statements, trademarks
Seven Characteristics
• Distributed task – Continual negotiation toward
dynamic synchronization
• Innovation is an ongoing social accomplishment
You don’t know what the other player is going to play,
but on listening to the playback, you hear that you
related your part very quickly to what the other player
played just before you. It’s like a message that you
relay back and forth… You want to achieve that kind of
communication when you play. When you do, your
playing seems to be making sense. It’s like
conversation
- Tommy Flanagan (Jazz Pianist), 1994
Seven Characteristics of Improvisation
Related to the Creative Organization
• Reliance on retrospective sense-making
– The improviser may be unable to look ahead at
what is going to play, but he can look behind at
what he has just played; thus each new musical
phrase can be shaped with relation to what has
gone before. He creates his form retrospectively.
– Those junk boxes at IDEO
– Samsung’s efforts to understand what they have
done recently
Seven Characteristics of Improvisation
Related to the Creative Organization
• Hanging out – Membership in communities
of practice (Informal educational system
with rich context)
– Organizations must see beyond conventional job
descriptions and recognize the rich aspects of
practices
• Alternating between soloing and supporting
– Rotating leadership
The Processual ‘Flow’ of Different Models
Sequential model
Flexible model
Compression model
Improvisational model
Kind of Blue (1959) Album by Miles Davis
• Musicians
– Miles Davis (trumpet), Bill Evans (piano), John Coltrane, Julian
Adderley (saxophone), Jimmy Cobb (drum), Paul Chambers
(bass)
• Davis had only given the band sketches of scales and
melody lines on which to improvise (modal jazz)
– In traditional jazz improvisation (hard bop style), a chord
progression or series of harmonies are given to the musicians
Davis elaborated on this form of composition in contrast to the
chord progression predominant in bebop, stating
"No chords ... gives you a lot more freedom and space to
hear things. When you go this way, you can go on
forever. You don't have to worry about changes and you
can do more with the [melody] line. It becomes a
challenge to see how melodically innovative you can be.
When you're based on chords, you know at the end of
32 bars that the chords have run out and there's
nothing to do but repeat what you've just done—with
variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away
from the conventional string of chords... there will be
fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do
with them.“
- In a 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff of The Jazz Review
Review of Kind of Blue (1959)
• Producer Quincy Jones, one of Davis' longtime friends,
wrote: "That [Kind of Blue] will always be my music, man.
I play Kind of Blue every day—it's my orange juice. It still
sounds like it was made yesterday".
• Pianist Chick Corea, one of Miles' acolytes, was also
struck by its majesty, later stating "It's one thing to just
play a tune, or play a program of music, but it's another
thing to practically create a new language of music,
which is what Kind of Blue did."