The Genius of Our Country
“Improvisation as a way of life” is the backbone of a successful existence for any organism or group of organisms.
I agree with Ken Burns that “The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It’s our great contribution to the arts.”
- BrainyQuotes.com
But I’d take it a step further and say that improvisation is the greatest natural ability humans can exhibit.
“Smart people should be able to learn whatever they needed and then implement it.”
… Former Google Director of Consumer Marketing and Brand Management Doug Edwards (11/23/2005) commenting on how Larry and Sergey view job roles with in Google. He goes on to say, “it helps to think of employees as cells… it’s inefficient to have those cells hanging around sucking energy from the rest of the organism if their singular function is no longer required. Better to have cells that can adapt themselves to any situation, solve the problem and then move on to the next issue.”
That’s why Google is on top. They understand that change is the only constant. they know that to lock people into specific job roles is limiting not only to the employee but to the organization. If a species can’t adapt it can survive. But Google understands something else just as important. The degree to which a person can improvise is directly related to their intellectual development. that’s why they hire Stanford grads.
Some of the characteristics of the emerging web 2.0 phenomenon coupled with the open source movement also follow the laws of improvisation…
“…characterised by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and “the market as a conversation”
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
Conversations by nature are improvisational. Web 2.0 is about facilitating conversation on a multitude of levels. The fact that the web is now moving in a way that allows people to take the work that others have created to make new applications and create new environments that suite specialized needs and specialized conversations is exactly what improvisation is about - fluidly taking what is provided and going in new directions.
Jazz is the evolution of music. Google is the evolution of the business model. Web 2.0 is the evolution of web.
Evolution implies survival. We as a human race should be putting a lot more focus on our abilities to improvise in all aspects of our lives, communities, and culture. There are a lot of things that could bring about major changes on this planet from the poles shifting, to asteroids colliding, terrorism, world wars, climate change, and political upheaval to name a few. As discussed in the Google example, the degree to which a person can improvise is directly related to there intellectual development. So it’s up to each individual, and any forward thinking governmental body, to place education at the fore front of their priorities.
True knowledge (which implies comprehension) allows for advanced improvisation skills necessary for survival. Anyone else wanna continue the species?
