10 Commandments of (Business) Jam

Derek Trucks knows his way around a guitar, and knows something about collaboration. I recently saw this piece on him, where he talked about the Ten Commandments of Jam. In it, he provides some useful instruction to musicians looking to excel at the collaborative (aka "jam") musical experience. I enjoyed the story, and found myself asking, semi-seriously, if there was an analog here for business. So I gave it a little thought and this is what I came back with.

Derek Trucks: Just listen.

Business translation: You have a personal and professional agenda. Don't get too focused on your own agenda, without understanding and responding to the objectives of your organization and your colleagues.

Derek Trucks: Respect everyone's musical space.

Business translation: Know your role, and know your talents and skills. The flip side of this is, know what you're not good at. You're an Electrical Engineer, and you want to provide literary critique of our website content? Maybe not the best use of your skills.

Derek Trucks: Make sure you are telling a story.

Business translation: Have a mission. What are you, your company, and/or your product trying to achieve? Of course, with a clear objective in hand, it's easier to plot the tactics.

Derek Trucks: Try to play an emotion.

Business translation: Have a message. Have a point, and know what it is, specifically, and hone in on conveying it. Without a keen understanding of the point being made, there's a high risk of it being muddied, or failing.

Derek Trucks: Never use the bandstand to practice.

Business translation: Particularly in a business that makes something, it's critical to understand the difference between Development and Launch. In development, mistakes can be made, testing happens, refinement occurs. That's the time and place to adjust. The launch event is not the place to discover new things about your product or service; it's not where you "fine tune" the experience. It's not the time for the execs come in and have their first review session.

Derek Trucks: Treat your stage as your church.

Business translation: Respect the office and what you do there.

Derek Trucks: Make sure your intentions are right.

Business translation: This is one I like a lot. Too often in business, personal interests and intentions contradict, or are not in harmony with, the overall interests of the organization. When employees are acting with the best interests of the company in mind, it seems this is when companies can do great things. As a corollary, this further highlights the importance of a clear corporate mission. Without a clear mission, employees may not exactly understand how to respond to the constant stream of, figurative or literal, queries they receive in a workday.

Derek Trucks: Always make the band sound better.

Business translation: Serve your employer, and remember, the objective of the company is to deliver a great product/service, and ultimately make money. If your actions can be linked to those initiatives specifically, you're probably doing the right thing. If you're off in a corner cube working on the next great software app or feature that has nothing to do with the product or people who pay your salary, you're probably in the weeds...

Derek Trucks: Educate with your music.

Business translation: Delight your customers! Bring them experiences or use cases they may not have ever considered. Admittedly, this one is super tricky. On the one hand, asking customers to do new/different things can be a real losing proposition. "Why does this button NOT do what it's supposed to?!" On the other hand, this is where innovation happens, and where new products and services come to life. The line between frustration and delight can be paper thin, important to understand.

Derek Trucks: Make sure you mean what you're doing.

Business translation: Be passionate about your work. I think the business world has already agreed with rock and roll on this one...

Have a great day!