Kick off the holiday season in a fun, feastive and musical manner with special guest, Brian Hayman.  Brian promises to "get us in the groove" by linking the knowledge & discipline behind the magic of jazz improvisation & its implications for organizational performance.

Presentation and music, followed by our seasonal cocktail reception.

Brian Hayman - President / Consultant / Pianist.

Two constants have run through his professional life as a metallurgist in a steel company, an executive in a financial services organization, a principal in an international professional service firm, and an independent management consultant: 1) playing piano in jazz ensembles, listening to jazz music, hanging out with jazz musicians and 2) an abiding interest in how people, individually and collectively, learn.

His consulting work had led him to conclude that uncertainty is, arguably, the defining characteristic of our age, and learning how to deal with it creatively rather than defensively, is the defining challenge of our age. The question, without putting too fine a point on it, is inevitably one of figuring out how to prepare for a future that can't be known. What's needed is an approach somewhere between desperately winging it and steadfastly pretending to know more about the future than one is entitled to know. Clearly, an ability to cultivate and sustain a capacity for learning is essential for organizations operating in environments of flux.

The answer: jazz music. The jazz ensemble is not a metaphor for organizations ― it is an organization in that it is made up of people who come together with something in mind and then set out to do it. 

"Getting in the Groove" is the product of that insight: a unique entertainment and learning experience that explores the knowledge and discipline of jazz improvisation and its implications for enhancing organizational performance.