Episode 1 - Introduction

Leadership Bebop is a creative space to explore the intersections of business, communication, and leadership with the arts, creative pursuits, positive psychology, philosophy, and the science of mindset and communication. Our main focus is the profound influence of listening in shaping our relationships, outlook, and ultimately our reality.

In this introductory episode, host Randy Evans shares about his background, the focus of the podcast, and the meaning behind the name Leadership Bebop.   

Leadership Bebop,  with host Randy Evans
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Transcript

Intro:

Welcome to Leadership Bebop, I’m  your host, Randy Evans

This podcast is a creative space to explore the rapidly changing dynamics of leadership and teamwork in organizations.

Through discourse and engaging dialogue, we’re creating a new “real book” on what it means to lead in a complex, fast-paced world. Thanks for tuning in. 

Okay, 3-2-1, let’s jam.

Randy Evans:

Hi there! I’m your host, Randy Evans, attorney, strategist, mediator, and coach.

I created Leadership Bebop to explore the intersections of business, communication, and leadership with the arts, creative pursuits, positive psychology, philosophy, and the science of mindset and communication. 

Our main focus is the profound impact of listening in shaping our relationships, our outlook, and ultimately our reality.

Before we jump into the details about the podcast, I thought I’d take a minute to share a little bit about my story and  my background.

I grew up in a small town in the Four Corners area of Northwest New Mexico, on and near the Navajo Nation.

I studied law and urban planning at the University of Buffalo, and before that I attended the University of New Mexico, earning my undergrad degree in trumpet performance and philosophy.

It’s okay, you can laugh.

Actually, the late comedian Norm MacDonald used to say that the perfect joke is where the  punchline is the same as the setup. 

That’s how I feel when I speak to groups and I talk about my undergraduate studies. Everyone laughs at the setup. 

It’s like I picked the two least practical degrees and I got em both.

And yet, in working with organizations and teams, I frequently draw on my background in music, philosophy, and planning; as well as my career in law, and my long-time interests in neuroscience; psychology; the science of listening, dialogue, and meaning-making processes; and conflict communication.

In high school, and in my first years in college, I actually planned to pursue a career in music. My first major was music education. However, I began losing my hearing in high school, due to a genetic condition. And, as my hearing loss grew progressively worse, I slowly began to accept that a career in music wasn’t really an option. 

Now, I want to pause there to note that there are an increasing number of people who are successfully pursuing careers in music even with hearing loss, and I really admire these trailblazers and I'm inspired by their stories. But at the time that didn’t really seem like an option for me.

Yet I continued to play trumpet through college and in law school, and my enjoyment of music remained strong even as my hearing continued to degrade. 

More recently, I’ve adjusted to hearing with a cochlear implant, which greatly improved my ability to hear and understand speech and has also transformed the way I hear and relate to music. When listening to jazz, for example, I can once again hear the sound of brushes lightly sweeping the cymbals, the higher registers of the trumpet, and the nuances of a flute and other high frequency sounds.

And, I actually enjoy just about every style of music, and I listen to music all the time. But jazz has really been my favorite genre since high school.

I was actually introduced to jazz as a freshman in high school. My first jazz album was Chuck Mangione’s Feels So Good. And for several years my jazz listening was really limited to jazz-funk and jazz-rock fusion: The Yellowjackets, Spyro Gyra, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, and others.

No, not Kenny G. Sorry if you're a fan, no offense intended.

But, it wasn’t until college that I began listening to a more classic jazz repertoire, including the great bebop artists from the 1940s and 50s: Dizzy Gilespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Clifford Brown, Dexter Gordon, and Sonny Rollins, and of course the Queen of Jazz, the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald.

Now, this podcast isn't really about Bebop. It's not even about jazz. Though we will discuss music and other creative arts as they relate to business and leadership. Because, if you think about it, really, everything we do, every day, every minute, is a creative process. The key question is what are we creating in this moment. And why.

And in creating this podcast, I'd like to offer a brief glimpse into the name. Why Bebop? And why Leadership Bebop?

So, Bebop is a particular style of jazz characterized by fast tempos and complex chord progressions with rapid key changes and improvisation based on combinations of rhythmic and harmonic structures.

This style of jazz requires close listening, both for the musicians and for audiences. It also requires a learning mindset, and close collaboration, as the musicians explore advanced harmonies, complex rhythms, altered chords, asymmetrical phrasing, and intricate melodies.

Just as in bebop jazz, leadership in today’s world requires quick thinking, improvisation, adaptability, a learning mindset, and close collaboration among team members.

Leaders must be willing to play both lead and supporting roles and to work together to develop creative solutions, anticipating and responding to rapidly changing conditions. 

Now, imagine your team as a jazz combo. Close collaboration is essential for your success. Each member remains highly attuned to the others, listening to each other for ideas, inspiration, direction, and drive. 

You lean into the “sour notes” and you embrace conflict as part of the creative process.

Your work together shifts fluidly between dissonance and consonance. 

Tension, suspension, emergence, and exploration – these are just as essential as resolution, convergence, structure, and focused action.

As with bebop jazz, successful leadership and effective teamwork require 

-          deep listening, 

-          open awareness, 

-          shared commitments, 

-          liberating structures, 

-          and trust and respect among team members. 

Ultimately, the goal is to create something meaningful and valuable together.

On Leadership Bebop, we’ll address these themes and other dynamics of leadership in our world of rapid change.

We’ll deliver action-oriented commentary and engaging conversations with thought leaders, business executives, communication experts, mediators, musicians and artists,  creators, researchers, and others. 

We’ll explore key issues relating to communication, effective listening, shared leadership, collaborative frameworks, constructive conflict engagement, and other critical issues.

Together, we’ll discover new ways of thinking about leadership and organizations. 

We’ll also examine how we interact with each other as humans and strategies to improve how we practice and perform together as teams in today’s turbulent world.

We’ll also delve into the science of hearing and the psychology of listening, and why it is so hard for us as humans to listen well even though most everyone agrees this is a critical skill for leadership and in all of our relationships.

And finally, we’ll explore the close connections between the performing arts and critical issues facing leaders in today's modern organizations: 

●        problem solving

●        communication skills

●        adaptability

●        spatial awareness

●        thinking on your feet

●        performance anxiety

●        imposter syndrome

●        teamwork

●        collaboration

●        resilience

●        improvisation, and

●        innovation

So, check out the show notes for the full list of upcoming topics. And I'd really like to hear from you: What topics would you find most helpful? Let me know in the comments, because as we really do want to make this relevant to the issues that you’re dealing with.

Oh, and one final note: if you don’t like jazz, no worries. No judgment here. It’s definitely an acquired taste. But, no matter your musical preferences, you’re invited to join us, as we explore the real-world issues facing leadership teams in this present moment of time.