Lessons for Builders in Disruptive Times
Kind of Blue is the canonical jazz album, widely considered the greatest jazz album ever recorded.
When you peer beneath the music, you find something else: a leadership model for disruptive times, for our times.
With Kind of Blue, Miles Davis provided modes or scales for musicians to improvise within. He set guardrails for the band and let them explore.
Davis did not micromanage or script. His musicians knew their instruments far better than he did. Rather, he provided a simple framework for them to operate within.
Phil Jackson is the most successful NBA coach of all time. He won eleven NBA championships, the most of any NBA coach, with two different teams.
Like Davis, Jackson did not micromanage or script his teams. He provided a structure, something called the Triangle Offense, for them to improvise within.
In addition, he built a culture centered on selflessness, mindfulness, and aligned teamwork. His culture minimized ego while honoring individual greatness.
Jeff Bezos cannot slam dunk and does not play jazz.
But like Davis and Jackson, he is a genius at creating systems of innovation. At Amazon, Bezos created a culture in which highly talented people can innovate quickly in service of Amazon’s mission.
I spent six years in Bezos’s innovation system. It was grounded in a clear set of leadership principles and an ever-evolving structure. This enabled teams to move quickly without constantly seeking approval.
In my time there, we worked in small, self-sufficient teams with fast feedback loops. Over time this evolved into single-threaded leaders and teams.
Three completely different mediums – jazz, basketball and high tech. Three completely different leaders. But all created unstoppable systems for innovation. All substantially outpaced their competitors. All unleashed their teams.
In times of discontinuity and rapid change, we need leaders like Davis, Jackson and Bezos. We need to create what author Nassim Taleb calls antifragile systems, systems that allow experimentation, variation and continuous learning.
These systems not only survive discontinuity but thrive in it.
Says Taleb: “Antifragility has a singular property of allowing us to deal with the unknown, to do things without understanding them—and do them well.”
In the old model, leaders knew the answers, held most of the information and drove execution from corner offices. In the new model, leaders are intellectually curious, humble and continuously learning. Leaders are conductors of intelligence, not the source of it.
This is important because we are in the early stages of AI, a technology that will drive exponential change. In the age of AI, every organization will need to reinvent itself.
Frameworks and Freedom
“Your employees [are] the reinventors that your organization desperately needs. They understand which workflows are broken, where processes create friction, what customers need, and how work really gets done vs. how the org chart says it gets done.”
--Rick Parrish, Forrester
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella is a model for leadership in this new era of disruption and rapid change.
When Satya took over, Microsoft’s was operating in the old model. I worked for five years in that old model.
Leaders were valued for having all the answers. It was a know-it-all, top-down culture with rigid hierarchy and toxic infighting. Outside thinking was shunned.
Under this style of leadership, Microsoft’s traditional competitive advantages were under pressure. Innovation stalled. Its stock flatlined.
Nadella reversed the company’s decline by reinventing its culture around curiosity, listening and humility. Like Davis, Jackson and Bezos, he unleashed innovation and learning.
Pixar is one of the most successful animation and filmmaking companies of all time. It has won numerous Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and Annie Awards.
Culturally, Pixar prioritizes psychological safety, learning, and creative ownership. Filmmakers are trusted to lead their projects and operate within a system that values humility, feedback, and continuous improvement.
Pixar’s approach to innovation is built on a set of repeatable creative mechanisms that turn raw ideas into high-quality films. At the core is Braintrust, a candid peer-review forum where directors present unfinished work and receive direct, ego-free critique focused on solving problems, not judging people.
The leaders who define our next era won’t be the ones with all the answers. They’ll be the ones who build environments where the best ideas can emerge.
Frameworks that guide. Cultures that empower. Teams that create.
That’s how you build something that lasts in a world that won’t stand still.