by Pamela Scott Crace

A great innovator once said that his gift was merely putting the right players together and "letting them go."

That innovator was Miles Davis. I couldn't let 2009 sneak away without paying homage to the greatest jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue. It was recorded 50 years ago in 1959. This past summer, the U.S. Congress recognized the album as a national treasure and urged the protection and promotion of jazz.

The more I read and think about Davis's leadership style, the more the similarities between jazz musicians and entrepreneurs become obvious. Jazz is about improvising. About breaking with convention. About trusting the players. Like a business venture, jazz is about the tightness of the ensemble, supported by a belief that a good leader knows where he's going next, even if it sounds a little risky.

Davis, for example, preferred first takes. Kind of Blue was recorded in two short studio sessions, with the assembled musicians having little time to prepare. No pressure! Part of the recording's appeal is that raw immediacy, its primal pace, and the luminous spaces in between.

Music critics agree that Kind of Blue—so creative and so accomplished—profoundly influenced jazz music. Why does this matter to you? Because understanding and harnessing creativity is the challenge of business leaders as we enter a new decade.

A recent Harvard Business Review article considers Kind of Blue a case study in "radical simplicity." The authors admire Davis's example of how to successfully detach from past successes to create something entirely new. In Davis's case, he busted out of bebop conventions (in which he excelled as an artist) to create the modal jazz sound.

The parallel in business is the challenge of continuous innovation. Dalhousie University business professor David Wheeler recently spoke about the stultifying effect on organizations when there is too much emphasis on deliberate strategy (the comfort zone of business as usual). A balancing emphasis, Wheeler said, is needed on emergent strategy, working on new things that are unproven yet have the potential to be successful.

As Harvard business professor Rob Austin puts it: "Get great materials, simplify the task down to its essential elements, put your smartest people on it, and force them to listen-to each other, to the interaction between the company and its customers, and to the market."

And put on some Miles Davis while you're at it.