Michael Gold

Michael Gold is the founder and principal of Jazz Impact. Gold’s extensive background in music, academia and business has been essential in developing Jazz Impact. He held various senior management positions in the real estate and financial services industries, holds a Ph.D. in music and created and ran Vassar College’s first jazz program. He has spent nearly two decades as a jazz bassist in New York having performed with such greats as Lee Konitz, Al Cohn, Tal Farlow, Sheila Jordan, Jon Hendricks and Warne Marsh. In 1995, Gold received a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts to teach the skills of jazz improvisation to professional orchestral musicians, a first step towards forming Jazz Impact.

Since 2004 Michael has worked with The Kellogg School at Northwestern University delivering arts-based seminars for their executive education programs in leadership development. He has presented similar programs for The Ivey School of Business in Ontario, The School of Public Health MBA Program at the University of Minnesota and the MBA Program at the Loyola Business School in New Orleans.

He was recently selected as a Paul D. Fleck Fellow by The Banff Centre for Leadership for his outstanding work in the field of Arts Based Learning for Business. Gold is currently completing his first authored book detailing the work he has been conducting with Jazz Impact in keynotes and seminars nationally and internationally since 1999.

Some of the clients that Michael and Jazz Impact have presented for over the past decade include:

Siemens, Accenture, TROWEPRICE, QBE Americas, IBM, Vodafone, Proctor and Gamble, McGraw Hill, Aetna Insurance, GAP, Credit Suisse, HSBC , BASF, Baxter Healthcare, The Plexus Institute of Complexity Science, The Mayo Clinic, Blue Cross Blue Shield, General Dynamics, Georgia Pacific, Johnson Diversey, Catholic Healthcare Providers, Kion Group, Massachusetts Port Authority, Best Practices Institute, Chicago, Illinois, Banff Centre for Creativity, Alberta, Canada, The Hay Group International, Children’s Hospital Association of America, Catholic Healthcare Partners, Healthcare Financial Management Association, Case Managers Society of America, State of Maine Human Resources Association, State of Texas Department of Education, Euro Centre Human Resources, General Mills, Cargill, Starbucks Coffee, ConAgra, Carlson Wagonlit, and The United Nations.

Gold received a Bachelor of Arts from Bard College, a Master’s of Arts in African American Studies from The New England Conservatory of Music, and a Ph.D. in Performance from the School of Education at New York University. He resides with his family in Minneapolis.

Innovation

Innovation is not a “what,” but a “how.” It is the result of fusing the exploitation of past knowledge and experience with an exploration of that same knowledge in an attempt to open new possibility. In jazz, innovation implies a creative partnership between the “leadership” of the soloist and the “support” of the rhythm section. The rhythm section provides a foundation of support for the exploration of the soloist. The discoveries of the soloist expand and strengthen that foundation in a continual cycle of innovative growth. It is a process that delivers both support and safety and rejects stasis and complacency.

Autonomy

True autonomy depends on the equity of each party concerned. Leadership is no longer a static position but one that is dependent on the ability to respond to changing needs and to delegate to others based on their areas of expertise. In the jazz ensemble the constant transition between leading and support strengthens and expands the capabilities of both the individual and the team.

Autonomy in jazz is inclusive in nature. Leading, implementing leadership and supporting the foundation on which leadership is based are functions that transcend traditional job descriptions. True autonomy means the organizational ability to balance the need for structure with the need for flexibility- to consistently blend individual intention and behavior with group intention and behavior. This dynamic has been at the core of jazz since the beginning of the 20th century.

Passion

Jazz is a culture in which passion and motivation are generated by a sense of authenticity. When we believe what we are doing is important and has a purpose larger than ourselves, we develop passion that energizes not just ourselves but also the people we work with. All too often, businesses attempt to instill passion through external triggers that tend to quash the spirit rather than kindle it. The passion of emotional commitment comes from within and is supported by a belief in the integrity of the organizational culture to which we belong.

Emotional commitment is generated through a sustainable feedback loop. When people feel a deep passion for what the do everyday it quickly generates a sense of purpose. When people feel a sense of purpose they feel passion for what they do. This is a sustainable energy source that lies within every member of an organization.

Risk

Progress is impossible without a willingness to take chances. Risk is not an option in jazz or for any company that wants to be solvent ten years from now. In jazz we mitigate the risk of change through creative destruction: extracting the core values from successful past initiatives and using them to reinvent the idea in constantly changing contexts.

In the jazz ensemble we are constantly faced with the risk of innovation, of having to come up with our own musical ideas in real time and in collaboration with each other. So how do you get people to do that? [In jazz], we are actually composing together in real time. We’re minimizing the structure. We simplify the score. We’re taking only what’s essential to coordinate us in time and intention. We’re letting go of all of the other rules and protocols that keep us from responding to the unexpected IN WHATEVER WAY WE NEED without losing our coherence and our coordination together.

We work within a zone of improvisational freedom where trust and accountability are critical factors. Jazz is a process in which risk is a resource rather than a condition that limits our capability.

Listening

Listening in the moment— suspending assumption and expectation— is critical for engaging the uncertainty of change. When we truly listen we allow ourselves to hear the dissonance and friction that new ideas can often generate. To listen in the moment means to listen empathically— to suspend assumptions and judgments that are rooted in our past experience so we can hear what we don’t yet understand.

Jazz Impact was a hit! You and your group did a terrific job at providing just the right balance, making your session educational, in terms of the relationship between jazz and our organization, and offering attendees something that was also entertaining and unique. I did not expect my CEO and CFO to stand up and participate in your interactive sessions; it was gratifying to see that they too enjoyed your program. — IMS Health

Michael, everyone is still talking about our Forum and your presentation!!!! My many thanks to you and your ensemble for a meaningful and insightful session. The group loved it! You really helped bring our theme together and your music and your message resonated with the group. It was a huge success. — Aetna Insurance

I want to thank you for bringing Jazz Impact to our Northwest Zone Managers Conference in April. I found the seminar to be an astounding combination of entertainment, learning and inspiration. It transformed our meeting into an experience that will resonate with our company for a long time. — Starbucks North America

Now that the dust has settled, we want to thank you and the rest of the Jazz Impact ensemble for your inspiring presentation at our recent Leadership Training Conference in New Orleans. Your upfront planning and questions were insightful and we greatly appreciated your desire to learn more about our organization and the needs and challenges of our members. The presentation was unique and innovative and helped our chapter leaders open their minds to new ways of working together and looking at things. And, the ensemble was extremely talented and entertaining! — Healthcare Financial Management Association