Leave Room for Improvisation

A father once told his son, "Get your work done first so you can do the fun stuff when it comes up."

In other words, if you don't take control of what you can control, you can't respond to unexpected things.

A jazz club is like this.

There is a lot you can control. Staff meeting schedule. Financial reporting. When you place the food order. When you post the show schedule. When you send the weekly show email.

The more process you have, the better you can respond to surprises. The more risks you can take when you want to try new things.

Make your process rock solid. Then make small tweaks to improve it. All the time.