Why the best problem-solvers think like jazz musicians

Picture a jazz quartet mid-performance. The bassist anchors the rhythm with meticulous precision—years of practice evident in every note. The saxophonist, meanwhile, closes her eyes and ventures into uncharted melodic territory, responding to something she heard in the drummer’s improvised fill three bars ago. What you’re witnessing isn’t chaos, nor is it rigid execution. It’s something far more valuable: the dynamic interplay between discipline and imagination that produces work no one has ever heard before.