Abstract:

A literature study (PRISMA) of 3500 articles shows that improvisation was one of the most valued competences to facilitate and develop innovation in organizations. But improvisation as a phenomenon has mainly been studied in music and drama and explained with instrument skills and tonal or behavior interplay. Previous research on improvisation, both by pedagogues, organizational theorists and musicians has been rooted in practical-aesthetic disciplines, especially the music genre jazz. The perspective has been the uniqueness and peculiarities of music and aesthetics. These experiences have been more directly or linearly transferred into guidelines for how to improvise in innovation processes, teacher training as well as organizational development and leadership practices. The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance and validity of such a competence transfer: Can improvisation competence from musical theories and experiences be transferred to innovation and educational practice in other contexts and subject areas than the music itself? The concept of ‘Improvisation’ is Latin and is composed of “Im” (=not), “Pro” (=before) and “Viso” (=seen), possibly also heard. In short, improvisation can be expressed as ‘not seen before’ and includes meaning about what is not yet known, and which appears as unforeseen to those involved in actions related to improvisation. The concepts of improvisation and unforeseen are therefore closely related. The analyzes are carried out on the premises of different definitions and in-depth educational and competence theories of improvisation, and analyzed with new method tools, which are rooted in research into the unforeseen. Among them, a continuum scale is used for to identify boundaries for when in a series of other actions improvisation actually take place or start up, and which conditions actually generate processes what can be described as improvisation separated from other conditions, such as, planned activity, coincidences, serendipity, imagination, foresight and other contextual conditions and competence structures. The findings shows that improvisation competence cannot be transferred directly, and it is easy to misuse the term improvisation, the actors often believe that they have competence for improvisation, or improvise, even though they do something else, or use a different type of competence. It can prevent the identification of the actual potential in improvisation skills, and thus also prevent the further development and utilization of adapted improvisation both in innovative processes, in education, didactical facilitations and in business systems. The research findings on improvisation from music lack the inclusion of political guidelines, curriculum-based commitments, educational codes and culture, learning goals, student needs, social pressure and sudden collaboration challenges, outsiderness, risks, costs and time frames, which any educational practice, innovative processes and businesses is normally subject to, but as a jazz band on stage does not have to take care of. The conclusion is that research and experiences from improvisation in music and drama cannot be directly transferred to other fields of study and work. More general theories about improvisation and educational models for competence development and training for improvisation must also incorporate commitments and others contextual structures to gain maximum significance for subject areas outside music and drama.

Keywords:

Improvisation, innovation competence, learning, imagination, unforeseen methodology.