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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt gets worse. The original design\/innovation sprint format developed and spread by Jake Knapp in his book \u201cSprint\u201d \u2014 built from his experiences with Google Ventures \u2014 suggested a 5-day structure to quickly make important decisions. Five days isn\u2019t really that long but apparently, it\u2019s too long for most decision-makers who typically ask for four or three or two day sprints instead. It\u2019s a sign that most leaders don\u2019t really feel comfortable making sure that the team has the necessary time for change or innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s face it: you may not actually solve your wicked problems in two days. Maybe this focus on brevity and results is misguided and unrealistic. Instead of obsessing about manically sprinting, it\u2019s time we focus on jamming instead. The Design or Innovation Jam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been thinking about jamming lately. It\u2019s probably because I\u2019ve watched the new Peter Jackson TV series Get Back a couple of times and I realize I will never get tired of watching the Beatles jam and play together to help them create their timeless music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think about a jam in the musical sense: a group of musicians, usually playing different instruments, get together to practice old tunes, figure out new tunes, and copy others’ tunes. There is playfulness and exploration happening without the expectation that a completely recorded song <\/em>will come out of the jam session. The jam session is the preparation for either a live show or a stint in the recording studio to produce something. In the jazz or Grateful Dead sense, it is a preparation for a live jam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality of the jam is that it encourages experimentation and collaboration: Let me try this \u2014 What are you doing? \u2014 Does it work together? \u2014 Let me try this. After the jam and before the live session, musicians usually\/sometimes will take what they\u2019ve done in the jam sessions and even practice alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this experimental collaboration is<\/em> focused on delivery: creating unforgettable or extremely enjoyable musical experiences for the audience. I think you can easily swap out that last part for \u201cinnovation\u201d to describe what we in organizations are after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So rather than an extremely exhausting sprint to the finish line where speed<\/em> seems to have the greatest value, imagine that instead, we organized Innovation Jams \u2014 times when people of different experiences and knowledge could come together, share thoughts, ideas, and inspiration, and play with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine that in-between jams, each of the participants \u201cpracticed\u201d what they learned and experimented and expanded on the thinking for the next jam. After a few innovation jams, the group would be ready to perform \u2014 that is try out and test one or more of the developed compositions with the audience \u2014 aka user testing. And so on and so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think jamming instead of sprinting would have a couple of huge benefits to our innovation efforts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n