Sometimes simple games are the best way to engage in complex problems.
The Musicians Institute, or, as we like to call it, ‘Rock ‘n Roll U.,’ in Hollywood, is a trade school with 1,500 aspiring professional musicians from around the world as its students, and super-skilled music pros on its faculty. It is owned by Mr. Shibuya from Japan. Mr. Shibuya’s daughter, Coko, is president of the school. It is a very cool space. One of my favorite places to hang out when I’m in Hollywood. Musicians on every corner, in and every hallway, talking shop. Classes where the teacher sits at a drum kit on a riser, and the students all have drumsticks and pads at their desks. Guitarists jamming under stairwells between classes. People sharing beats over lunch. Interact with this environment and you cannot help but feel better for having done so.
Because the Musicians Institute has its roots in Japan, last year’s earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster shook the school, especially Coko and Mr. Shibuya, like the hand of God. Ever since the day of the disaster, March 11, 2011, it has been MI’s clear intention to raise money for the relief effort.
But how?
There had been a lot of talk about what shape a fundraiser might take. A concert?—the obvious idea. But still a lot of questions and vagueness. And then we came up with a game. We called the game Jam For Japan. The objective: Raise money to buy music instruments for children who ‘lost their music’ the Great Disaster. Give relief in the form of music. Donate happiness, in the form of a guitar, a saxophone, band uniforms, teaching, to the children who had been visited by so much sadness in the past year. 18,000 people died in a single day, remember. The tornadoes back near my hometown in Indiana killed 39 people last week. Imagine 460 such tornadoes hitting the same area in the same day, you get an idea of just how much sadness there has been, and how the region was devastated.
With the game defined, the project took off. Relief International soon joined Jam For Japan as our charity partner. We invited lots of talented people to play along.
We set a date: March 10, 2012.
The Jam For Japan concert is today! 4 to 8:30 PM at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. We have already raised over $50K, which is double the $25K goal we’d set, so we have made the concert free, though you really should reserve a seat via EventBrite iif you plan to come.
We’re kicking it off at at 4 PM with a taiko drum core, Kishin Daiko, performing on Hollywood Blvd. Later, Elan Atias is going to play on the main stage. In between, there will be lots of cool stuff, including a work of 3D pavement art by Tracy Lee Stum and a children’s music workshop conducted by the Lil Big Ups Rubba Band Band Man, Lonnie Marshall.
#sxsw peeps, buzz it up, please!!!!! Clint! Jay! Scott! Leora! Taylor! Sloane! Shira! Do your things.. Domo arigato!
The endorsement is clear enoug. That’s not the ‘business end’ of the text, though. The business end is explicit in the last two lines. What you did was great. What is that you do?
We are always looking for metaphors that convey the value of improvisation in business, and this is a biggie, because Prince Harry’s outfit is the exact opposite of improvisation. It is the result of centuries of scripting, hierarchical thinking and deeply coded institutional memory. And it prompts a good question: In what ways do yours and your organization’s communication practices resemble Prince Harry’s outfit? (And what are you going to do about it?)
