Drums/Space

There was a part of every Grateful Dead show where the band would play something called Drums/Space. Most Deadheads, even the hard-core ones, are of mixed emotions about it as a quick read of any Dead forum will indicate. Sometimes it was a 10 minute drum solo followed by 10 more minutes of total improvisation.  It was never the same twice and sometimes it was awful. Some would characterize it as endless noodling with no point in mind; others would say it was the high point (no pun intended) of the show. But it was always interesting and therein lies the business lesson.

The Dead would sometimes have two drummers, sometimes just one, and just as your staffing makes a big difference in the outcome, this made a difference in how the Drums segment played out.  It’s usually a more interesting outcome when multiple people have a say in the product.  The creative tension makes it better and one person’s ideas are often made better by another person’s influence.

Space is often hard to take but it’s always the result of the band listening to one another and tossing musical ideas around. When it works, it’s brilliant.  When it doesn’t, best to fast-forward the CD and move on.  But it’s a great example of trying new things and taking risks.  It was also about knowing your audience.  In this case, that audience was generally a little spacey themselves and were more receptive to some far out musical concepts.

I’ve always felt that this segment of the show was the band playing for themselves and 20 minutes of self-indulgence out of 3 hours of hard work is a fair trade off. It’s like the notion of giving employees a day every so often to work on pet projects. Some results are great and move the business forward; some are wastes of time but interesting explorations.

In 1991, the band released a CD that is nothing BUT Drums/Space called Infrared Roses. The Dead, with their sound editor, tried to edit a number of the concert segments into a coherent whole – a sonic symphony. Love it or hate it, there can be no question that Space set the Dead apart from everyone else.

What are you doing that sets your organization apart? What risks are you taking? Do your people have the space (pun intended) to improvise and bring forth the new idea that can only come from collaborative improvisation, or are they playing the same tunes over and over, keeping the audience (you, partners) happy but never moving forward?

Whether you loved Drums/Space or went out to reload the beer while they were constructing it, you couldn’t help but respect that they took the chance each night. Maybe it’s time you did the same.