From Quit to Grit - Key to Culture Change

I will face rejection and failure with courage, awareness, and perseverance, making these experiences the platform for future acceptance and success.

Resilience – Friday’s Promise of The Self Empowerment Pledge

On January 24,1975, the big dream of Vera Brandes, a 17-year-old German jazz fan and part-time music promoter, threatened to become her worst nightmare. She had scheduled the Cologne Opera House to host a solo concert by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. All 1,432 seats had been sold.

When Jarrett arrived to check out the setup that afternoon, he was already exhausted. He and his producer had just driven 350 miles from a concert in Vienna in a cramped Renault and he was in excruciating back pain.

At the opera house, instead of the grand piano Jarrett had specified, they found an out-of-tune baby grand with nonfunctioning pedals. Saying the piano was “unplayable” Jarrett insisted he could not perform. He went out to the car and waited for a return ride to his hotel.

Brandes followed him to the car. Standing in the rain, she pleaded with him to come back and play. He finally relented. “Never forget,” he said. “Only for you.”

Hungry, exhausted, wearing a back brace for the pain, Jarrett was almost sleepwalking when he came on stage after 11 PM. And for the next hour, he improvised on an instrument that his biographer said sounded like a barroom piano. Almost as an afterthought, Jarrett’s producer recorded the concert on a cassette tape.

Today, nearly 50 years later, The Köln Concert is the all-time bestselling solo jazz piano album with over 4 million record sold. It has been ranked as one of the five most seminal jazz recordings (alongside such luminaries as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, and Herbie Hancock).

And it almost didn’t happen.

The Köln Concert cemented Keith Jarrett’s reputation as one of the world’s preeminent jazz musicians.

Vera Brandes went on to be a successful music producer. Today she is Director of the Research Program for Music-Medicine at Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg Austria.

In his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz said that when he asked CEOs about the secret of their success, mediocre leaders talk about their own brilliance while the best leaders are remarkably consistent in simply saying “I didn’t quit.” Angela Duckworth defines grit as sustained commitment and effort toward long-term goals.

Grit, Culture, and the COLAcademy

In my experience working with healthcare organizations to build a more positive Culture of Ownership, I’ve learned that the biggest difference between a “program of the month” and a sustained cultural impact is a leadership commitment to not give in to the cynics, naysayers, and emotional vampires who (though they would not admit it) want the initiative to fall on its face.

A small number of determined Spark Plugs, who might or might not have management titles, are the key catalyst for sustaining positive cultural momentum.

My goal with the Culture of Ownership Leadership Academy (COLAcademy) is to prepare participants to return to their organizations and be those Spark Plugs for positive culture change. To assure an intensive and immersive experience,

COLAcademy is limited to 24 individuals from 12 organizations. The event features practical strategies to spark and sustain momentum for a more positive culture of ownership. Download the flyer.