Whenever I see and listen to a symphonic orchestra, I am amazed by the sound of the music. So many different instruments, played beautifully by musicians, all in sync. And the whole is masterfully orchestrated by the conductor, touching the feelings of those listening.
Then my thoughts often slip to the artistry of jazz musicians — full of improvisation, with no conductor, yet self-synchronising in the moment.
Being deeply immersed in the orchestration of airlines, and particularly in the relationship between strategy and operations, I cannot help seeing the connection.
The airline is designed like a symphony, but it has to survive like jazz.
Symphony gives structure. Jazz gives adaptability.
Doesn't that describe the relationship between strategy and operations?
Jazz isn't random improvisation. Great jazz musicians have extraordinary individual expertise, but that alone isn't enough. They are constantly:
listening to one another,
sensing changes,
anticipating where the music is going,
responding without losing the whole,
and creating something collectively that no individual musician could have predetermined.
Isn't that remarkably close to what effective airline operations require?
The challenge — and the opportunity — is to combine the two.
Airlines need the structure and shared direction of the symphony, while developing the collective awareness and adaptability of jazz.
This is where Systemic Reality Check, which emerged from my diverse experiences across the airline system, can serve as a practical guide towards systemic intelligence.
Systemic intelligence is the ability to understand, navigate and act within complex, interconnected systems. It brings together systems thinking, awareness of feedback and deep pattern recognition, helping us address root causes rather than repeatedly responding to symptoms.
Systemic Reality Check makes this practical by bringing people, operational reality and organisational knowledge together — continuously asking:
What is?
What matters?
What is possible?
It is simple to start. What it ultimately depends on is an airline's readiness to look openly at its own reality and commit to building a better present and future for air travel.
And that requires something no system or technology can provide on its own:
openness to fresh thinking.
