The hug at the end of a jam session is the marker of co-creation.

observation — attributed to Wynton Marsalis

When a jam session ends, the musicians almost always shake hands or hug each other, even the players who did not know each other beforehand. Marsalis calls it a beautiful part of the music. The ritual is also a marker. The physical acknowledgment confirms that something was made together that none of the participants could have produced alone. The same impulse exists in other collaborative arts and is suppressed in most professional settings. The implication is that workplaces and creative teams that lose the small post-collaboration ritual lose the signal that the work was actually shared.

For team leaders and creative directors whose collaborative work concludes without acknowledgment. The principle suggests a practice: name what got made together before the participants disperse.

ritual, co-creation, respect, jazz