Why Leaders Need Unstructured Space to Think
I have been a musician since I was a child. My piano lessons started at age seven after I begged my parents. Playing an old, cobbled-together piano from a family friend led to my mom working a second job at night to buy me my own instrument, which I still own. I have four decades of experience as a church music director, as an accompanist for high school jazz bands and choirs, and as a pit band pianist. I still teach early learners on the side. I listened to the "Sesame Street" record on my parents' Hi-Fi, and I saved all my tomato-picking money to buy my first component stereo with the BIG speakers.
Music is more than a hobby for me: it is love.
So, when I picked up Daniel Levitin's This Is Your Brain on Music, I expected to enjoy it. I did not expect it to change how I think about leadership and communication.
Why this book?
If you are an executive who can’t find time to think, this book explains what’s happening in your brain. Levitin shows that the brain needs two modes to function well: focused attention and unstructured wandering. He states what we may already know in our guts: creativity, judgment, and pattern recognition all depend on the second one. Most executives are running on the first mode only. That is a problem.
One idea I can't stop thinking about:
The brain's "default mode network" - the part that fires when you’re not actively focused - is where insight comes from. It’s the part of your brain that connects dots, surfaces patterns, and tells you what you think about something. It activates only when you stop pushing. If your calendar has no space in it, this mode is starved. Music feeds it.
How the book shaped the way I lead or communicate:
I work with people - from the board room, to the corporate high-rise, to not-for-profit leaders - who are paid to make judgment calls under pressure. The pattern I see repeated is leaders charging ahead in the middle of the clutter and noise. The leaders I most admire (and have been more than willing to follow) are those who protect their space to think. Guess who makes the best decisions?
Space to think, I mean regularly planned unstructured space with the music on 11 (come on, someone here has seen “Spinal Tap”, right?), taps into that “default mode network” and surfaces insights.
The leaders who struggle are not less capable. They are more depleted. And depleted brains do not see patterns; they react to whichever signal is loudest (which may not be the most important).
These insights drove me back to why I show up as a thought partner. My job is often not to give you more input. It is to help you clear enough space to hear what you already know - and maybe to expose you to my highly eclectic playlist.
How you can apply these lessons:
Protect time you do not fill. Block at least 90 minutes a week with nothing in it. Not for thinking: for not thinking. Your default mode network needs you to stop. And it probably needs you to crank the tunes or play some yourself.
Notice what surfaces in the shower. If you keep having your best ideas in the shower, on a walk, or driving, that is your default mode network telling you it is the only time it gets to work. Give it more opportunities.
Stop confusing motion with progress. A full calendar feels productive. It is not the same as making good decisions. Audit your last month: how much time did you spend reacting versus thinking? If the ratio is off, the calendar is the problem, not your judgment.
Want help applying these lessons?
The strategy is set. The team is in place. The work isn't moving the way you want you and can’t figure out why. Your calendar is so full of back-to-back meetings that you have not had a clear hour in three weeks.
If you have the discipline to hold space in your calendar to just listen to some music, great.
If not, that is where I come in. I work with CEOs and senior executives as a thought partner. I hold you accountable to protect time and space to think - you just get to do it out loud with me. I can help you untangle complexity and help you find the answers already screaming at you.
Space to think from someone who has sat in those rooms.
If something important in your organization isn't moving and you are not sure why, let's talk.
Let’s connect
Books like this are why I keep reading. Some books give you ideas. This one gives you permission—permission to protect the part of your brain that does your best work.
I will keep sharing the ones that challenge my thinking. If you have a recommendation, send it my way.
Until next time, let the music play!