The French philosopher Jacques Derrida has had a profound influence on many areas of organization theory over the last twenty years; not something that could be said about the jazz musician, Ornette Coleman (a central figure in the Free jazz movement). Derrida was not a musician (although music was the object of his “strongest desire”), and Coleman is certainly not a philosopher. Nevertheless, inspired by a meeting between them, we synthesize ideas associated with Free jazz (especially harmolodic improvisation) and Derridean deconstruction. In this way we give managers new insights on organizational democracy and something new to do when dealing with day-to-day dilemmas in organizations. We especially emphasize a phrase used by Derrida, “a certain experience of the impossible,” as an expression of a particular experience of doing management we explore in the paper.
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