On the Edge: New Perspectives Using the Artistry of Music and Poetry

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Short Description

Dare to go to the edge and enjoy new views! Come experience the intersections of music, poetry, and leadership to reveal innovative, intersectional ideas that leap in new directions. Using the lens of the Medici Effect, this experiential session will move beyond the cause and effect relationships of the Newtonian era and toward the power of quantum physics where webs of interrelated ideas emerge. Participants will: explore music and poetry as essential tools for thinking, understanding, and communicating about leadership; experience leader-full and leader-less ensembles; and be challenged to convey their worldview of leadership through poetry.

Detailed Abstract

During this session, the facilitator will build upon the intersection of disciplines to develop extraordinary new ideas about the phenomenon of leadership. Participants will generate intersectional ideas that leap in new directions. Unlike directional ideas, intersectional ideas are messy and require risk-taking. They are surprising and fascinating, and can open up new understandings about common assumption we hold to be true. The creators of intersectional ideas become leaders in their quest to understand the elusiveness of leadership. These ideas increase the chances for unusual metaphors to emerge (Johansson, 2006). Like the Renaissance experience when great thinkers and artists came together to create a culture through which ideas and creativity flourished as they built upon the intersection of disciplines and cultures, throughout this session, new understandings about leaders and leadership will begin to emerge. Participants will understand how to break away from the cause and effect relationships of the Newtonian era and move toward the power of quantum physics where webs of interrelated ideas emerge. Now is the time to think about the new science of leadership (Wheatley, 2006) using the framework of the Medici Effect (Johansson) as we encounter the new normal where stability is giving way to constant turbulence.

The complex challenges of the 21st century have broken down the paradigm of the logical and independent leader. A new perspective has emerged. That perspective supports a belief that we are born in and for community, that leadership is not the purview of an elite few, and that leadership is infinite and universally available. Leadership comes with the territory of being human. If this is true, then it is everyone's responsibility to co-create the world we want to live in. We cannot wait for an official 'leader' to transform the world. Leadership becomes the responsibility of everyone. Leadership becomes the collective experiences of leaders and followers in unifying roles (Chirichello, 2010). Positional leadership must give way to referent leadership (Northouse, 2013) as we venture into a new mental model that will enhance our leadership capacity.

Engaging in the intersection of music and leadership, participants will observe how the leaders or conductors and the leaderless or conductor-less ensembles result in an understanding of one’s individual leadership style. Participants will begin to understand that the person they are is the leader they become. It is time to move away from painting landscapes and focusing on painting one’s self-portrait. Through reflective inquiry and video presentations, the audience will uncover the role of leader as they explore several different musical experiences that are leaderful and leader-less.

The intersection of leadership with the arts demands more than technical brilliance, rational competence, and masterful efficiency--it requires heart, courage, and wisdom, qualities that can be inspired and informed by poetry (Intrator & Scribner, 2007). Poetry by its nature can shake us up. It can touch our hearts and help us focus on what we deeply care about. It can reconnect us with our values, principles, and beliefs, pulling us into an internal dialogue about whether we are living them or not. Poetry, therefore, is a reminder to live right and act courageously. Through the intersection of poetry and leadership, participants will express what they have uncovered during this session using their inner voice to find who they are as person and leader.

The arts provide powerful opportunities to reflect on our beliefs about leaders and leadership, creating an internal conversation as we explore the essential questions around the complexities of leadership. During this session, the facilitator will use conversation, reflective inquiry, journaling, poetry, and experiential learning strategies that promote critical and creative thinking to assist participants to understand the application of the Medici Effect in their day-to-day lives as leaders. This session will give participants the impetus to create their own renaissance for thinking about and practicing the art and new science of leadership in a world that accepts turbulence as the new normal. Venture with the facilitator to the edge without falling off!

Sub Unit

• Leadership Development

Presenter

• Michael Chirichello, Leadership Matters LLC