The New Normal: Leading With Artistry in a Turbulent World

Session Submission Type: Pre-conference Workshop

Detailed Abstract

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This session is designed to enhance the leadership capacity of novice, mid-career, and senior leaders across professions.

WHAT WILL ATTENDEES GAIN?
Attendees will:
*Know how to infuse the arts in their practice to respond to the questions turbulence raises and the challenges it presents for leading, leaders, and leadership.
*Build resilience and thrive when interests are consistently being challenged by internal and external forces; and
*Engage leaders and followers in concert toward a larger vision that supports leadership in a humane world of resilient communities and thriving organizations despite turbulent times.

PROGRAM
9-9.30- The Prelude facilitated by Michael Chirichello

Enter the Prelude before venturing off into a personal artistic experience as you engage in two brief experiences: a relationship building simulation and a reflective encounter with your underlying beliefs about leading in turbulent times.

9.30-11.45 and 1.15-3.30- Acts One and Two led by Gloria & John Burgess and Jessica Litwak

Participants will spend 2 hours in each of two experiences during which they will have the opportunity to enter into experiential conversations with our facilitators through a cultural paradox expressed in various art forms that will include music and theater. Each session will be followed up by reflective conversations.

ACT ONE- This act will focus on leadership as a performance art. In today’s organizations, institutions, communities, cities, and nations, leaders must understand that effectiveness requires artistry, strategy, and choice. Maestro John Burgess and Gloria Burgess will delve into leadership looking through the lens of the maestro, exploring diverse principles, practices, and levels of awareness and how these can inform leading in other contexts. We will observe and gain insights on the conductors’ choices, execution, and impact. We also consider lessons that can apply to any leader anywhere, especially those leading in the midst of turbulence.

ACT TWO- This act will be led by the international artist Jessica Litwak who is an award-winning playwright, actor, registered drama therapist, innovative educator, director, puppet builder and recognized leader in the field of socially engaged theatre. This act will feature an introductory tools-based workshop combining drama therapy techniques and theatre skills to offer leaders creative options for team building, individual and group visioning, as well as tools for improving communication through physical and vocal empowerment. You will learn original techniques including The Voice Progression (a unique voice warm that benefits leaders of all types) and Discover uses for The Three Actor Paradigm (a practice explores three diverse techniques of the art of acting and applies them to leadership theories) and Creative Voicing (a form of playwriting that utilizes both the personal and the social voice). By the end of this workshop, participants will have a sense of how they can use the tools of theatre to enhance their leadership practice in the midst of turbulent times.

3:30- 4:00 PM- The Finale
This reflective “coming together” will gather wisdom from the crowds. The facilitators will invite the audience to share big ideas and personal applications that will become the essential take-aways from this experience.

Sub Unit

• Leadership Development

Presenters

• Michael Chirichello, Leadership Matters LLC

• Gloria J. Burgess, Seattle University

• John E. Burgess, Music for Transformation

• Jessica Litwak, The H.E.A.T. Collective