Transforming Leadership Through the Power of the Imagination

 

Transforming Leadership Through the Power of the Imagination

Michael Jones

www.pianoscapes.com

There is so much that inspires the free flow of the music beyond the physical notes, a stream of  emergent creation which cannot always be anticipated or planned in advance , this is the gift in art, to be surprised  by our own work –   Michael Jones

In my last Leading Artfully Blog, I explored the idea that there is not one, but two dimensions of human experience. The Greeks called them mythos and logos. Both were essential and neither was considered superior to the other. They were not in conflict but complementary. Logos was the voice of reason and mythos the language of our felt life together. With the rise of the industrial economy we found ourselves in a world out of balance. Scientific logos quickly rose to dominance and our mythic and imaginative life fell into disrepute.

But perhaps we are on the threshold of crafting a renaissance in leadership practice—the challenges ahead are not technical but transformational. Letting go of our industrial age mindset will require not just intellectual understanding but the full power of the imagination.

Most of us, at a young age, have experienced the power of the imagination—we have tasted the sweet elixir of being set free and unconstrained—riding on the fresh wind, the doorway flying open wide and… ‘Life rushing in’.

As a friend said to me after reading the lines of the poem about the beast being caged behind the music bars….

“You don’t cage the animals do you? You dance with them!”

And it is true that as a pianist the melody I listened for was not only in the notes but also in the pauses, the tone, the rhythm, the feeling and the sensitivity of touch—the dance that lay in the spaces between.

This Winter I have had two essays published in  leadership journals that explore what’s involved in engaging the life of the imagination. The first in The Journal of Leadership Studies explored the ‘marriage’ between logs and mythos.

The second on Transforming Leadership which appears in the series; Building Leadership Bridges explores what emerges in our  awareness when  we begin to listen downward to the unheard melody, a song that lies in the spaces between the notes.

Here is an excerpt – to read the full article please visit my publications page at;

http://www.pianoscapes.com/writings.html

I hope you enjoy it – and that this story may bring to light your own memories of  a time when you first tapped into the the power of  your own imagination.

Michael

 

My Business is Circumference

“My business is circumference,” Poet Emily Dickinson writes. This is also the business of leadership.

To understand the significance of circumference we need to acknowledge the new mindset required of leaders for integrative whole mind learning. As we struggle with new discontinuities, fragmentation and sudden change it is vital for leaders to think in more complex and holistic ways. This involves a shift in focus from a narrow and reductive emphasis on individualism based upon an industrial model of managing where the leader is the strong dependable self-made individual or hero towards a style of leading which expands the circumference within which the leader leads.

In the future leaders will not be remembered for their professional, technical or cost cutting skills but for their wisdom, empathy, presence, intuition and artistry. It will be a way of leading that is more relational focused and based upon creating an empathic resonance with others as a networker, connector and convener of webs and communities. We could imagine this new relationship to be like the musician’s open stage where individuals with diverse voices come together in an ever-widening circumference of collective engagement and where—even when they are ‘strangers’ to one another—create beautiful musical collaborations together.

For leaders to engage in the shift of mind from being heroes to artists involves cultivating new disciplines for accessing the subtle power of the imagination. It involves understanding that while strategy and tactics may help leaders be effective technicians, in order to be good artists they need to also listen deeply and get a feeling for things—in other words to be attuned to the unheard melody that is emerging in the space between the notes. Emily Dickinson brings to light this unheard melody—of the sense of being touched from another place—when she writes – This world is not a conclusion; A sequel stands beyond, Invisible as music, But positive as sound.

Listening for The Unheard Melody

Her words bring to mind a line from another poem, one that describes, “The beast of sound caged within the music bars”. These words offer a contrasting world in which what speaks to us from that another place is not wild and free but contained and caged behind the bars. It is a world where, if we are to maintain order and predictability, the wild and unruly elements—the beasts—of the imagination must be constrained. Too often we assume a Faustian bargain—one in which we willingly trade off the promise of a sequel, of something greater and more beautiful just beyond—for the assurance of certainty, clarity and predictability in the moment.

Yet most if only at a young age have experienced the power of the imagination—we have tasted the sweet elixir of being set free and unconstrained—riding on the fresh wind, the doorway flying open wide and… ‘Life rushing in’.

As a friend said to me after reading the lines of the poem about the beast being caged behind the music bars….

“You don’t cage the animals do you? You dance with them!”

And it is true that as a pianist the melody I listened for was not only in the notes but also in the pauses, the tone, the rhythm, the feeling and the sensitivity of touch—the dance that lay in the spaces between. In order to be attuned to the deeper music, to let go and let be, I learned to listen and be open and responsive to whatever was coming next, to be alive to the moment and to every possibility. The surroundings, the listeners, sense impressions everything that danced along the periphery of my attention became a part of the melody and inspiration I heard in my mind and heart.

There is so much that inspires the free flow of the music beyond the physical notes, a stream of conscious and emergent creation which cannot always be anticipated or planned in advance. This is the artist’s work, to make the invisible visible through being alive to their own felt experience including all that they have seen and been nourished by. With this aliveness they can be responsive to what the moment calls for.

In a time of rapid and unexpected change when so little can be understood or controlled in advance, this is the work of leadership as well.

To read the complete essay please visit http://www.pianoscapes.com/writings.html

(Transforming Leadership is published now in Building Leadership Bridges /Leadership for Transformation a series of essays on  transforming leadership published in partnership between The International Leadership Association and Jossey – Bass Publishers, Winter 2011)

The Marriage of Logos and Mythos;Towards an Imaginal Worldview.

The Marriage of Logos and Mythos; Towards an Imaginal Worldview.

Michael Jones

www.pianoscapes.com

A Twofold Consciousness

In November 2009 I was invited to join several other presenters in a panel discussion at the International Leadership Association Conference in Prague Cz. entitled Leadership for Transformation: The Impact of Worldviews. The panel involved the presentation of four papers from a group of diverse presenters characterized by gender, discipline, religious and global diversity.*  My paper reflected on the marriage between mythos and logos and how this ‘marriage’ can transform group fields for learning and leadership practice today.  The proceedings from the panel have just been published in The Journal of Leadership Studies – Expanding Interdisciplinary Discourse, A  Wiley Publication of the School of Advanced Studies  of the University of Phoenix.

The paper begins with a quote by His Holiness The Dali Lama;

I think in the past, maybe, different sectors carried on more or less independently. Now today…everything is interdependent, interrelated. That’s the reality. Under these circumstances, it falls on us to work together.

Dali Lama Peace Summit and Connecting for Change. Vancouver, 2009

In the paper I suggest that The Dalai Lama speaks not only to different functions or disciplines of leadership but also to the interrelatedness of a twofold consciousness: mythos and logos. This twofold consciousness — the re- uniting of the inner vision and felt life of the mythic world together with the brightly illuminated world of logos –is where the inner world and outer world of leadership meet.  It is in this overlap that a new imaginal worldview of leadership is possible, one that takes full account not only of the processes, issues and style of leadership but also the deep parallels between leadership and the mythic imagination.

The paper further suggests that re- engaging the mythic imagination gives rise to a new perception of the commons – a  possibility space that holds the potential for reuniting a twofold consciousness.   Viewing the commons from both a mythic and a logic perspective can contribute to the overall health and well being of the community of the whole.  Such a worldview perspective transforms leadership from one rooted exclusively in a Western scientific tradition to one that is open also to wisdom from the past.

Reflections on Worldviews

Jonathan Reams a co- presenter in the forum and associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in his reflections on the logos and mythos paper, writes;

“The power of reconnecting with core levels of our being (like mythos) that have been allowed to dwindle or atrophy, in our rush to be smarter, more rational, and more efficient, can enhance our capacity for leadership profoundly… this implies a leadership that creates common spaces enabling the kind of transformation we see as necessary around us. (1)

Restoring Our Felt Life Together

For many, the legacy from our industrial past has been like a tsunami that has swept away the footings that kept us connected to these common spaces and   the deepest wisdom  of our imaginal life and our mythic past. With the rise of an industrial economy we found ourselves in a life out of balance. Scientific logos quickly rose to dominance and the mythic life fell into disrepute. Languages, cultures, stories, landscapes, ancient gifts and wisdom were lost– Yet as poet Gerard De Nerval once wrote ’ when you gather to plan, the universe is not there.”   For the universe to be there, we will need to redirect our thinking to  re-engaging  the felt life of mythos and linking it to logos.

It is through the collective eye of the commons and our interdependence with one another that the twofold conscious His Holiness The Dali Lama envisioned can be restored.  Once we are able to see the mythic dimension of our world we may be able to take modern thought and ancient wisdom and think them together again.

*Other contributors to the panel on  Leadership For Transformation; Worldviews on Leadership included;

Panel Introduction: Nathan Harder, Professor of Organizational Leadership, Perdue University

Leadership in Islam: Ali Mohammad Mir, Associate Professor and Director of Programs at the Population Council, Islamabad, Pakistan

Ubuntu: A Transformative Leadership Philosophy: Lisa B. Ncube, Assistant Professor, Department of Organizational Leadership, College of Technology, Perdue University

Prologue and presentation on Leadership for Transformation: The Impact of a Christian Worldview: John Valk Associate Professor of Worldview Studies, Renaissance College, University of New Brunswick (Canada)

Response to ILA Panel Papers Jonathan Reams, Associate Professor Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

For Further Reading – Links and References

(1) Jonathan Reams Response for ILA Worldviews Panel Papers Journal of Leadership Studies, Volume 4, Number 3, 2010 University of Phoenix. P.88

To read the complete paper The Marriage of Logos and Mythos: Transforming Leadership please visit my publications page at pianoscapes.com

http://www.pianoscapes.com/writings.html

To review all the papers and commentaries from the  2009  ILA Worldview Symposium in Prague online please visit

www.wileyonlinelibrary.com DOI.1002/jls.20184

Thinking Outside the Building; Leading From the Space Between

Thinking Outside the Building; Leading From the Space Between
Michael Jones

www.pianoscapes.com

The artful leader thinks outside the boundaries of their own business, sector or nationality to engage challenges and opportunities that are impossible for any one organization to handle on their own.

The ‘Advanced’ Leader

Innovation usually involves studying the great leaders who think outside the box. But the leaders we need to be studying are those ‘advanced’ leaders who think outside the building.  This was a key message from Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a widely sought after opinion shaper in the areas of strategy, innovation and leadership at the 12th Annual International Leadership Association Global Conference – Leadership 2.0 Time for Action in Boston this past October.

Advanced leaders are boundary crossers. They think beyond the defined mandates, goals and outcomes of their own organization to engage and build global coalitions around ‘messes’ –those ill-defined, ambiguous and adaptive challenges that fall outside the capacity or mandate for any one person or organization to solve.

Dr Kanter suggests that; “ In an interdependent world of border-crossing and boundary-spanning, leaders must position their organizations not only in the marketplace but also in a social nexus in which sectors overlap and societal problems belong to everyone. In other words, they must understand the broader context in which they operate while also having the vision to change it. Their business savvy is still important, but by adding societal values to financial valuations they create a meaningful human institution out of a bundle of impersonal assets.” (1)

She cites Indra Nooyi, chairwoman and CEO of PepsiCo as an example of an advanced leader.  Ms Nooyi is leading PepsiCo to examine the health implications of its products, partner with governments and NGOs, grow the business in emerging markets, and empower the younger generation to take responsibility early in their careers.  In the past few months, in order to deliver “breakthrough innovation” in the areas of fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy and functional nutrition, PepsiCo has also created a new and innovative Global Nutrition Group.

“The creation of this Global Nutrition Group is part of our long-term strategy to build upon our stable of brands—Quaker, Tropicana and others through which we  have been actively ramping up our innovation capabilities and developing strong partnerships with the scientific community, including with universities and research institutions around the world. I believe we are well equipped to deliver authentically nutritious products advantaged by science in an accessible and affordable way to consumers globally.” Ms. Nooyi said.

Language and Place; Portals into the Space Between

Dr Kanter’s insights on advanced leadership were congruent with the four sessions I facilitated at the ILA conference on language and place.

Advanced leaders are storytellers and story makers.  They embrace a metaphoric language of imagery that reaches across the boundaries of conventional thought.  This language gives leaders the tools to speak about what is often difficult to express.  It helps them appreciate that to lead ‘outside the building’   is to lead without a script. An expressive language helps to articulate this dilemma leaders have in speaking authentically about those experiences that cannot be contained in a spreadsheet; of vision, mystery, paradox, complexity and surprise.  Leaders who possess this power of an evocative language hold a distinct advantage over those who can only interpret their aspirations only in business or financial terms.

What further grounds the aspirations of an advanced leader is the recognition of the power of place.  These leaders are place-based in that they recognize they need to know where they come from in order to see where they are going. In a turbulent world where there are no rules, no consensus and no clear way forward, if they have no place to stand on they will lack the grounding to act wisely in the world.

Leaders who are place -  based are also ecologically minded.  This is particularly true for advanced leaders who need to lead along the margins where two or more constituencies, specialties or disciplines meet. To lead from this ‘space between’ involves navigating the threshold between their own inner world of gifts, innate talents, and strengths and the outer world of outcomes and action, of aligning our aspirations and calling with the innate life force for change and renewal, of respecting paradox and differences, of listening for multiple perspectives and risking being authentic and real as an alternative to conforming to prescribed roles and responsibilities. It is this ability to reach beyond their own expertise to access the unique power of learning at the intersections of many disciplines that distinguishes the leaders who are at the vanguard of their fields

By following the footprint exemplified by the emergence of advanced leaders we may better understand the qualities each of us are called to fulfill in order to create a positive future and a more ecologically minded worldview.

Reference.
(1) Rosabeth Moss Kanter on adding values to valuations: Indra Nooyi and others as institution-builders May 4th, 2010
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Random Acts of Culture – Music in Unlikely Places.

Random Acts of Culture  – Music in Unlikely Places.
Leading Artfully Blog

Michael Jones
Pianoscapes.com

Musicians often think of performance in the context of clubs and concert halls, but perhaps the artist’s  quest is to fill every space in a beautiful way

Imagine browsing among one thousand shoppers at Macy’s when six hundred and fifty of your fellow shoppers suddenly transform themselves to accomplished choristers who immerse the space into glorious sound – watch Random Acts of Culture – I am sure it will brighten your day!

http://www.philly.com/philly/video/106492678.html

As I watched  the video, it brought to mind my own experiences bringing music to unlikely places… like playing church hymns on a pump organ in the back of a truck while wandering the mist shrouded back roads of The Ottawa Valley or bringing a grand piano into the Shell Learning Center in The Woodlands near Houston for executive leadership sessions- people would see me, they would look at the piano and they would think they were in the wrong room.

The dialogue sessions at Shell Oil at the Learning Center in Houston were greatly enhanced through the music. As one person said; “We are engineers – we are well trained to argue and advocate our case- we are not as comfortable as listeners or storytellers” Yet the music brought alive memories of long hours listening to stories at the piano in the parlor or on the front porch in years past.  “How do we re- create this same front porch in business?” They asked.  They realized that you can achieve a greater understanding and see more if you are able to create a more reflective and imaginative listening environment where- as we did with the piano – slow time down.

I bought the pump organ at an auction near a remote farm that a friend and I had just purchased.  One misty warm evening a few days later, several of us arrived   in an open flat bed truck to transport the organ back to the farm.
“Its crowded and hot in the cab” I said, as the organ was tied down and secured. “Why don’t I ride in the back of the truck” “ Sure one of the others said – here’s the seat–Since you are there … maybe you could play the organ as we are driving as well!”

As we wandered slowly along the backroads of the Ottawa Valley outside the town of Lanark at dusk that evening, the thick mist rising off the fields and lights flickering in the windows of distant farm houses I played. Mostly I played hymns that I remembered from my past years as a church organist– caught up in the moment I played grand chords at full organ with all the stops pulled out- is so doing I transformed the modest steel and wood flat bed truck into a great concert stage.  Later we wondered how may of those sipping coffee quietly on their farm porches that night may have felt called to attend a local church the following Sunday morning…. for no cause   they could reasonably explain.

Once back at the farm – I noticed the swallows flying from beam to beam in the open barn, often swooping up graceful and nudging their young chicks higher in the air as they   struggled to stay aloft.  When I described this scene to a local farmer one day- he said – oh that’s “swallow flight school”.  Swallows in Flight was among one of my first compositions composed at the organ as I created my own soundtrack the sights and sounds of nature – the meandering split rail fences, the clusters of wild lilacs and the rolling rough pasture land offering fertile ground for my own imagination.

At a health and wellness conference near Washington DC, I was scheduled to be in so many rooms – speaking, facilitating and playing – that we decided to bring the piano to the delegates rather than try to have them come to me.  So instead of setting a large grand piano in one place we brought in a small upright and I pushed it from room to room.

My day started at 6Am on the terrace for the continental breakfast near a large pond. As I played the ducks floated close to shore. Their quacking became an integral part of the impromptu serenade we co- created together in those early morning hours. Once breakfast was complete, I stood up and   pushed the piano through the patio doors, down the hall and up the elevator for the next session….

There were other enduring moments; like bringing a full concert black ebony Steinway piano into the old steam generating plant for a leadership session at Southern California Edison near Seal Beach Ca.  – Or playing for the church services in a small Eskimo community just south of Ungava Bay in Northern Quebec, or performing Chopin to the rough and tumble patrons of the Quinte Hotel, when I performed as part of a private audience with the Dali Lama, the twenty Border’s stores in twenty days tour, performing and sharing stories for hundreds of children in a school auditorium –while they drew pictures and shared them with each other, offering healing music in an AIDS Hospice, performing in corporate meeting rooms,  or  in  the lingerie department in a major national retail chain. What about men’s shoes …or even better … the music department I asked –THIS is the highest shopper traffic in the store the floor manager insisted – we will sell many more CD’s here! … And so I played on.

And then there was the Narada Christmas Tour where we performed seasonal music concerts  – sometimes to audiences of over 600 or more- in major shopping centers across America. The audiences crowded close the piano and small children danced underneath – that was year I realized that the town commons was not dead  – it had just moved to the mall.

Some of these settings were more unlikely than others- if I were to search for common threads there are two that immediately come to mind;

One is that the beauty of music if often discovered in unlikely places, places where we can bring the experience of beauty to others in ways that may contribute to the subjective well being of the whole.

The second is best captured in a line from a poem by American Poet Wallace Stevens where he writes;

The poem refreshes life so that we share,
For a moment, the first idea….

Perhaps music, like poetry also refreshes life.  It turns our attention to our deepest thoughts, to our most intense and original feelings.  It brings us home to ourselves, to discovering our highest ideal….  and to our first ideas.

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Setting the Tone;Putting the ‘Music’ Back into Keynote Presentations

Setting the Tone – Putting the ‘Music’ Back into Keynote Presentations

From Pianoscapes the web site for Michael Jones

The ‘key’ unlocks the doorway to new possibilities. The‘note’ creates a tonal atmosphere for these new possibilities to be received and understood. When the key and the note sound together they result in an inner music, a song that can be heard not just by the intellect, but also by the body, the mind and the heart.

Michael Jones
www.pianoscapes.com

What if we listened to a keynote presentation not as a lecture, but as music?  This question struck me following a conference keynote presentation one day when a senior leader came up to me afterwards and said; you don’t speak, you sing!”

As a pianist, speaker and leadership educator, I know that the arts have something significant to contribute to whatever the purpose a meeting or conference has. Even the most practical minded events draw significant benefit from setting a tone that encourages an open mind and heart and nurturing a network of relationships that achieves this purpose.

So setting the right tone was in the front of my mind when I was invited recently to be the opening speaker for a national conference in Montreal, Canada. This involved arts educators and administrators engaged in exploring innovative learning strategies for the 21st century (1). As the opening speaker my role was to create the learning environment and offer perspectives on the theme of creating our desired future together.  I was also setting the stage for facilitating a conversation on dialoguing with our future later in the day.

I started with a story, followed by music.  Stories are the way that the future makes itself known to us. Music opens the way to the future through speaking to us in a language beyond words.

A Glass of Water

The story involved an earlier visit to Montreal.  At that time I was invited to be a featured performer with the International Piano Festival, a prestigious event that brought pianists together from around the world.

I was very nervous before the concert, a condition made worse an hour before my performance when I learned that many who had signed up for the series that year were piano teachers.  By the time I had been introduced and walked on stage – the sharp bright lights illuminating the beautiful Bosendorfer 9 ft 6 Imperial Concert grand standing at centre stage –the environment felt distant and unfriendly.  In my imagination I could see the judges in the front row  – pens and paper ready to grade my first note.  As I sat at the piano my hands were shaking and my legs soon followed, my body was cold, my mouth dry, my throat tight. The audience felt alien, critical and far away.

As I struggled to breathe deeply I remembered experiencing a similar feeling a few months before. It was in a chapel in Lebanon Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison near Toledo Ohio.  “ There is no need for concern” the event organizers said. “All the men will appreciate your visit”

I didn’t notice too many expressions of appreciation amongst the men as they seated themselves in the hot dry chapel following lunch that afternoon. I wished in that moment that I could take a pill and be transformed into Johnny Cash – an artist far more suited to this venue than myself.

Soon after I started performing, a stocky man with tattoos down both arms stood up… walked slowly down the aisle… and out the door. How many will follow, I wondered – they are not required to stay.  My heart was racing.  Distracted now, I was waiting for a second and perhaps a third to leave as well.

Then the first man returned. I heard the chapel door creak as he opened it.   He walked slowly up the center aisle to the piano and stood beside me for a moment…
Then he set a cold glass of water on the piano ledge and returned to his seat.

Everything changed in that moment. The simple act of seeing the condensation on the side of the glass was humbling. All the assumptions that darkened my thoughts suddenly evaporated. I realized that this was not a performance and that creating music involved more than simply getting the notes right. In order to connect with the audience both in this prison chapel and with the audience in Montreal, I needed to connect with myself first. As I brought more of myself into the room including my fear, my passion, my spontaneity and aliveness for what this moment called for – they gave more of themselves back to me.  The room in that moment – and in those concert halls in the future – suddenly took on a more intimate and human face.

I finished the story and moved to the piano….

“I thought we might continue with some music,” I said. “ Everyone has traveled a distance to get here.  Sometimes music helps us settle in.  When I play, it’s music that is coming to me in this moment.  My own improvisations… While you are listening you may also consider a time when you received a glass of water and how it changed your relationship with the future in some way. ”

Keynotes in a New Key

A keynote is defined as the tonic of a musical key- it is the primary element, image or theme –the bass note or tonal reference for all that follows.  If we go a little deeper we may consider how the key unlocks the doorway to new possibilities and the note  – like the glass of water – creates the tonal atmosphere that allows these new possibilities to be received and understood. Singers will say that for their voice to be authoritative and clear they need to produce the sound but, more importantly, they also need to receive the sound. Like seeds and soil, each is intimately connected to the other. When the key and note sound together an inner music appears, a song that can be heard not just by the intellect, but also by the body, the mind and the heart.

No matter what the purpose of the conference is, its’ success is always going to depend on how this balance is set in the mind and heart of the speaker.  Words are intended to inform and give direction.  But more importantly they are also intended to transform – to invite a shift of mind that connects us more deeply to our own humanity and imagination. In this context putting the music back into keynote   presentations can be any spontaneous or authentic gesture that introduces new perspectives and does so in a way that helps us relax our focused attention and become more thoughtful, calm and attuned to ourselves and others. This may include music, quiet reflection, a poem, a story, an unscripted moment, a conversation or a pause.

Too often we associate the keynote presentation with hard content that provides learners with dynamic tools, concepts, frameworks and action plans for achievement and success. This is true, but by also ensuring that we are engaging not only the active mind of the  ‘tool user’ but also the thoughtful and imaginative heart of the ‘tool maker’ we can ensure our meetings and conferences can create learners who feel more revitalized, balanced and alive.

1.    Realizing the Potential of the Arts and Creativity in 21st Century Learning. Hosted by Arts Smarts Learning Exchange. Montreal, Canada October 4th and 5th 2010.

Michael Jones has been a featured keynote speaker at leadership forums and conferences across multiple sectors throughout North America and Europe.

Creating in the Moment – The Power of Music and Ecology of Change

from Pianoscapes – the website for Michael Jones

Art should imitate the forms of nature – Goethe

Welcome to my first blog from Pianoscapes on Leading Artfully. This blog explores the deep parallels between leadership practice and creative artistry.

From my own work in organizations  and communities,  it is my impression  that beyond  all techniques and advice, leadership now involves a fundamental shift from an industrial worldview to one that is more nature based and ecological. An ecological mindset is one in which our core purposes are aligned with the patterning and flow of  the  larger world of which we are an integral part. In other words, ecological change  is an artistic process – an unfolding in which the present moment holds within itself the seed of potential for what will come next. Following the aliveness of the moment may serve as our best guide for leading in a time of rapid and complex change.

For example, one of the first forums where we brought in a piano to set the field for group learning was with the Foundation of Dialogue Programs which were being offered through the Kellogg funded MIT Dialogue Project in Cambridge Mass.

In the  first program we experimented with bringing   in a 9 ft concert grand piano. I had been a leadership educator for many years – and I had been a performing solo artist on stage for several years – but this was the first time I  had  brought the two together to explore how music  might influence and enable a group’s  capacity to learn.

Late the second afternoon of the program, the group was at an impasse. The effectiveness of the facilitation team had been challenged, the group was struggling to listen.  Some were speaking quickly and cutting across each other in their impatience to be heard.  Finally the group settled into a stony silence. No words of facilitation seemed adequate to bridge the divide.

Barbara, one of the facilitators turned to me and asked;  “ Michael can you help us?  Could you play something that expresses the feeling in the room – not a formal composition  – but, you know, something that is coming  spontaneously from what you are feeling here….

How to start?  With so much tension in the room  I  wasn’t sure where to begin.  I started  with  something simple  – a repeating note that gave this tension  a musical form. I was  trusting that   the tactile sensation of my fingers on the piano keys may suggest a direction that the music might go -  I compose through my fingers so the sensation of touch is also a source of information. Soon I did feel an impulse in my fingers to explore – a thematic motif over a rhythmic pattern that expressed  the  feel  of the  emotional tension  we were  experiencing.   This  was something new. It intrigued me. It was unfamiliar and  not something I  would have found on my own.  I remembered how my practice  at the piano involved  finding and trusting these moments of grace – moments when I was playing the piano  – and it was also playing me. Letting go into the flow of the music in this way brought to mind the wise words of the German Poet Rainer Maria Rilke when he wrote that it is  ‘not caution, but a wise blindness’ that carries us along.

And this was the shift that sometimes occurs in the music –the softening of concentration and the forgetting of oneself so that my full attention can be absorbed  on the   subtle  felt sense of each moment, letting  its aliveness   guide  me to the next  form and, in so doing, allow  the music  finds its own life.

There is a vulnerability in surrendering to the flow of the music in the company of others – yet to include their presence opens new possibilities in the music – including being open to playing from the feeling in room and not just for oneself.  My left hand reached for a minor chord deep in the bass – is that what was speaking to me just now? “Don’t second guess,” I said to myself   – go with whatever comes. So I went with that – and then with what followed – and with what followed after that -  – five minutes stretched to ten… and to fifteen …  notes rising and falling, cascading into other notes, chords, dissonances spaces and tonalities, tensions and resolves… and finally… silence  – a stillness that seemed to hold within it a feeling of indescribable completeness.

Music created out of the moment in this way has its own language  – a precise and organic articulation of what is resonating in the room itself. This knowingness of music – of sensing the deep ecology of human feeling and experience challenges our dependence on logical analysis and empirical evidence as the only basis for knowing what we know.

While the intellect can point us towards this state of beingness- it is not necessarily designed to take us there.  For that we need to look to artistry – music transcends the ego. It reaches into the deep self and expresses a human emotion that comes out of the felt experience where words cannot go. In our busy time-bound and rational world, music awakens us to a deeper mythic realm. It reconnects us to the   ongoing flow of experience – of faith, revelation, beauty, mystery, harmony, stillness and the joyful experience of time out of time itself. Most important it contributes to creating a learning field where words take on a more conscious purpose in an environment   that is spacious, slow, integrative and whole.

Our group, feeling more calm, thoughtful and centered now, reengaged in our common work together.

Leading in turbulent times is much like living at the moving edge of the tides of change.  Survival requires extraordinary presence and adaptability.  Leaders today must be willing, like a pianist, to connect with the emergent flow of their own aliveness for therein lies the intuition that guides them home.

As neuroscientist Antonio Damasio writes ‘ …emotions may well be the support system without which the edifice of reason cannot function properly and may even collapse’ (2) Our feeling life, not rationality, may be the pre-requisite for meshing with the complex tides of change.

“Could you play that again?”  Barbara asked.

“I don’t think so”  I said  –   artistry  is to make visible what is hidden, there is so much more to be seen.

Notes

1. Barbara is Barbara Cecil, a close colleague with the MIT Dialogue Project and a master at understanding how art contributes to helping participants discover the living ground within themselves from which new meaning arises.

2.  Demasio A 1994 Descartes’ Error and the Future of Human Life Scientific American (found in David W Orr’s The Nature of Design. Oxford 2002)