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 NEWS
Winter/Spring 2009
There are two dreams In life One is coming home The
other is leaving Of the two - It is leaving that endures.
Finding new pathways Is the ground from which stories are
told
- Michael Jones
Newsletter Theme: A New Path to Leadership
As we undergo a fundamental realignment from an industrial
and knowledge based era to a creative age, we will need to
find a new path to leadership - discovering our craft, finding
what nurtures us, creating artistic and emotional beauty,
appreciating the significance of place, telling evocative
stories, leading from our gifts, sensing emergent possibilities
and developing our personal voice will all serve as building
blocks for creating a new and innovative economy.
Welcome to the first Pianoscapes Newsletter for 2009. To
our many new subscribers a special welcome!
One highlight in 2009 is the first public offering of Leading
Artfully - a three-day leadership journey and retreat
with Michael and colleague cellist and educator Stephanie
Winters. It will be held at the beautiful Airlie Conference
Centre outside Washington DC March 22 to 25.
Give yourself a special gift this New Year and explore your
own unique path to leadership through listening to music,
sharing stories, spending time in nature, and reflection and
conversation by the fire. Read below for more details.
Thanks again for visiting Pianoscapes and reading the newsletter.
As always Michael looks forward to hearing from you. If you
have questions or reflections to share please write to michael.jones@pianoscapes.com
Newsletter Menu
" Music implies connection - it
is fundamental to our humanity and also our best medicine"
Oliver Sacks
(Michael introduces improvised piano performances in his
dialogue facilitation, seminars, leadership retreats and keynote
presentations to deepen connectivity, generate empathic understanding
and engage a mind that is more creative open and free flowing)
- Other Highlights
Recommendations
Featured Event
Leading Artfully - A Leadership Journey and Retreat Sponsored
by the Creative Education Foundation Airlie Conference
Centre, Warrenton Virginia October 16 to 18th 2009 Michael
Jones with cellist/educator Stephanie Winters www.leadingartfully.com
Michael's work is unique in illuminating the deep parallels
between leadership and the creative process - Peter
Senge
Founding Chair SoL (The Society for Organizational Learning)
author The Fifth Discipline and The Necessary Revolution
Leading Artfully is a leadership journey and retreat.
It is for those who wish to discover the parallels between
the creative process and leadership so that they may interpret
their present and engage their future in meaningful and exciting
new ways. Set among hundreds of tranquil acres in the Piedmont
region of Virginia, Airlie Center offers a warm and hospitable
'island of thought' for reflection and learning with comfortable
rooms, miles of walking trails and delicious buffet meals
that feature locally grown organic ingredients.
To register or for more information please visit
www.leadingartfully.com
Reflective Essay: Ringing
the Stone- Leadership and the Work of Craft
In a world of unceasing change and disorder where leaders
can no longer plan with certainty and there are no easy answers,
the work of craft may also serve as a metaphor for the craft
of leadership - Michael Jones
We are the inheritors of two great streams through history
- the sapien and the faber live in each of us.
We know the homo sapiens, the wise ones who have mastered
the science of the mind but we have forgotten the former,
the homo fabers (the makers) the ones who have mastered
the intelligence of the hand. As we undergo a fundamental
realignment from an industrial and knowledge based era to
the creative age- craft will be one the building blocks of
the new economy.
In this essay Michael suggests ways in which the work of
craft offers insight into the craft of leadership. He does
so by exploring such themes as; taking the long view, bonding
with the other, the use of minimum force, craft as an attitude,
learning what nourishes us and discovering how, through craft,
we may learn to create life and make things whole again.
Teleconference and Web Seminar with Tamarack:
An Institute for Community Engagement - Exploring a New
Path to Artful Leadership
What are the qualities we want to nurture as we write
a new story to take us into the future? - Tamarack Community
In this teleconference and web seminar, Michael illuminates
the path of artful leadership, sharing its roots in an experience
he had as a small boy, its re-emergence at critical times
in his life and current expression as a journey to leadership
based on sensing, imagining, and a willingness - and patience
- to see with new eyes. Participants at Tamarack's 2008
Communities Collaborating Institute found Michael's presentation
and workshop nurturing, inspiring and "transformational."
Here, he touches upon what qualities we can all find and nurture
as we "write the new story" into the future.
To listen to the teleconference and participate in the
web seminar visit tamarackcommunity.ca/g3s61_2008f.html
Providence Care, Kingston Ontario. Leading
With Intention- A World Café Conference
We go faster alone but we go further together -
Providence Care
We need new leadership in communities and organizations everywhere.
Leaders who know how to nourish and rely on innate creativity
and caring for people. In this context it is more important
than ever to work on collaboration, foster ingenious ideas
and embark on outcomes that never seemed possible. To do this
we need to listen closely to each other.
These words served as an invitation to bring together 250
community leaders in health, public service and education
to learn how to lead through collective inquiry and conversation.
Michael set the conference space through music and co - facilitated
the day.
To learn more about the day and to view a DVD summary please
visit Providence
Care Knowledge Management.
The Association for Managers of Innovation
(AMI) - Building Bridges Across Cultural Differences -Leadership
Development - The Banff Centre. Banff Alberta.
Art is everything - it is not an escape but introduces
us to new realities - Michael Jones
Michael Jones is an outstanding pianist and his connections
to leadership are equally powerful. - Nick Nissley Executive
Director, Leadership Development The Banff Centre
The AMI which describes itself as a 'community of passion
' has been accorded the status of "meetings not to miss"
by Fast Company magazine. For 28 years its members who are
leaders of innovation in diverse disciplines come together
2 or 3 times a year to learn more about the practice of innovation.
The Leadership Centre at the Banff School hosted the meeting
this past fall
Michael was one of the featured keynote presenters. The Banff
Centre is known as "a beacon attracting exceptional creators
and thinkers from around the world." AMI member, Nick
Nissley, Executive Director, Leadership Development at The
Banff Centre, served as host for the meeting.
To learn more please visit
AMI | Banff
Leadership Development
The National (Canadian) Community Index
for Well Being - Meetings Among the Many - A Story of
Place (www.ciw.ca)
All change is local - A sense of place is one the building
blocks for creating the new economy. This is because well-being
and innovation come from people growing together and engaging
together in community - Michael Jones
Around the world a consensus is growing about the need for
a more holistic and transparent way to measure societal progress,
one that accounts for more than just the economic indicators
such as GNP and takes into account the full range of concerns
of the community including the significance of belonging and
place.
In the context of this global movement, in November 2008,
leaders in health, culture, public service, the aboriginal
community, students and many others in the Simcoe Muskoka
region north of Toronto, Canada met together at The Fern Resort
for an historic occasion. Through the day they engaged in
conversations as part of the pre- launch of the Canadian Index
of Wellbeing (www.ciw.ca) a new and transformational initiative
founded by the Hon. Roy Romanow that will report on the wellbeing
of all Canadians.
Michael worked with the Simcoe Muskoka stewardship team in
the design and facilitation of the day which brought together
over 100 participants for reflection and conversation on a
set of core questions regarding the relationship between place,
the built environment and community well being.
To read Michael's essay on the conference please visit World
Café Conversations That Matter
The Vine Conference 2008: The Nature of
Community - www.thevineconference.com
What is the difference between a community that feels
vital and alive and one that doesn't? - The Vine Conference
Each year The Vine offers a unique opportunity for an eclectic
group of people from a wide range of disciplines (ie innovators
in development, construction, design, architecture, city management
etc) to come together for an intimate and uniquely inspired
conversation around questions that deeply matter to the long-term
health and well being of community. It includes questions
about renewal and how ecosystems and economies rejuvenate
themselves. This year Michael and cellist/educator Stephanie
Winters were featured speakers and performers. In their presentation
they explored the theme: The Living Architecture of Music
and Community through music improvisation and commentary.
The Fetzer Dialogues - The Nature and
Dynamics of Leading for Transformation.
Think of a time when you experienced or observed a transformation
in your community? Share it as a story? What happened? Who
was involved? What surprised you? What led to the transformation?
What underlying patterns and connections did you notice?
- The Fetzer Dialogues (www.fetzer.org)
The Fetzer Dialogues on Leading for Transformation involve
a partnership between the James MacGregor Burns Academy of
Leadership (www.academy.umd.edu)
at the University of Maryland, and the Fetzer Institute (www.fetzer.org).
Their purpose is to help us understand the inner and outer
aspects of leadership for transformation in ways that connect
the missions of both organizations. The mission of the Academy
is "to foster leadership excellence through scholarship
and education, with special attention to advancing the leadership
of groups historically underrepresented in public life."
The mission of the Fetzer Institute is "to foster awareness
of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global
community."
The project involves working together over a period of three
years to learn about the essential dynamics of transformational
change from exemplar leaders (individuals, groups, movements),
examples of innovative practices, and important frameworks
or theories. People gather at Seasons ( www.fetzer.org/Seasons)
the retreat setting at Fetzer to share stories of the significant
contributions they have seen or are making to transformational
change around the world. The lessons of these leaders will
be shared as widely as possible through a variety of media,
including the annual conferences of the International Leadership
Association in Vancouver (2007) Los Angeles (2008) and with
particular focus on the ILA conference in Prague in 2009.
Michael is a member of the stewardship team for the Fetzer
Dialogues and a Senior Research Fellow with the MacGregor
Burns Academy of Leadership
The Creative Leadership Series - Leading
in a Time With no Easy Answers
University of Texas - San Antonio: The Centre for Professional
Excellence (cpe.utsa.edu)
The real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes - Marcel Proust
For the past 12 years The Executive MBA program offered through
the Centre for Professional Excellence has served as an incubator
for developing a new leadership curriculum that would grow
capacity for innovative leadership in uncertain times. This
includes the ability for leaders to think in more complex
ways, to be effective storytellers and story listeners, to
be more open to diverse points of view, to enable the collective
intelligence of the organization, to be more creative and
to steward a culture of innovation and continuous learning.
This creative leadership curriculum is now being offered
to senior leaders in a leading international construction
engineering company in the form of an intensive four-week
Creative Leadership Series and to small business entrepreneurs
and owners in a three-week program in Building Business
Excellence. Both of these intensive programs are on -
going through 2009
The core purpose of creative leadership at the Centre is
to 'awaken the eye of the leader'. through helping them look
beyond the formal structures, processes and systems of their
organizations and communities in order to see the space of
possibility that lies behind.
Michael has been integrating artistry into the Executive
MBA programs for over 12 years and is a thought partner and
Leadership Fellow with the Centre.
Later this
year Michael will be participating as a keynote speaker, facilitator
and workshop leader for the Celebrating Communities Conference
in Atlantic Canada. He will also be engaged in the Peace Summit
with Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dali Lama and many others
hosted by the Dali Lama Centre for Peace and Education in
Vancouver and he will be engaged with the International Leadership
Conference in Prague Czech in November. More details will
follow in the next newsletter.
Book Recommendation Proust Was A Neuroscientist
Jonah Lehrer, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2007 (www.jonahlehrer.com)
The Biology of Freedom
Based on our emerging understanding of the universe
it is much easier to explain creativity than it is to explain
routine. - Jonah Lehrer
Perhaps what accounts for the 'strategy fatigue' that afflicts
most organizations is that we keep engaging the brain in repetitive
activities for which it was not designed. In our emerging
understanding of our universe it is much easier to explain
creativity than routine.
If there is an equivalent to creativity in the field of neuroscience
it may be found in the research on neurogenics. Foundational
to neurogenesis is the discovery of the plasticity and malleability
of the brain. For centuries it as believed that there was
no significant neural activity or brain cell development after
birth. The neural capacities that we came into life with were
that same as those we carried through life. We were, in this
sense, prisoners to the inherited limits of our own biology.
But recent studies particularly, those of Elizabeth Gould
at Princeton, reveal that, given the right stimulus rich environment,
primates can and will create new neurons throughout life,
indicating that the brain has both the capacity to not only
grow and adapt, but also to replenish and heal.
The idea that our biology thrives on adaptivity and disorder
and not stability, routine or determinism significantly shifts
how we think about how we learn.. Instead of seeking stability,
permanence and invariability, our neurological development
thrives on change, disorder, and being in constant dialogue
with our environment. Art becomes life and life itself
becomes an improvisation.
These are just a few of the many wonderful and evocative
ideas in Jonah Lehrer's book 'Proust Was A Neuroscientist'
To go just a little further with his report on Elizabeth Gould's
research, " neurogenesis is cellular evidence that we
evolved to never stop evolving. To be alive is to be ceaselessly
beginning."
The primary message in Lehrer's book is that in the world
of neuroscience each day is a new day. To be released from
the limits of our past and see each moment, as a new beginning
is a reminder that we are called to serve as living expressions
of a new story that is ours to live and create. The leader's
new role is to serve and inspire as both stewards and holders
of this space of generative potential. This new power is not
to be found in thought or abstraction, but in participation.
These leaders know that when the space is right, and when
they hold the core aspirations for the whole, creation will
create itself.
Music Recommendation: David Darling and
Ketil Bjornstad - The River
(ECM 1997) (www.daviddarling.com)
"In improvisation there are not wrong notes"
—David Darling
Michael's reflections…
David Darling is without doubt one of the most influential
cellists in the world today and this beautiful collaboration
with Ketil Bjornstad reveals once again how his tremendous
imagination brings rich color and tonality to whatever he
puts his bow to. David started originally with Paul Winter,
along with Ralph Towner and Collin Walcott who would later
form the band Oregon.
I met David originally when he and I worked together in
Boulder CO. to write and record some of the compositions for
Amber (Narada 1987). For ten days we enjoyed the warmth
of the sun and the fresh mountain air in Sunshine Canyon as
we talked and played, letting the feeling of the compositions
emerge as a third voice in our richly nuanced conversations.
David and I had the pleasure to meet again a year or so
later for the recording of After the Rain (Narada,
1988) and again a year or so later for Magical Child (Narada
1989) For each of these two recordings Nancy Rumble an outstanding
performer on oboe and English horn also joined us. Nancy,
like David had also had her start with Paul Winter. To see
them both in the studio creating together brought a special
quality to the music - it was like a reunion and that energy
infused the sound as well.
David was already well established at that time with his
recordings and Music for People Foundation - but he went on
in later years make an even greater name for himself with
his many recordings with other leading artists on the ECM
label as well as through his own solo work and collaborations
with others.
I am already the beneficiary of David's inspired work in
my collaboration in Leading Artfully this spring with
cellist and educator Stephanie Winters. Stephanie studied
with David and participated in one of his first Music for
People workshops!
Throughout his career in recording, performing and teaching,
David has continued to inspire others - teaching them that
in music - as in life - there are no wrong notes! The paradox
is that by 'lowering his standards' he also raised them -
introducing the world to stunning catalogue of original and
deeply evocative music.
The River (ECM 1997) is another addition to this
remarkable musical canon. The River and a later release
Epigraphs (ECM 2000) were recorded with Ketil Bjornstad,
a widely respected pianist and leading figure in Europe whose
background also includes classical performances with the Oslo
Philharmonic. The River reveals how two artists, through
listening deeply to one another, create third space in the
music - like a new instrument separate and distinct whose
combined sound is even greater and more transforming as the
result of two musicians suspending their own repertoire in
order to discover and draw out this third voice together.
Thank you again for reading the Pianoscapes Newsletter
and our very best wishes for a peace - filled and prosperous
New Year!
—Michael Jones, Pianoscapes
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