WRITINGS (Downloadable PDFs):

The Front Porch - The Longing for Wholeness, Michael Jones, November 2004

In the future bringing people together to form a commons - a community of the imagination - will serve as the front porch for engaging complexity and unexpected change. By offering listening spaces that are less mechanistic and more relaxed and contemplative- the commons recognizes our uniqueness and restores a sense of belonging, beauty and place.

 

Creating Livable Communities - Michael Jones, August 2005

Questions of uniqueness, home, beauty and quality of place need to be in the forefront of our thinking now. Not only are they questions that inspire creative endeavors, these questions also inspired leaders and the communities they lead. The future will belong to those communities who are attuned to story, empathy, artistry, dialogue, and originality and shared meaning, dimensions that express their unique character and strengths. They will hold a distinct advantage over those communities who, through analysis and logic, tend to frame their priorities primarily in economic, technical or business terms.

 

Leadership and the Imagination - The Leaders Journey and the Imaginative Life, Michael Jones, 2002

A Transcript of a Keynote Talk on Leadership and the Imagination - Michael has given featured keynote talks and musical performances in a variety of public forums. Excerpts from his talk at the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership was edited for publication in Focus on Leadership; Servant- Leadership for the 21st Century (John Wiley and Sons 2002). This collection of essays features and introduction by Ken Blanchard and contributions from many leading thinkers on leadership including Warren Bennis, Steven E Covey, Margaret Wheatley and Dee Hock. Michael is member of the Greenleaf Center Speakers Bureau.

Following the Songline of the Heart - (Excerpt from Creating an Imaginative Life), Michael Jones, 1995

Our artfulness is not a luxury but an integral part of ourselves. It is a vitality, an impulse, a place of inner nourishment; it serves as a reminder that no matter what life brings us, we can always come back to the well. With these words, Michael invites the reader to join him as he paints an intimate portrait of his life at the piano. Creating an Imaginative Life is not only for pianists, but also for anyone who is curious to discover the life lessons that come with any artistic endeavor.

 

Michael Jones in Conversation with Roger Briesch

In a wide ranging conversation with Roger Breisch, founder and editor of the newsletter Enter Nous, Michael explores the themes that are central to his own thinking on leadership and creativity and the longing we each hold to discover what is truly ours to do.

Who Will Play Your Music - Excerpt from Creating an Imaginative Life, Michael Jones, 1995

In this signature story, Michael shows how strangers, like the old man who, one evening, asked him who would play his music if he didn't, are the mysterious visitors that transform our life. When the visitor asks the question, we cannot turn them down. Instead it is an invitation to turn our attention to the world around us in a new way. Once we offer our 'music' to the world, life rushes in. Yet it often does so in ways that we may not expect.

 

A Walk in the Park: The Personal and Social Artistry of Leadership

( Excerpt from Artful Leadership ) What is the inner journey of leadership needed now? How will this inner journey prepare leaders to engage the public imagination and encourage the convening of commons spaces that engage diverse lines of inquiry, philosophy and approach? These were among the questions that Michael explored with John, a successful senior leader, as the walked together in a lakeside park near Michael's home. A thoughtful, deep and passionate exploration of leadership practice, this introductory chapter outlines what it means to live the life of the imagination as well as a curriculum for the leader's new work.

Work as a Vocation and Practice

"Work as a Vocation and Practice"
Leverage, News and Ideas for the Organizational Learner Pegasus Communications, March, 2000

 

Fine artists - musicians, writers, visual artists, dancers and many others know that to deliver a good performance they need to devote time for practice. In fact many artists spend 95 percent of their time in practice reflecting inquiring and exploring the many aesthetic choices that inspire and inform their work. many come to love practice for its own sake.

 

Practice becomes its own reward. Many others, on the other hand, discover that their work - and their life - is a performance in which they are expected to 'deliver' 100 percent all of the time.

 

In this article Michael explores some distinctions between practice and performance and shows how our work - and our life - may become our art when we think of it in the context of vocation and practice.

 

 

Listening to the Deeper Music in Our Life and Work

from the newsletter Spirit at Work, Editor, Judi Neal, May, 1998.

 

"I can explain everything about a musical composition except the part that really matters" Michael says, "Yet the part that really matters makes the difference between a composition that works and one that doesn't." In this article Michael helps us listen for that something other that hovers in the space between the pianist and the piano - the invisible other - that cannot be mapped, analysed, measured or weighed.

 

 

Getting Creativity Back in Corporate Decision Making - Journal of Quality and Participation, Michael Jones, January 1997

We cannot simply 'graft' creativity onto our life and work. When we try - like pulling a flower from its roots - it withers and dies. The creative impulse finds its origins not in the market economy, but in an economy of spirit or giftedness which has its own language, practices and rules of thumb. To be 'creative' then involves more than technique.The gift each of us has is found in the unique quality of perception and experience we hold of the world which cannot be possessed by anyone but ourselves.

 

 

Dialogue: Our Oldest Story - The Return of Dialogue, Michael Jones

"There are only two or three human stories"American Novelist Willa Cather wrote in 'Oh Pioneers' " And they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before" Dialogue - the practice of coming into the circle to think and act together - is one of those stories. It is a story that has gone on for ten thousand years, it is a story that needs to be continued, if our journey together is to continue to consciously unfold