So I am back....
I have been in China for the past 10 days on a Cultrual and Creativity exchange with the British Council hosted by the All China Youth Federation. The experience was intence, profound and challenged me and my leadership in many ways. Over the next few weeks I will be refelcting on these experiences in order to make sense of some of the creative and cultural differences between China and the UK.
I am now needing to deal with my jet lag!
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.
For more of Bobby McFerrin and the science behind this program, please view the full "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus" event video at our website:
worldsciencefestival.com/video/notes-neurons-full
For all those Cultural Leaders out there...
The Cultural Leadership Programme (CLP) is a Government funded investment in excellence in leadership across the creative and cultural industries. By supporting an ambitious range of activities and opportunities, the programme aims to nurture and develop world class, dynamic and diverse leaders for the 21st Century.
Website: http://www.culturalleadership.org.uk
"The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail."
Edwin H. Land
I used to be petrified of failure. I thought that it would expose me as being a fraud or show that I bad at what I did.
Reflecting on this I now think that this was a load of rubbish!
How would I have learnt anything if I had not failed or got things wrong? It is intrinsic in human evolution that we make mistakes and then learn from them. However, I was always afraid of failure as it was drilled into me at school that failure was bad; you would be doomed, jobless, homeless, unhappy and lonely. Ok maybe a bit dramatic but being at school I vividly perceived that if I failed GCSE's then I would not get a job; if I failed A-Levels then I would not go to University.... and it goes on. I now know this was rubbish and had nothing to do with me but the schools league tables...I digress.
In the rehearsal room it is intrinsic that I make sure that my actors feel comfortable enough to get things wrong; if I didn't then my shows would become stale, boring and uncreative. A rehearsal is just that; we rehearse, we repeat, get things wrong and try new ways of working until we can make a show as well presented as possible.
In the real world and outside the rehearsal room is different; we don't always have the safe space to fail. We don't always have the chance to go back and change a line we just said; there is no script or stage directions.
So, as leaders how can we fail successfully? How can we create a rehearsal room environment to cushion the blow of failure and learn from it?
Ultimately, if we don't have that safe space to fail then we will never take risks and things would never change...
I just wish I had found this out when I was at school!
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