Reflections to Be Able to Bring Some of Don’S Great Insights to All Our Readers

From the Founding Editor EDITORIAL t is with great sadness that I have to report the loss of another colleague, Don I Michael. Don died at age 75 of complications from pancreatic cancer that was diagnosed two years ago, but with the help of some new treatments, Don was able to continue his full and rich life for those two years. Don died with the same grace that he lived, quietly going while listening to Mozart. We were fortunate in Reflections to be able to bring some of Don’s great insights to all our readers. He thought deeply about things and was, in a sense, a wonderful conscience for all of us in that he never would shrink from the reality that he saw. He reminded us persistently and with intensity of the power of the uncon- scious within us and the hidden forces around us that make learning such a complex and difficult process. We can honor Don best by taking seriously what he saw and what he tried to get us to see. In this issue, we turn explicitly to the problem of seeing. By focusing on the role of the arts, the aesthetic dimension in society, and the impact of artists on our own life, we hope to broaden our readers’ vision. To enhance this purpose, we include in this issue a photo essay by our own team member Emily Sper, who has shown us with her photos how much our eye can deceive or enhance. We believe that the world of business in particular has ignored the role of the aesthetic to its own detriment. The importance of the arts in relation to other societal concerns was first pointed out to us by our editorial board at our first seminal meeting in Chicago in 1999. We are especially grateful to John Seely Brown and John Kao for stimu- lating our thinking in this area. Subsequently, Ray Stata made a significant comment in one of our executive education seminars that bears so pointedly on the role of the performance arts and improvisation. He said that one thing he had learned as an executive is that “Everything happens through conversation.” What we see and how we choose to talk about it is thus critical to everything we do. As a consequence, we have launched a serious exploration of this topic. In this and subsequent issues, we hope to expose ourselves and our readers to what the arts have to offer us and, in that process, to expand our own vision and our own capacity to re- 1 spond more richly to the complexity that surrounds us. I have my own view of what artists and the arts can do for us and have put those into my essay at the close of this issue. Ed Schein REFLECTIONS, Volume 2, Number 4 EDITORIAL In This Issue Edgar H. Schein and Karen Ayas e have tried to give the reader a variety of viewpoints on the role of the arts and Wartists in society and business. We start with a photo essay by Emily Sper illustrat- ing the beauty we fail to see in our everyday lives. Next is an interview with John Kao whose life itself is a work of art. As the reader will discover, in his current seventh ca- reer, John is creating environments for practitioners that will enable them to utilize their creative potential fully as they solve business problems. The artistry of business processes is exemplified in the description by Philip Mirvis, Karen Ayas, and George Roth of a mundane process of business transformation reaching truly creative heights when a group of executives and consultants put their minds to it. A learning “performance” in the desert of Jordan marks the leadership passage, and we hear from Tex Gunning, departing company chairman, about the artistry of leading change. Bill Torbert, a true master of “performativity,” sums up with his learnings and questions. Next, Robert Fritz reminds us that the creativity is not just in the performance and the improvisation that it affords, but in the composition of the score itself. The thought that practitioners are really “composers” bears serious reflection. What managers can learn from jazz and the roles of improvisation and creativity in entrepreneurship is fur- ther explored in a two-part article by Stephen Buckley in which he has interviewed an executive, a researcher, and a consultant. Much has been said about the role of improvisation, especially in music, so next is a thoughtful piece by Alf Westelius, an academic and musician. Drawing from classical music, he illustrates the way in which musicians combine the discipline of playing with the score, listening to one another, and maintaining that delicate balance between learning and performing. Karl Weick comments from an academic stand, and Noam Cook, a flute player who has also studied how flutes are made, comments as well. Drawing from theater, Dvora Yanow explores improvisation from the viewpoint of what it takes to be effective and how it can and should be used more in the process of teaching. Michael Jones, a pianist and composer, shares his own experience of being a successful performer. We then shift to how practitioners working with artists have transformed some of society’s institutions. Jean Horstman and Julia Rowntree describe the transformation of 2 life in a moribund London hostel after an arts program was introduced. Rowntree also tells of her experience at the Business Arts Forum, a series of seminars and performances at the London International Festival of Theatre, which created a new dialogue between arts and business. Next we offer an original contribution from Nancy Adler, an enthusiastic commen- tator from our Spring issue, and Lew Yung-Chien. We close with a brief essay by Ed Schein on the role of art and the artist that illustrates the range and depth of the arts’ impact on society. Volume 2, Number 4, REFLECTIONS Contributors Nancy J. Adler is a professor of management, McGill University, currently an artist in resi- dence at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Tamar Arnon is a photographer and Curator of the Arts Programme at Aldgate Hostel and of One Mile East. Karen Ayas is associate editor, Reflections; research fellow, Erasmus University, Rotterdam; and partner, The Ripples Group. Stephen C. Buckley is an entrepreneur, writer, and independent consultant in Somerville, MA. S.D. Noam Cook is associate professor of philosophy at San Jose State University, a consult- ing researcher at Xerox PARC, and a member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Nils Fonstad is a doctoral candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Robert Fritz codesigned (with Peter Senge and Charles Kiefer) the original “Leadership and Mastery” course on which The Fifth Discipline is partly based. He is a consultant, composer, filmmaker, and author. J. Jean Horstman is a member and former managing director, Society for Organizational Learning. Prior, she worked internationally in the arts. Bill Hughes is a managing partner at Cambridge Incubator. Michael Jones is a pianist, composer, and author of Creating an Imaginative Life. He inte- grates his music and personal narrative in talks and seminars exploring the synergy between work, art, and creativity. <www.pianoscapes.com> John Kao is founder and CEO of The Idea Factory, film producer, and author of Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity. Lew Yung-Chien conducts workshops on Tai Chi and leadership for executives and managers. Philip H. Mirvis is an organizational psychologist whose work concerns large-scale change and the character of the workforce and workplace. Felix Reyes-Nunez is a participant in the Serpentine Gallery photography project at Look Ahead’s Bayswater Hostel. Arthur Roberts is a consultant to individuals, groups, and organizations. George L. Roth researches learning across organizational boundaries. His current focus in- volves knowledge supply chains and knowledge partnerships. Julia Rowntree is director and originator of the London International Festival of Theatre’s Business Arts Forum. C. Otto Scharmer is a visiting lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Univer- 4 sity of Innsbruck, Austria, and faculty member of the Fujitsu Global Knowledge Institute. Edgar H. Schein is Sloan Fellows professor of management emeritus and senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Emily Sper is a photographer, graphic designer, and author-illustrator in Boston, MA. Her pho- tographs have been exhibited in the United States and abroad. <www.sperphoto.com> Bill Torbert is professor of organization studies at Boston College, partner of HarthillUSA, and director of Trillium Asset Management. Karl E. Weick is the Rensis Likert Collegiate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psy- chology, School of Business Administration, University of Michigan. Alf Westelius is a professor at Linköping University and associate researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics. Dvora Yanow is professor and chair, Department of Public Administration, California State University, Hayward. Volume 2, Number 4, REFLECTIONS Beyond the Surface FEATURE Emily Sper hen I look around, I see colors and patterns. I’ll stop to gaze at light reflecting off a Wwindow. Or it might be crows silhouetted against an evening sky. Sometimes bi- zarre juxtapositions make me laugh out loud. Ordinary objects take on a new dimension when you take the time to really look around. For me, the side of a car or a wall become landscapes; the black and white dots of a metal bench play a game. A walk down the street is always a new experience, no matter how many times I’ve walked down the same street before. Growing up in a wooded area instilled in me an appreciation and love of nature.

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