The Art of Leadership is an optional component of Talent Futures London$-$based

leadership team events. In cooperation with consultant art historian, Charlotte de

Mille, Talent Futures offers bespoke lunchtime visits to an art museum to further

the agile thinking of leadership teams. The theme of each visit is suggested by the

facilitator, based on the team's organisational context, and is agreed with the team

in advance. Charlotte de Mille then designs a personalised tour for $90$ minutes at a

museum close to the event venue.

Prior to these events, a team may consider the museum visit as "down time" during

the workshop. However, the works chosen and the discussion about those works

give the team opportunity to experience and discuss art that, while unrelated to

their work, is directly related to their learning objectives. Themes from previous

clients include: Cultural norms, Compliance and regulation and Housing and

modern living

When attention is devoted to an object of art, we are stimulated to reflect on our

different values and perspectives, as informed by our personality, our past

experiences, and our present circumstances. This $$self$-$challenging$$ act is critical

to developing new responses. Back at the venue, after the tour, the facilitator poses

questions about the experience and ties the responses from participants to the

learning objectives of the workshop. For example: A video installation about blind

people making visual art resulted in some of the team feeling discomfort at others

being taken advantage of$,$ until they saw how much participants enjoyed what they

were doing. This underscored how matters of ethics can be divisive, and reminded

them of an ongoing disagreement with another team. They resolved to seek the

individual views of the other team and collaborate on a solution. In response to a

work that challenged the roles of gender, race, and religion in modern society, the

team were able to discuss the assumptions they made about diversity in the

workplace and their team in particular.

Outcomes

In post$-$workshop review discussions, the following outcomes of The Art of

Leadership events have been noted: Discussing art with colleagues means each

person takes a risk in sharing thoughts that are purely opinion and observation; no

logic is involved. This shared vulnerability brings people together and tensions

subside. The way to influence people with opinions different from ours is

through listening, not logic. The importance of validating others' opinions

and understanding others' perceptions increases in significance. Once

assumptions are broken, the door to more creativity and a better strategy

opens. Black$-$and$-$white thinking is spotted quickly, and the experience

stretches the thinking of participants. It becomes possible to consider other

ways of looking at things without risking reputation. Discussing $$What is

and isn't art,$$ leads to $$what is and isn't leadership,$$ and $$what is and isn't

the way to get things done in the organisation.$$

Questions:

$(4\backslash$times $5=20)$

$1.$ Why and how does Art of Leadership work?

$2.$ Give example of working of Art of leader ship.

$3.$ Write some outcomes of Art of leader ship.

$4.$ Write your views on Art of leader ship.