Tim,

I don' think we'll manage to get the arrangements in place for an  
Artist in Residence for the first iteration of the course,although it  
is an objective in the long term, but we will certainly involve  
artists in the course throughout.  My coauthor and co-investigator in  
research, Lee Devin, is a theatre artist, and another member of our  
research team who will be intimately involved in the course design  
has just left us for a month to direct a play at a major US regional  
theatre (she is a professional director and dramaturg by background);  
we have plans as well to involve the leader of a string quartet, a  
glass blower, a metal sculptor, etc.

Rob

On Mar 2, 2006, at 4:51 AM, timstockil wrote:

> Rob,
>
> There are so many ways you could go with this but I wonder whether  
> you had
> considered having an Artist in Residence, someone who might make a
> contribution all the way through the course by bringing an artist's
> perception to whatever the subject matter is that day.  This is  
> something
> Arts & Business in the UK was discussing with the Judge Institute at
> Cambridge and we went some way down the route before they decided  
> against it
> - but I am still convinced it is a good idea.  We had proposed a
> storyteller, but it could have been any type of artist.  This  
> Artist in
> Residence idea has worked very well in a number of businesses in  
> the UK and
> elsewhere, and I see no reason why it shouldn't work well at Harvard.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Tim
>
>
> Tim Stockil
> Director
> Tel: +44 (0)7970 22 44 75
> www.creativeintelligence.uk.com
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> which
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aesthetics, Creativity, and Organisations Research Network
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert Austin
> Sent: 28 February 2006 13:12
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Artists/Creative Practitioners Writings on Arts Based  
> Processes
> in Management and Organizations.
>
> Steve et al.
>
> I'm scheduled in Winter 2007 to introduce an MBA course at Harvard  
> Business
> School about what business can learn from art practice. Not nearly  
> the full
> distance toward what you suggest, and its studio component is yet  
> to be
> developed (it will be a project developed in collaboration with a  
> design
> firm), but perhaps a useful experiment.
>
> Would value any additional thoughts about what such a course should
> include/attempt.
>
> Rob
>
>
> On Feb 28, 2006, at 7:16 AM, Steve Taylor wrote:
>
>> Hi Ralph,
>>
>> What you have to say certainly resonates with me.  I've been saying
>> for a while now (to anyone who will listen) that what the real  
>> insight
>> the arts have to offer business comes from arts practice (rather than
>> from arts criticism or metaphors of business as art).  When I used to
>> sit in sales meetings, I figured out what was going on based in the
>> Meisner status exercises I had done, not in any ideas that the  
>> meeting
>> was a performance.
>> The difficulty is (as you suggest) that you can't learn these
>> practices from reading a book.  All of which suggest to me a studio
>> based MBA-like program (that wouldn't look anything like current  
>> MBAs)
>> that is about learning practice in the way that design and arts
>> programs are about learning practice.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Steve
>>
>>
>> On 2/27/06 7:56 PM, "Ralph Kerle" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Tim,
>>>
>>> Thank you kindly for such a considered response. I was sitting here
>>> (late at
>>> night) having read another series of fine papers that were
>>> unfortunately indirectly related to my original question when your
>>> email popped into my in-box and seeking to satisfy that desire which
>>> is distraction, I quickly popped open your email  ...then dropped
>>> everything. A simply wonderful
>>> summation that reflects my experience perfectly and uncannily!!!
>>> My only
>>> concern is that the words you have chosen to use to describe the
>>> progression of the career of an art practitioner are words that I
>>> have reservations about. In Australia at least these titles have
>>> tended to pigeon hole people and their skills perceptually and I am
>>> searching hard for new words to describe what I see as a newly
>>> emerging profession...so far I have been playing with Experience
>>> Designer and Experience Producer with some rather quizzical looks  
>>> and
>>> responses from clients and friends..
>>>
>>> Thank you for inviting me to share my experiences. In 1992, I was
>>> asked to write an opening for an international HR conference in
>>> Melbourne and earnt more money pro-rata in three days than I had in
>>> 12 years in theatre including a stint as Associate Director of the
>>> Sydney Theatre Company.
>>> Suddenly a whole new world of income potential revealed itself -  
>>> good
>>> income with an audience that was not only NOT critical but thought I
>>> was a creative genius. I was only used to critical reviews of my
>>> creative work - not always damning but...well as you know theatre is
>>> built on the critic's review. It was a bit startling at first this
>>> adulation. I was simply not comfortable with it. Mostly because the
>>> work I was creating seemed so simple, almost trite. However, I was
>>> intrigued and excited by the potential this avenue offered for
>>> expanding my theatre skills in an unconventional way in an entirely
>>> new and foreign arena to me - the business world that had budgets to
>>> fund my skills development whilst providing unlimited access to
>>> contemporary media technology .
>>>
>>> In 1996, I had an epiphany when I realised that in all my business
>>> dealings I was using theatrical techniques to analyse, create,
>>> present and produce.
>>> Suddenly and cumulatively, senior executives of major Australian and
>>> multi-national companies were acknowledging that I was able to
>>> understand and make substantial and positive contributions to the
>>> design of business plans, strategies and corporate goals and
>>> objectives - this without any formal business training whatsoever.
>>> One testimonial even suggested that I was responsible for devising a
>>> business plan that saw a 6% increase in revenue on a $600million
>>> turnover.  Whilst I was taken aback, amused, even shocked and
>>> unaccepting of these compliments, I didn't conceive I was doing
>>> anything out of what I considered the ordinary. I was simply
>>> following the only craft I had learnt formally that of a
>>> creator/actor/director/ producer of theatre. I was using my
>>> imagination, researching, deconstructing the moment, the environment
>>> and the interaction using ingrained theatrical processes I had honed
>>> over many years experience. I was searching for the subtext, the
>>> hidden meaning, the through line, the want and needs of a scene
>>> - first year drama school techniques - to draw out the overall
>>> objective for the business proposition and then applying my  
>>> directing
>>> skills to critique, guide, facilitate, create and produce visions
>>> with outcomes.
>>>
>>> My epiphany was based on a series of reflections over a period of
>>> months during which time we had delivered a series of successful
>>> events that had resulted in the comments that we were "oh so
>>> creative.."" Again comments I found very hard to live with and
>>> uncertain of. I wouldn't have called our work "creative". But my
>>> reflections were sharply focused as a result of an article from the
>>> Harvard Business Review written by Gilmour and Pine entitled the
>>> "The Experience Economy - Work Is Theatre and Every Business A
>>> Stage." handed to me by my then Technical Director with the words "I
>>> think this is worth reading.. I think this is what you are trying to
>>> do!" I am forever grateful to this TD who has gone on to specialise
>>> in designing and developing technical software for museums and
>>> exhibitions.
>>>
>>> I read the work excitedly. It seemed an original work driven by a
>>> metaphor that screamed at me. Critics called it an international
>>> breakthrough in contemporary business management thinking. It spoke
>>> to me very directly in that it re-enforced my practices, experiences
>>> and emerging views that arts based management theories could provide
>>> a new way of thinking about organizations and business in this new
>>> era of knowledge production. However, the only way I could see their
>>> espoused theories applied was through experienced theatre
>>> practitioners - the concepts in the book were highly  
>>> sophisticated in
>>> their explicitness and only someone with substantial writing and
>>> rehearsal room experience combined with strong commercial acumen
>>> would be able to firstly understand the subtly of these theories and
>>> secondly be able to apply them in any commercial way.
>>>
>>> Strange as it may seem it was only then that it dawned on me that  
>>> the
>>> processes I was using were processes I had been taught and that I  
>>> had
>>> lived with for many years. These processes were common only to
>>> properly trained theatre practitioners and yet somehow they  
>>> seemed to
>>> fit the world of business like a glove on a hand or at least for me
>>> in my practice they did.
>>>
>>>
>>> I cannot see the teaching of these processes or passing on of these
>>> experiences in any formal or structured way in either business
>>> management schools or art schools to my knowledge. Yet they seem to
>>> offer the potential to provide powerful new creative and innovative
>>> ways of practicing management in organizations, even perhaps
>>> developing a new breed of executives versed in the thinking of an
>>> artist and the performance of a manager.  After all it was Peter
>>> Drucker, the founder of management sciences who in 1994 loudly
>>> proclaimed that "management as practice... is truly a liberal art."
>>>
>>> Tim, have I captured anything of interest? What are your thoughts?
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Ralph
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Steven S. Taylor, PhD
>> Assistant Professor
>> Worcester Polytechnic Institute
>> Department of Management
>> 100 Institute Rd
>> Worcester, MA 01609
>> USA
>
> Robert Austin
> Technology and Operations Management
> Harvard Business School
> [log in to unmask]
>

Robert Austin
Technology and Operations Management
Harvard Business School
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