School of the Future: Leaders-As-Artists

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We are currently developing a full-cycle strategy for a boarding school. Like virtually every school, they intend to develop the leadership potential of their students.

But what does leadership mean in a VUCA, post-COVID world?

We suggested the rise of “Leaders-As-Artists.”

In this new world we inhabit, knowing, predicting, and calculating are table stakes skills. Thriving before the proverbial blank canvas—imagining what does not exist—will be a differentiating skill.

That notion resonates with “Why CEOs need to read poetry—yes, poetry—to lead in the post-COVID world,” in which the authors propose that:

“Leaders are being called on to engage in a new and extremely challenging kind of dual thinking—to live the questions now, while simultaneously developing answers for an unknown and brutally complex future. We can think of no better tool for this important mindset shift than poetry.

“Poetry requires of its readers a different way of thinking, more expansive than usual, more flexible, more nuanced; a way to tune in to undercurrents, accept ambiguity and the absence of answers—embrace lack of closure and relish complexity and uncertainty. A poem does not have one meaning, but many meanings, all in play simultaneously. It is therefore open to many—often conflicting—interpretations. Fine distinctions in language underpin the poem’s subtlety. We do not ask, what does this poem mean? We may ask, what does this poem amount to? Any answer arrived at will be provisional.”

In this increasingly complex world, leadership will start with great questions rather than great answers:

  • What is my role as a leader?

  • Whom do we serve and why?

  • What aspects of my leadership replicate the harms of the past?

  • How do I bring out the best in others? What problem are we really trying to solve?

In this context, great answers will still matter in the school of the future. But knowing how to ask great questions will matter even more.

Are you designing for that kind of leader-as-artist?

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Christian Talbot