Creative Leadership Capacities ... From the Connecting Creative Communities Summit

Steven Dahlberg, Director, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, asks in the "Building Your Capacity: Creative Leadership in the Creative Sector" session at the Connecting Creative Communities Summit on March 11, 2010:

Creativity matters in all aspects of society, work and life. And it matters for how we lead. Creativity motivates people to do what they love and are good at. Likewise, as Teresa Amabile, director of research at Harvard Business School, and one of the leading creativity researchers, says: “When people are doing work that they love and they’re allowed to deeply engage in it – and when the work itself is valued and recognized – then creativity will flourish. Even in tough times.” Yet, sometimes our organizational cultures and practices get in the way of allowing creativity to be cultivated and expressed. Creativity also engages employees in meaningful work. Engaged employees lead to engaged audiences, customers and clients in our organizations. The Gallup Organization says: “Engaged employees [– that is, those who work with passion and feel a profound connection to their organization –] are far more likely to suggest or develop creative ways to improve management processes. They’re also far more likely to find creative ways to solve customer problems or to involve their customers in creative service innovations. Leaders who want to drive growth through innovation should first create an environment that welcomes new ideas – and should make engaging employees a key component of that strategy.” Gallup has also found that 71% of the workforce is not-engaged or actively disengaged in their work, meaning 71% of the workforce is either under performing or actively undermining their work. Therefore, we must ask ourselves:

1. What do we do to help employees intentionally develop and apply their creativity?
2. What does “creativity” mean to me as a leadership practice?
3. How do we develop creativity in our employees … or, how do we help our employees imagine “what if, what else, why not”? What processes do we use to harness and apply more creative thinking, imagination and ideas in our organization? How do we engage our employees? How do we help them connect to their purpose? How do we motivate our employees to do what they love and are good at?
4. What gets in the way and blocks creativity WITHIN our organization and its employees? What deliberate actions do we take to create a culture for creativity WITHIN our organization?

Connecting Creative Communities - Register Now for March Summit in Providence

Sign up now for the Connecting Creative Communities coming up in Providence, Rhode Island, March 9-11, 2010. The Summit is hosted by the New England Foundation on the Arts and the City of Providence's Department of Art, Culture + Tourism. I am pleased that the Summit is co-presented by the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, and that I am co-chairing a session on "Building Your Capacity: Creative Leadership in the Creative Sector."

-- Steven Dahlberg, Director, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination

CONNECTING CREATIVE COMMUNITIES
Summit participants represent a broad slice of New Englanders, including government officials, arts administrators, artists, business and civic leaders, creative entrepreneurs, funders, researchers, and others.

HIGHLIGHTS
(View the full program schedule)

• Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around
  Join Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline for the City of Providence's second annual Senator Claiborne Pell Lecture on Arts and Humanities about how bicycling can transform urban experience.


• Beyond Our Borders: Planning, Policy, and Prosperity in New England
  "Shovel-ready" projects made possible by having a creative economic development plans in place.


• Artist-Driven Solutions for Community Change
  Artist-led initiatives stimulating creative responses to complex social and economic issues.


• Facing Facts: Getting Results with Data
  The sometimes surprising political and financial consequences of data collection.


• Building Your Capacity: Creative Leadership in the Creative Sector
  Day-to-day needs, cross-sector relationships, workforce development, regionalism, and the creativity at the heart of it all.
  
• What's next? Drafting a Regional Agenda
  Key themes and actionable items for a New England-wide regional agenda for the creative sector.

REGISTER NOW!

Connecting Creative Communities is co-presented by:
City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, David N. Cicilline, Mayor and the New England Foundation for the Arts in partnership with: Americans for the Arts Animating Democracy, Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire, Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, COOL/Cultural Affairs & Special Events, City of Lowell, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, The MacDowell Colony, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Massachusetts Office of Business Development, Worcester Cultural Coalition.
Co-sponsored by:
Brown University's John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage and the Providence Phoenix.

EVENT INFO:

• CCC summit flier


• Registration Fee: $60


• Registration Deadline: March 5


• REGISTER NOW!
  

CONTACT INFO:
Adrienne Petrillo
Program Manager, Presenting & Touring
apetrillo@nefa.org
617.951.0010 x527

"Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around" is Focus of Pell Lecture in Providence

[24 February 2010 - The City of Providence] Mayor David N. Cicilline will host the second annual Senator Claiborne Pell Lecture on Arts and Humanities on Tuesday, March 9 at 7pm at Trinity Repertory Company. Mayor Cicilline established the annual symposium in honor of the late Senator for his extraordinary work championing education, the arts and humanities.

>> MAYOR CICILLINE ANNOUNCES 2ND ANNUAL SENATOR CLAIBORNE PELL LECTURE: Lecture honoring the late Senator to focus on "Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around" <<

The symposium, Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around, will explore how bicycling can transform the urban experience by raising the following questions for discussion: How do creative thinkers strengthen civic life? How can a city foster a more bicycle-friendly environment? How might Providence change if more people made a bicycle their primary mode of transportation? Pell Lecture 2010 Panel:

• David Byrne has been writing and performing music and directing video and film for more than 30 years. He was lead singer and guitar player for the innovative rock band Talking Heads, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. What might not be as well known is Byrne’s longtime passion for biking and advocacy for bicycles in cities. Byrne has traveled New York City’s streets on a bike since the early 1980s, and often brings a folding bike on tour. His latest book explores this topic; Bicycle Diaries is an account of his urban bicycle odyssey through the streets of Istanbul, Buenos Aires, London, Berlin, Paris, Belgrade, Sydney, Manila, New York and San Francisco. Bicycle Diaries features beautiful photography, personal anecdotes from Byrne's wide travels and a strong argument for the way a bicycle can change our view of the world and the city in which we live.
• Samuel Zipp is an urban historian who studies the cultural and intellectual history of 20th century cities. He teaches American Studies and Urban Studies at Brown University. He earned his Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University. His book, Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York, will be published by Oxford University Press this spring. Zipp’s interest in cities really took hold through a job as a bike messenger. He says traveling along the San Francisco streets by bike gave him a real appreciation for urban geography and the need to learn a city's social, political, and economic structure from the inside out. Zipp’s presentation will explore the place of bicycles in the history of city development and urban renewal.
• Thomas Deller is a civic leader with first-hand experience creating infrastructure needed for bicycles in Providence. During his tenure as Director of Planning and Development for the City of Providence Deller has overseen the implementation of the Providence Bicycle Network and Providence Tomorrow, the city’s comprehensive plan, which contains many progressive policies regarding biking. As part of changes related to the I-195 highway move, Deller is working with local, state and federal partners to make way for bicycles in the Jewelry District. Deller’s experience in Planning and Urban Development dates back to 1979, when he began his career as a Planner in the East Providence Planning Department. He holds a Masters Degree in Community Planning and a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban Studies from the University of Rhode Island.
  

The Senator Claiborne Pell Lecture on Arts and Humanities is a free but ticketed event. Tickets will be available beginning Thursday, February 25th at the Trinity Repertory Company box office, 201 Washington Street, and must be picked up in person (no phone reservations). Four ticket limit per person. Due to limited availability we suggest advance pick-up. For box office hours and directions, call 401-351-4242. For more information on the lecture, contact (401) 421-2489 x456 or visit www.creativeprov.org.

About the Pell Lecture
Initiated by Mayor Cicilline in 2009, the annual lecture honors the late Claiborne Pell (1918-2009), who represented Rhode Island in the United States Senate from 1961-1997. Senator Pell is best remembered for being a champion of education, the arts and the humanities. He was the main sponsor of the Pell Grant, a financial aid program for U.S. college students, and he played a major role in the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment of the Humanities.