In the midst of controversy over foreign worker laws in Canada and the USA, the reality of the effect outsourcing is having on our economies is becoming painfully clear. Companies are either bringing in foreign workers who will accept lower wages, or simply having the work done in other countries. Globalization is here. There is no going back.

As an educator, I immediately jump to the question, “what are we going to do to ensure our children are prepared for what the future brings?” I found inspiration to tackle this question in an article in the Smithsonian about the Finnish education system.

40 years ago the Finnish people made a decision to make their education system the driving force for economic recovery. The brilliance of this idea is in its simplicity: make sure each of our children leaves the education system prepared to contribute to the economy.

The implementation of this idea is anything but simple. The journey that took the Finnish education system to the esteemed position of one of the top systems in the world is complex and involved many interesting policy changes. These changes included requiring teachers to have a Master’s degree in education, moving decision making power to the level of town council, and delaying the start of school until age 7.

Apart from the interesting details about how changes in policy have shaped the system, what struck me in this article was the identification of a general attitude that is consistent with the goal of making the education system the driving force behind their economy. The prevailing attitude of teachers and school is, ‘lets do whatever it takes to find success for each student.’

Rather than a ‘sort and select’ mentality that divides students into those that will succeed and those that are hopeless, each student is treated as though they are capable of learning. Teachers in each school work as a team to find a path for each child’s success. Of course, success is not the same for each student. The path they take may be to one of Finland’s vocational schools that teach various trades, or to university. The end goal is for each child to become a working member of the Finnish society, and ultimately support the economy.

I recently found a beautiful example of this ‘whatever it takes’ attitude in Boston’s Orchard Gardens School, where a school with low test scores and high levels of violence was transformed by a bold move to fire all the security guards and hire arts teachers!

Because I am a firm believer in the power of arts education to challenge and inspire kids, the positive turn around in this school was not surprising to me. What was impressive was the courage and conviction it took for the Principal of the school to take, what some would see as, a huge risk. He did what he thought was necessary to create a transformation at this failing school. A choice that seems against current conventional wisdom — scrap school security and bring in arts teachers.

If we all have the courage to do whatever it takes to ensure that each child is set to be a contributing productive member of our future economy, I think in 40 years we would see an extraordinary transformation. As educators, we are responsible for ensuring the success of our children. If we are to take this responsibility seriously, we need to look at our education systems with big picture thinking and start making some bold choices.

I know that the arts are part of what it takes to ensure each child can make a meaningful contribution to our society. Please watch this video about Boston’s Orchard Gardens School and share it with others. Lets have a conversation about what arts education means for our future!

I was watching The Celebrity Apprentice last week, and I had an “aha” moment. At the end of the episode, Donald Trump was asking each of the teams whether they thought their project manager was a good leader. I realized that the skills Mr. Trump was looking for in a team leader are exactly the skills I outline in The Artistic Edge. So should our children be watching The Apprentice to get their daily dose of leadership training?

In each episode of The Celebrity Apprentice, teams of competitors choose a project manager to lead them through a business project assigned by Mr. Trump. At the end of the episode, the teams come together in the boardroom and analyze the contributions made by each member. After the discussion, Trump decides which team member has been least effective, and that person hears the now infamous words “You’re fired”.

So how does success in the Trump boardroom relate to the 7 Skills my book?

1. Creativity is important, of course, as the teams must find innovative solutions to the problem set before them during their weekly task.
2. The teams are rewarded for dreaming big in order to find solutions that go beyond those that their opponents come up with.
3. As the team encounters obstacles along the way, problem-solving skills are essential.
4. The ability to adapt by changing tactics when something isn’t working or when new obstacles are presented is the key to a project manager’s success.
5. The project manager must be confident in their ability to lead, and must not be hesitant to take charge of the team and direct its plan of attack.
6. As the team works through the project, the manager needs to be able to communicate the plan to each team member so that everyone is able to work effectively and successfully.
7. Ultimately, the managers must hold themselves accountable for everything the team does under their direction, because at the end of the day, Trump is going to hold them accountable in the boardroom.

Through my book I’ve identified these skills as the qualities that we all need in order to be successful, not just in creative endeavours, but in all aspects of our lives. It was a great moment because here was confirmation that these same skills will make you successful in the boardroom too.

Aside from the humorous drama that often arises from the B-list celebrities who struggle to impress Mr. Trump and win money for their charity, there are valuable lessons to be learned on the show. Not all of the managers on The Celebrity Apprentice possess strong leadership skills, and those who fall short in any of the areas are likely to be fired.

Often the project manager isn’t the strongest performer on the team, and an unexpected leader emerges: someone who exhibits all of the necessary skills. Sometimes the best performer is someone no one expected to lead, but their leadership skills outshine even the project manager’s.

It’s impossible to ignore how well these skills make a player perform, and those who have all seven are certain to become effective leaders. You may see The Celebrity Apprentice as learning to tackle corporate America. But I see it as the ultimate leadership test. As we think about educating children for a successful future, we need to keep in mind that their leadership skills will be tested at every stage and in every arena of their lives! Strong leadership skills are essential not only on reality TV shows, but in any career young people choose.

I recently read an article on the BBC website by Hannah Richardson about boredom in children and I was intrigued. The thrust of the article was that, “Children should be allowed to get bored.”

As a kid, I don’t ever remember being bored, except maybe in history class. But I didn’t allow that boredom to exist. I drew pictures of the teacher. I talked to my neighbours in class. I think boredom only exists if you let it. There is no excuse for boredom unless you are forced to do something that is not challenging.

Let me clarify here. There are two kinds of boredom. One that results from lack of stimulation from the environment around you, and the other from being forced to do a repetitive task, or something that is not very challenging. I am going to venture to say that there is no such thing as the first kind of boredom.

Lets be honest, unless you are in a dark room with no windows, there is always stimulation. And even then, your mind will not stop thinking. Unless you are talking about being forced to learn the dates of the battles of the war of 1812, in my mind, there is no such thing as boredom.

Western society has created this state of boredom by creating the attitude that we must always be entertained. These days there is a growing tendency for children’s lives to be scheduled down to the minute. They are used to having someone or something entertaining them during every hour of the day. Now there are video players in cars and planes. Kids use devices when riding the bus or train to block out the so-called boring world around them. Life itself has become boring because we have forgotten how to engage with it.

Dr. Teresa Belton told the BBC that “cultural expectations that children should be constantly active could hamper the development of their imagination.” I think if we don’t give kids the opportunity to be bored, they won’t develop creativity. They will not learn how to take initiative, how to start something when they are not given instructions. I think we need to give kids a chance to sit with their boredom and see what happens.

When you give yourself down time, you think of ideas and you have a chance to process your experiences. You are also forced to find something to do, meaning you are forced to be creative. This is an important skill. When there is nothing, how do I make something?

Training in the arts helps eradicate boredom by providing children with three important tools. The first is an artistic skill. This is the most obvious solution to boredom, because it gives you something to do. It gives you training in dance, painting, or an instrument. These artistic skills are an endless source of stimulation. You will never run out of songs to play or things to paint. These artistic skills are also tools for engaging with the world. They give children ways to respond to what they see, and communicate what they feel. This leads me to the second boredom eradication tool that arts training provides.

The second is training in careful observation. When you stop to look at the world closely and quietly, you will always find something interesting. By training your observation skills, the arts will never allow you to be bored. You are trained in engaging with the world. Even if you have “nothing to do,” there will never be a ‘lack of stimulation’ because you have been trained to pay attention to how the light hits the side of someone’s face and to hear the rhythm of the windshield wipers.

The third tool the cultivation of an attitude of making. How can you be bored if you are making things? The arts ask you constantly to make something out of nothing. In improv theatre you are given a premise and asked to create a scene. In dance you are given a piece of music and asked to interpret and create choreography. In visual arts you are given two colours and asked to create an alien landscape.

I believe boredom is a self-inflicted mindset. If you find yourself experiencing what you may think is boredom, simply push yourself to use your creativity to find something to do. You can find something interesting in everything if you change your attitude. When kids say they are bored, my answer is, “Well, how are you going to solve that problem?” I find this switches their attitude from “someone/something should be entertaining me”, to, “I can find something to do myself”.

If you have kids who are bored, enroll them in an arts program and they won’t have that problem again. They will have the tools they need to engage with their environment and make something from nothing.

It is still important to give them free time, to observe and process the world, but they will not be bored. If they are, challenge them to solve that problem on their own, and chances are, they will engage in free thought, sing, dance, or pick up a pencil and start to draw something.

Wow…I just love this phrase! I first heard Who you spend time with is who you become from Nido Qubein, a renowned business expert and the President of High Point University in North Carolina. I was at a business conference watching a video of Nido speaking and it is a phrase that has stuck with me ever since. I’d like to focus this post on this important leadership lesson because it is a lesson that can pay off for all of us as we reach for success in our careers and our lives.

As someone who has worked with young people for over 16 years, I know that parents are often concerned with the circle of friends with whom their children associate.  No one wants their child to gravitate toward negative influences because they realize the likelihood of bad habits or life choices rubbing off on their child.

The powerful thing I’ve realized about the phrase Who you spend time with is who you become is that it applies to adults in very tangible and important ways. Motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, is known for saying that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. I believe this is 100% true, and over the past year I’ve really made a conscious effort to evaluate who I spend the most time with.

I have thought about whether my own circle is a positive or negative influence on my life. Are they are going to push me forward toward my goals or hold me back? Now, let me be clear; I am not saying that I care about anyone any less because of this evaluation. I only mean that I have learned to recognize that in order to reach the level of success I want to achieve, I need to surround myself with people who will help get me there.

So I challenge you to begin to pay attention to those around you. Are they passionate, driven, focused and motivated? People who are successful in their own lives have clearly defined goals and are able to achieve those goals through persistence, hard work and the right guidance (as I discussed in my last post). Is that your circle of influence? If not, are you okay with that?

Another key component to this is to surround yourself with people who have the kind of attitude that will best support you. Excessive negativity is not going to help you; someone who complains about every little annoyance is not going to make you feel motivated and optimistic. You need people around you who are confident and positive, not just in how they interact with you, but in the way that they see the world in general.

But don’t think that you need everyone around you to always have a sunny outlook, particularly when it comes to the way that you are pursuing your goals. Some of the most constructive feedback you can receive is critical and honest reactions to the things you do. You want the people close to you to challenge you, and to keep you from taking the easy way out. Sometimes the most motivating interaction you can have with someone is to have that person tell you, accurately and honestly, what you’re doing wrong and how to improve.

Some of the toughest conversations I’ve had have been with my business coaches telling me I was completely wrong in my approach. Sure it can sting for a minute to hear you are on the wrong track, but I am grateful for the wisdom they shared and my businesses are the better for it! It is only by surrounding yourself with people who will push you beyond what you think you can achieve that you will begin realize your true capabilities.

In the context of the arts, one of the greatest things about working in an ensemble is that the members of the group have such an amazing opportunity to motivate each other. The strongest performers lead by example, and everyone else in the group is motivated to raise their own performance to the level of the best players. In a very real way, the entire ensemble becomes the people they spend time with.

This lesson holds true in every area of your life: your relationships, your career, and your creative endeavours. I encourage you to start to pay attention to the circle of people around you. You will find that you are more influenced by them than you think.  

Perhaps the best way to learn is to take advantage of the experience and knowledge of those who have already done what we are trying to do. When we are in school, we are often willing to accept the value of a teacher’s guidance. However, we are not always as willing to acknowledge the value of help from an expert who can improve our lives outside the classroom. So why is that?

There seems to be a selective social blindness to the benefits of having a mentor or a coach. In some fields coaches are seen as essential. Have you ever met a star athlete who does not have a coach? I highly doubt it. So why does mentorship make sense for a pro-golfer and not an aspiring musician or entrepreneur?

Mentors are leaders with whom we establish personal relationships in order to benefit from their experience. These individuals can help us perform better in our careers and become more confident and engaged citizens in our communities.

Mentorship takes many different forms. One-on-one social mentoring programs focus on guiding young people who might not otherwise get the benefit of a strong and positive adult role model. Post-secondary academic and arts programs often connect students with mentors who provide professional insight into the career path the student is considering. This may be through a speaker series at the school or more formalized mentorship programs where students shadow a professional in their chosen career path for several weeks/months.

Then there are coaching companies whose focus is providing fee for service mentorship. This could include audition coaching for aspiring actors who want to land their next big role. Or, business owners who learn from successful entrepreneurs about how to make their first million!

No matter what the context, mentorship is all about passing on the hard-won wisdom of a leader who has already seen and overcome the challenges that the mentee is facing.

I have personally participated in mentorship through a coaching company. I can say without hesitation that it was the best decision I ever made. It catapulted my career to the next level and helped me realize my goals.

My coaches gave me insight into my businesses that I never saw before. I couldn’t see the whole picture because I was stuck inside the frame. As the well-known saying goes, we often do not see the forest for the trees. Through my own experiences being coached, I realized that sometimes we are so caught up in our daily activities that we need someone to look at the whole from the outside to help us see the direction we need to take.

I certainly never would have written a book and been published in The Washington Post had it not been for the advice and education I received from my coaches.

I recently read a discussion on LinkedIn about this question and it reminded me of why the arts are so important to preparing children for their future.

Knowing in its traditional North American definition, means being familiar with something. Having the facts in your mind. You know how to drive a car, but do you understand how the car works? You know your husband, but do you understand him?

Understanding involves connecting the facts with a context and grasping how, when and why something exists or occurs. I think most of us know more than we understand. There are also, of course, things we will never fully understand.

One of Einstein’s jewels of wisdom was that, “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” 
Knowing is just the beginning, and understanding is the end goal. 

How do we promote understanding?

I believe we understand through experience. There are some things you cannot understand until you experience them. For example, when I studied statistics in University, I practiced using formulas and interpreting results with random sets of data. However, it was not until I collected my own data and had to use the formulas to interpret what the data meant, that I began to understand how these formulas worked. As part of my thesis I had to write an explanation and do a presentation about the wider implications of my results.

Because the data was something I cared about and had worked hard to collect, I began to see the power that statistics had to change the way we see the world. Before this, I had seen statistics as something very boring that I was forced to take in school. If I had not experienced the practical implementation of statistics, I would have never gained an understanding of how important they are.

Art and Experience

Arts education, although it may not be traditionally defined as experiential education, fits the definition very well. When you are engaging in arts education you are learning by doing. Experience with the facts helps to cultivate understanding. You are increasing your understanding of the way things work by engaging with ideas and materials in many different ways.

Arts education encourages understanding by encouraging experimentation and trial and error. This process encourages children to take what they know and ask, “what does that mean?” “why?” and “how do we communicate the facts to our audience?”

Designing a Stage Set

Let us take, for example, a set design project. As a group of young people begin this project they already know how to paint and they know that their sets will create a mood for the show, but it is through the process of creating the set, that they begin to understand how choices of colour and brush stroke change the feeling of the set and how the set interacts with what is happening on the stage.

]]> http://theartisticedge.ca/knowing-and-understanding/feed/ 2 http://theartisticedge.ca/art-imitating-life/ http://theartisticedge.ca/art-imitating-life/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:31:02 +0000 Lisa Phillips http://theartisticedge.ca/?p=1136

I was at the theatre last week with my mom and cousin to see a production of The Wizard of Oz. I grew up watching the movie and as a huge musical theatre fan, I was excited to watch the show live on stage. As the house lights dimmed, I was instantly brought back to my childhood. One of the very first roles I ever played was the scarecrow in my grade one production of The Wizard of Oz.

As the first act unfolded, with its oh-so familiar storyline, lively costumes and sets, and songs I could recite on command, I was reminded of the power of children’s theatre. Theatre tells important stories and illustrates important lessons to children in a unique way that builds their understanding of the world. They become a part of the story and can experience life through the characters.

Watching this play as an adult, I had a new perspective on what life lessons L. Frank Baum was trying to convey through his timeless story. Growing up, I watched The Wizard of Oz dozens of times, but it was only last week that I became consciously aware of exactly what those important lessons were and how they relate to my own approach to life.

1. All You Need to Succeed in Life is Courage, Brains and a Heart

The Lion, Scarecrow and Tin-man, represent the core components of a successful life. Many people live their life with limiting beliefs that stifle what they are capable of achieving.

Finding courage to push beyond those negative thoughts is crucial to success.

Brains or a thirst for knowledge is paramount. Learning is forever and doesn’t end with a university degree. Those who embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor, will constantly develop and get better at what they do.

]]> http://theartisticedge.ca/art-imitating-life/feed/ 0 http://theartisticedge.ca/creating-conditions-for-creativity/ http://theartisticedge.ca/creating-conditions-for-creativity/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:00:07 +0000 Rosie http://theartisticedge.ca/?p=1088

A recent article in the New York Times by Patricia Cohen about Chuck Close, reminded me of the importance of a concept I learned about in art school called ‘enabling constraints’. Basically, this concept means that constraints can actually enable things to happen. This might ... Read the full article...]]>

A recent article in the New York Times by Patricia Cohen about Chuck Close, reminded me of the importance of a concept I learned about in art school called ‘enabling constraints’. Basically, this concept means that constraints can actually enable things to happen. This might seem illogical at first. Most would think that when we take away constraints, it enables things to happen. What at first seems counter intuitive, an oxymoron even, starts to sound familiar when we think about people who face extreme limitations and succeed despite them.

The life story and work of Chuck Close is an interesting example of this concept. He was born with prosopagnosia, a condition that prevents him from recognizing faces. He explains that his work has been guided by his disability. In fact, his work centers around portraits. “I figured out what I had left and I tried to make it work for me, limitations are important.” He explained in the recent New York Times article.

Creativity is Born out of Constraints

How many times have you heard the phrase, “We were forced to be creative with what we had.”? When constraints are introduced we are forced to think differently. Everyday, the human mind tries to find short cuts, habits, ways of doing things the same way to reduce effort. Constraints offer a challenge to this tendency and force us to change our patterns of thinking to match a changing situation. Juan Carlos Castro of UBC in a paper prepared for the 2007 Complexity Science and Education Research Conference describes Enabling Constraints as conditions that allow us to “enter into spaces of uncertainty and be able to reorganize previous understandings into new patterns of knowing about themselves in the world.”

How is this Important to our Children’s Future Success?

In a study made famous by Ken Robinson, IBM interviewed CEO’s from around the world to gauge what skills that are in demand in our current labour climate. Creativity is identified as the most important skill they are seeking in employees. In particular, the aspect of creativity that allows people to act despite uncertainty: the ability to adapt to changing conditions.

As Ken Robinson says, creativity is being educated out of us. Given that creativity is in demand, our children are in trouble. We need to reorient education so it matches the experiences of employees now and in a future of ever changing conditions. Arts and Leadership Education are excellent training grounds for creativity because of how they use the concept of enabling constraints. They both give students practice working on solutions in an atmosphere of uncertainty.

Why Arts and Leadership Education?

Both Arts and Leadership Education use the practice of setting up constraints to stimulate creativity. For example, Juan Carlos Castro describes asking his photography students, “What would a self portrait look like if you were not actually in it?” In theatre, for example, students may be asked, “how would you communicate the emotion of this scene without talking?”

Leadership challenges are group initiatives that are constructed to force people out of their normal patterns of thought and stimulate their creativity. For example, a group is asked, “How will you move a giant ball across the room with your entire group holding hands?” Seems easy right? Then constraints are introduced such as, “No one can touch the ball with their hands or feet.” and “The ball cannot touch the ground.” Immediately the room fills with a buzz of ideas.

Practicing this way of thinking changes the way we approach the world. We tend to embrace complexity and change as something natural and are able to work within the changing constraints that life throws at us. When life forces us to change our thought patterns, if we accept this challenge, amazing things can happen.

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Wow! It has been just over a year since The Artistic Edge was born and it is hard to believe that in that time we’ve added new resources, the Connecting With My Future interview series, two new bloggers and of course, a book!

As I reflect on 2012 all I can think about is a concept that I learned from Stedman Graham (marketing expert and Oprah’s boyfriend): The one thing in life that makes us all equal is that we all have 24 hours in a day. It is what we choose to do with our time that determines our success in the world.

Lisa with Stedman Graham

I love this concept and I have lived it very intentionally for the last year. I have made conscious choices with how I spend my time and the results have been eye-opening and exciting! So many adults live a life of excuses with countless reasons why they can’t achieve a particular goal. How are adults supposed to teach young people how to achieve great things in their life, if so many of them have never done it themselves?

Many people stop themselves from attempting what they truly love to do in life because of fear of failure or fear that they won’t make a decent living. Of course, careers in the arts are a prime example of this, and I’ve talked about this in some of my recent blog posts.

So where do we go from here? I’ve been working with children in arts and leadership education for over 16 years and it is only now that I’m finally understanding the skills that young people need to learn most. I have spent a lot of time over the past year learning new skills and becoming aware that I have much more control over my success than I previously thought.

In fact, I have come up with 10 key learnings that I want to share with you.

Lisa’s Top 10 Key Learnings of 2012

1. You can do much more than you think you can.
2. Success in life is determined by your willingness to constantly learn.
3. Who you spend time with is who you become.
4. Be grateful for what you have.
5. Relationship building is the cornerstone to making things happen.
6. Your thoughts create your reality.
7. You should only ever get paid for things you would gladly do for free.
8. There is no replacement for hard work.
9. You can’t achieve big dreams on your own – ask for help.
10. Rise each time you fall. Mistakes are practicing for your success!

As I look back on 2012 I realize that I’ve always known these things, but it was only when I put them into practice that their true value was shown. It isn’t good enough to think these things are important, you have to do them every day.

A big part of creativity is having an idea and making it come to life, but it is through leadership that we are able to take the dream and make it reality. As you think about your goals for 2013 and things you would like to accomplish in the year ahead, I challenge you to really think about my Top 10 learnings of 2012. For each one you master, will bring you greater success. As adults if we have our knowledge in order and our own development at peak performance, we can teach our children these important lessons from a much deeper and impactful perspective if we lead by example. Let’s give the young people in our lives all we’ve got for 2013 – they deserve nothing less!

It is incredible how we can be going about our day and then something happens to give us a jolt that reminds us how precious life really is. Friday morning, in a picturesque small town in Connecticut that is exactly what happened. I know the entire world has been watching in shock as the impact of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School unfolds. Over the weekend, I couldn’t help but keep watching the same news stories over and over again to try and make sense of such a horrific act. Unfortunately, I still sit with more questions than answers.

As someone who has worked with children for over 16 years, it is especially upsetting to know that so many of the victims were children. I can’t help but think of how they were robbed of a lifetime of possibilities, of dreams they will never have the chance to realize. One of the things I appreciate most as an arts and leadership educator is the opportunity we have to inspire dreams in young people and teach them the tools to make those dreams a reality.

In moments of such terrible sadness we are reminded of the power of our choices in life. We all have a great capacity to positively impact the lives of others, but often we get wrapped up in our busy lives and that becomes our excuse not to make an extra effort. As we remember the six brave teachers who heroically protected their young students, let us not forget the incredible power we have as adults to make a difference in the life of a child.

I believe children have boundless potential just waiting for guidance to set them on a path to dream fulfillment and success. As you ponder the events of Friday morning, I urge you to make some extra effort to inspire, motivate and guide a child in your life.

Last night during the memorial service in Newtown, President Obama said, “There’s only one thing we can be sure of, and that is the love that we have — for our children… We know we’re always doing right when we’re taking care of them, when we’re teaching them well, when we’re showing acts of kindness. We don’t go wrong when we do that.” I agree with the President’s sentiment whole-heartedly, and I know, as a society we can do more than we are doing.

Please join me in sending thoughts of comfort and prayer to everyone in the Newtown community. While it is difficult to understand why such a senseless tragedy occurred, I think it is important that we learn from it. As we remember the twenty children who lost a lifetime of possibilities, let us not forget that it is our choices that shape our future and the future of those around us.

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For a transcript of the President’s speech visit:

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-shooting-speech-text-2012-12