Make the Room Dance

This is the second post of a series inspired by lessons from the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.[1] Wright saw the world through architecture. Here, that perspective will be translated into the world of resilient leadership in organizations.

To Wright, it was important to bring into his design the inspiration of live music or “other performing arts as a way to approach the essence of nature and the potential of human imagination.” For example, music in a room has the quality of bringing a group together, and so his rooms had good acoustics.

Source: NASA/Unsplash

Bringing life into the workplace is important to the resilient leader who wants high performance and creative innovation—the means to find resilient approaches to new challenges. The stress of fast-paced change works against this. Workspaces that are nondescript lend nothing to thought processing. So, how can a resilient leader insert “dance” into the room?

Sit Next to Giants

Some solutions are to bring vibrant color or natural light into the room. Another way to bring dance into the thinking and engagement of the staff came from England. A leader needed a solution to what everyone believed was an impossible problem. Instead of focusing on the problem, the group was asked to work in a room at a museum that featured the Apollo space program—where the images surrounding the group spoke of achieving the impossible. Inspired by the success of Apollo, the group found the solution to their impossible problem.

Sit With Children

In another case, a leader could not use a museum location for inspiration. Instead, he brought in children who were asked to listen to the discussion about designing a hospital and ask any question or suggest any idea they had. After a bit of time, the children became really curious about what was being discussed. Their questions were different from the expected. Their questions opened new perspectives, and their curiosity became infectious. New ideas among the staff began to bubble up.

Sit With Questions

A third example comes from Hal Gregersen[2], who asks teams to take some time to explore a problem to change, sharing their ideas from a statement to a question. For 20 minutes, they can only ask questions. In those 20 minutes, a mindset shift occurs, and imaginations are opened.

Bringing dance into the room to enhance creativity can be done in so many ways. Simple strategies can infuse life into discussions, inspire new thinking, or shift perspectives—all leading to building more resilient work—work that overcomes the unexpected.