Playing Off the Page: Education and Leadership in the 21st Century | Evan Mazunik | TEDxMSUDenver
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares a transformative experience in leadership and education through an unexpected moment of improvisation during a live performance. They emphasize embracing the unknown, fostering creativity, and the importance of soft skills like empathy and collaboration in the modern, rapidly changing era. The talk concludes with a group exercise to illustrate the power of collective creation and the joy of stepping into the unknown.
Takeaways
- 🎭 Embrace the Unknown: The speaker highlights the importance of stepping into the unknown and embracing surprises, as it can lead to unexpected and innovative outcomes.
- 🎵 Evolution of Leadership: The journey from a traditional music education background to embracing creativity and improvisation reflects the need for leaders in education to adapt and grow in the 21st century.
- 🚀 Adapting to Change: As society transitions into the conceptual era, the focus should shift from narrow specialization to soft skills like empathy, creativity, and collaboration for success in the rapidly changing environment.
- 🌟 Value of Mentorship: The speaker emphasizes the role of mentors and educators in nurturing risk-taking and creative choices, which are crucial for personal and professional growth.
- 🎼 Overcoming Fear: The personal story of running off stage in tears due to a mistake illustrates the need to move from a mindset of perfection to one that values innovation and resilience.
- 🔍 Rethinking Education Models: The script questions why traditional education models have not adapted to prioritize creativity and soft skills, which are essential for the future.
- 🌈 Encouraging Creativity: The call for educational leaders to create scenarios that are not pre-determined allows for the exploration of new ideas and the fostering of a liquid mindset among learners.
- 🎶 Group Exercise as Learning: The speaker proposes a group exercise to demonstrate the power of collective creativity and the joy of making music together, regardless of musical expertise.
- 🤝 Collaboration in Action: The exercise involves a structured yet open-ended approach to creating music, showcasing the effectiveness of collaboration and the beauty of synchronizing individual efforts.
- 💡 The Next Great Idea: By embracing risk and empowering creative choices, individuals and teams can uncover innovative solutions and ideas that may otherwise remain undiscovered.
Q & A
What significant change occurred for the speaker when they signed conducting gestures?
-The significant change was that the speaker embraced the unknown and chose to step into the surprise, leading to a more haunting and wondrous sound than they could have composed.
How did the clarinet player's unexpected action during the performance affect the speaker?
-The clarinet player's action of dismantling his instrument and playing without a mouthpiece presented the speaker with a choice to either stick to the planned performance or embrace the unexpected. The speaker chose the latter, which led to a unique and memorable musical experience.
What was the speaker's initial attitude towards mistakes in their early music education?
-In the speaker's early music education, mistakes were not tolerated as the focus was on perfection.
Outlines
🎶 Embracing the Unknown in Leadership
The speaker shares a transformative moment on stage where they chose to embrace an unexpected action from their clarinet player, leading to a profound realization about leadership in education. They discuss their journey from a traditional music education background to becoming a confident professional, emphasizing the importance of innovation, collaboration, and embracing surprises in the rapidly changing landscape of the 21st century.
🌟 Adapting Education for the Conceptual Era
The speaker addresses the discrepancy between traditional education models and the needs of the future, highlighting the necessity for creativity and soft skills in the modern era. They challenge leaders in education to step beyond old models and lead with a mindset of resilience and play, advocating for creating scenarios of discovery and collaboration to foster the growth of those they mentor.
🎉 Practicing What You Preach: A Group Exercise
The speaker invites the audience to participate in a live creative exercise, demonstrating the principles of embracing risk and empowering creative choice. Through a structured improvisation activity, the speaker guides the participants in making musical contributions, emphasizing the discovery process and the potential for collective creation, ultimately showcasing the power of collaborative exploration.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Conducting Gestures
💡Leadership in Education
💡Embracing the Unknown
💡Traditional Music Education
💡Creative Collaboration
💡Conceptual Era
💡Soft Skills
💡Liquid Mindset
💡Group Exercise
💡Improvisation
💡Risk-Taking
Highlights
Embracing the unknown and stepping into surprise can lead to unexpected and beautiful outcomes.
Leadership in the 21st century education emphasizes creativity, empathy, and collaboration over perfection and competition.
Traditional music education often prioritizes perfection over innovation, but taking risks can lead to more creative results.
The speaker's early experience with running off stage due to fear highlights the impact of traditional education on confidence.
Mentors and educators played a crucial role in the speaker's journey to embrace risk and make creative choices.
We are in the conceptual era where soft skills like active listening and creative collaboration are highly valued.
The World Economic Forum emphasizes that creativity, complex problem-solving, and active listening are essential skills for the new era.
Many traditional education models have not adapted to the new era, focusing on narrow specialization and skill-building.
Creativity is messy and not easily assessed, which can make it challenging for educational leaders to embrace.
Educational leaders should be ready to step into the future by pushing past old models and embracing a liquid mindset.
The importance of creating scenarios where leaders and mentees step into the unknown together for collective discovery.
The speaker invites the audience to participate in a group exercise to create music together, demonstrating the power of collaboration.
The exercise involves using signs for 'hit,' 'sustain,' and 'synchronize' to guide the creation of a spontaneous musical piece.
The process of discovery and merging sounds with others in the group leads to a collective musical experience.
Embrace risk and empower creative choice to potentially discover the next great idea.
The speaker's journey from a timid beginner to a confident professional underscores the importance of mentorship and taking risks.
The call for educational leaders to create legitimate scenarios of uncertainty to foster growth and resilience in their mentees.
Transcripts
when i signed those conducting gestures
everything changed for me
you see just the moment before
i was on stage and my mind was racing
and my pulse was pounding
because i had a surprise to deal with
right there in front of everyone
over a decade ago
i'd put together a show
where i'd composed the film score
and assembled a band to join me in
performing that live to the movie
and as we got to the climax of the film
i saw my clarinet player slowly begin to
dismantle his instrument in front of me
this was not on the page
and as he raised the barrel of his
instrument to his lips with no
mouthpiece to make who knows what sound
i had a choice to make
i could either
ask him to come back to what was on the
page
or
i could embrace the unknown
step into the surprise and say yes to
what he had to offer
i'm glad i chose the latter
and i signed in silence
that phrase
to my clarinetist
you
continue
with
this
and not only did i get back a sound
which was more haunting and wondrous
than i could have composed
one that sounded more like a bamboo
flute than a clarinet
i also
received an insight
into what it takes to be a leader in
education
in the 21st century
so today i want to talk about how i
arrived at that moment on that show to
say yes to the surprise
why my journey even matters to the field
of education
and what there is to do
and we're going to close
with a group exercise
but before we get there how did i get to
that moment to say yes to such a
shocking surprise
what you don't know is that i started
piano
at the age of four
and in one of my very first
public recitals
i actually ran off the stage in tears
because i had made a mistake
and not played what was on the page
you see in many ways i was the product
of a very traditional music education
one that prioritized perfection
over innovation one that championed
competition
over collaboration
but along the way i had several mentors
and educators
who poured into me
and they enabled me to take risks
and to make creative choices
whether it was improvising on a blue
solo or
creating a piece for a concert
or even stepping out onto stage with
them as educators
and improvising an entire concert
with nothing on the page
but why does my journey from
timid
beginner to confident professional even
matter to the field of education
well we are entering one of the most
complex
unpredictable and rapidly changing
landscapes we've ever seen as a species
as a modern civilization we've turned
the page several times from the
agricultural to the industrial to the
information age
and we are now in what author daniel
pink calls the conceptual era
and in this era
those concepts of empathy
and play
and symphonic
like collaboration
are what will make the difference in
such a rapidly changing environment
the world economic forum
says that
those soft skills of active listening
of creative collaboration
of complex problem solving
of creativity
are what will make the difference and
will set those who are ready up for
success in this new era
but if that's the case
if this is the future we're facing
why have many of our traditional models
of education not adapted appropriately
why do we still proceed as if narrow
specialization
and skill building is the ultimate
benchmark
when it's merely the baseline
why do we go forward with these old
models into this new future
well for starters
creativity
is messy
it's not easily assessed
measured
graded
tested
but for those leaders in education who
are ready to rise to the challenge
are ready to step into this new future
are ready to go beyond outcomes into
adventure
are ready to push past those old models
are ready to lead those they mentor into
a liquid mindset into resiliency
are ready to lead those they teach
to experience the power
of play
if they are ready to do that they are
ready to lead those
they teach
into this new era
so the call is clear
what is there to do
simply this create scenarios
in which you
as a leader do not know the outcome
legitimately
put yourself in scenarios where those
you're mentoring have to step into the
unknown with you
and make that discovery
together
but i don't want to just talk about this
today
i want to put it into practice
so i'm gonna invite us to close in a
group exercise
and we're gonna find the magic in this
moment we're gonna make something
amazing together
we're gonna compose
instantly and create a piece and if
you're saying to yourself
i am not musical
never fear
we're just going to make a joyful noise
here together
and have some fun
and to help us i've invited a friend and
colleague to join us
professor mark harris is here on faculty
at metro
so would you help me in welcoming mark
to the stage
now don't think you're too far behind
because we haven't rehearsed what we're
about to do
so
i want to create something together with
you and the way we're going to do this
is i'm going to embrace risk by stepping
out as a leader
and asking you to make a creative choice
in response right so i'll give a
structure
and you can provide a content in
response i'll give
a sign and you can give back some type
of sound all right
and each sign has a definite meaning but
feel free to reinterpret that sign every
time i give it to you
so
we've already learned one i'll give this
one to you for free this is continue
right
it's not traveling it's continuing okay
and we're gonna learn three it's
hit
sustain
and synchronize hit
sustain
and synchronize so let's practice the
first one i hit is a short sharp sound
right
on my cue something maybe like this
you ready
even shorter
great and each time you can think of a
new short sound ready
okay we're gonna warmed up all right
here's the exact opposite right it's a
sustain pick one long tone that doesn't
have a sense of pulse
it could be
[Music]
whatever right maybe something like this
right your turn ready and
i heard a cell phone i was going to have
mark synchronize that but you've already
killed your cell phone so
that's fine i'm in the moment here
right so let's do a few more ready
[Music]
oh we're going to take this on the road
this is great
last but not least is synchronized and
this one is almost impossible
to rehearse right
so whatever we're doing in the moment
when i give you the sign
start listening to those around you and
try to merge your sound
with your neighbors right it's a process
of discovery here and the longer i hold
this the longer i want you to expand
your awareness to the entire room and
maybe just maybe
we might discover one sound that will
create together so synchronize
sustain and hit
you guys ready
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
here
[Applause]
[Music]
me
um
[Applause]
[Music]
so embrace risk
empower creative choice
and you just might discover
the next great idea
thank you
[Music]
you
Посмотреть больше похожих видео
Cultural Safety Education as the Blueprint for Reconciliation | Len Pierre | TEDxSFU
How to fix the exhausted brain | Brady Wilson | TEDxMississauga
How AI can save our humanity | Kai-Fu Lee
TEDxVictoria - Dave Morris: The Way of Improvisation
Older People Give Life Advice
YES, AND: THE POWER OF IMPROV IN EVERYDAY LIFE | REBECCA WAHLS | TEDxCMU
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)