Poetry in the boardroom: thinking beyond the facts

Abstract

Last fall, JBS Editor Nanci Healy facilitated a roundtable discussion among Clare Morgan (Oxford University), Kirsten Lange (Boston Consulting Group, Munich) and Ted Buswick (Boston Consulting Group, Boston) on poetry and business strategy, two subjects that don't ordinarily go together. The editor thanks the participants for sharing their ideas and creativity with JBS readers and possibly opening up new avenues of thought for business leaders.Healy: Clare, can you talk about the workshop you recently conducted with a high tech company in England that included poetry as part of business strategy?Morgan: This was a young UK company that wanted to expand quickly and make sure the strategies for expansion were right. My own company had been doing some organization development work with them, and the CEO wanted to spend time at a strategy retreat developing the thinking of his management team as well as addressing the concrete issues that faced them. We'd kept him informed about the work within the Boston Consulting Group Strategy Institute on poetry and thinking, and -being a poetry reader himself -he was eager to see how exposure to some poetry would affect the way his team approached certain key issues.Healy: How did you decide what line to take in presenting such an unusual subject?Morgan: We decided to focus on the real topic at hand -making decisions. We chose a poem that showed how complex making decisions is: complex, that is, in terms of how so many different elements can affect how we see ''the facts''. The CEO was very pleased that the content of the poem opened up a wide-ranging discussion of real issues like: When is the right time to kill off a project? What influences we may not be aware of are affecting how we prioritize value and make fine judgments? The poem also opened up how we may be judged, for making tough choices that affect the lives of others. The CEO liked the way the discussion highlighted that in many cases there is not a clear cut right or wrong to the decision we're faced with. Sometimes the information we have is incomplete, or the different strands of need cannot be definitively prioritized. The poem we used at the workshop was Traveling Through the Dark, by William Stafford, and it reminded the management team just how much ''in the dark'' we often are at important decision-making moments.Healy: Was your goal to find a poem that suited the topic and explore it?Morgan: That, and more. The right choice of topic is important in getting the interest of a busy executive. If the pay-off were just the new and expanded visions about decision making, or risk, or leadership, or power, or any of the other many areas of relevance a poem could be dealing with -that wouldn't be enough of a reason, in most companies, for playing the wild card of a poem, rather than, say, organizing a discussion group. Buswick:The big thing it offered was the skills it began to develop. Reading poetry opens up new thinking spaces, and accessing those spaces requires you to develop a new set of thinking skills.

The Role of the Arts in Organizational Settings

“…Another practical use of poetry in developing business strategy is evident in a collaborated workshop among professionals from Oxford University, Boston Consulting Group, Munich, and Boston Consulting Group, Boston (Buswick, Morgan, & Lange, 2005). The project was created to help a high-tech company in England that wanted to expand quickly and be certain that the strategies for expansion were right.…”

Decorative Integration or Relevant Learning? A Literature Review of Studio Arts-Based Management Education With Recommendations for Teaching and Research

“…Because poems are individual, subjective portraits of organizational reality, writing and discussing published poems or poems written by students and faculty members in group settings with management students can foster dialogue in which organizational realities are examined, analyzed, and compared across different perceptions. In summary, writing and reading poetry in management education can help foster empathy and creativity by engaging deeply about the purpose and meaning of work (Buswick et al, 2005;Hiley, 2006) and deepening an appreciation of artistic skills (Phillips, 2011) to divergent thinking around organizational problems (Buswick et al, 2005) as well as enhanced awareness of affective aspects of organizational life in general (Pruetipibultham & Mclean, 2010).…”

“…Poetry can be employed as an art form in the field of management in four different ways: (a) poets serve as organizational consultants to businesses (Buswick, Morgan, & Lange, 2005; Essez & Mainemelis, 2002); (b) business professionals actively write and publish poems about business life and their workplace experience (Windle, 2006); (c) researchers explore their own, or management students’ aesthetic experiences in organizations through the writing process (Darmer, 2006; Hiley, 2006; Kirby, 2011); and (d) management professors share poems they have written about their professional identity with students and/or have students write and share their own poems (Van Buskirk & London, 2008).…”

“…This format usually involves investigating into the nature of organizational problems to be discussed, then carefully selecting the poem and finally, introducing the poem to organizational members. Poem selection rests on subject matter, accessibility, beauty, and emotional tension so that organizational members can effectively connect with the poem’s meaning, connect that meaning to workplace problems, and derive different ideas to solve those problems (Buswick et al, 2005).…”

Topics, Texts, and Critical Approaches

“…Liberal learning practices have been employed in management teaching settings, furthermore, as a way to introduce discussions of emotion, particularly passion, and emotional intelligence (Bilimoria, 1999; Goleman, 1998; Grisham, 2006; Huffman & Kilian, 2012; Kostera, 1997; Morris, Urbanski, & Fuller, 2005); as a way to provoke creativity in thinking (Brown, 2006; Buswick, 2005; Essex & Mainemelis, 2002; Grisoni & Kirk, 2006); and as a way to promote authenticity of voice and identity (Eriksen, 2012; Gallos, 1997; Hiley, 2006). It is worthwhile to note that this journal has demonstrated a profound and continuing commitment to the integration of liberal learning components into management education, as evidenced not only by this issue but also by the regular appearance of scholarship devoted to the subject matter.…”