« Cutter Summit 2007 - Volkswagen Case Study | Main | Cutter Summit 2007 – Lynne Ellyn; Is Innovation Relevant to IT? »
May 2, 2007
Cutter Summit 2007 – Paul Robertson; Art and Paradox of Leadership
Paul Robertson leads us into this subject; fascinating that for 35 years he was Founder and Leader of the world-acclaimed Medici Quartet. As we were gathering to start the session, he treated us to wonderful melodies on the solo violin - Bach I believe.
Along the lines of the theme “Pursuing Perfection,” he is guiding us through some music history. We are listening to him describe the master violinist Jascha Heifitz, now seeing some archival video of an actual performance. What an INNOVATIVE way of addressing the subject of leadership at a conference dedicated to the subject of innovation. It’s bold, interesting, entertaining, and engaging. (Writing this blog entry is a terrible distraction in some ways.)
Paul’s approach to this subject is by enabling us to see how the sheer charisma of Heifitz was in play while preparing to launch into a musical performance with an orchestra. His deliberateness, slowness, and engaging approach to setting the tone for the performance. Paul notes that Heifitz did not want to be “loved.” He wanted to be feared and respected.
Now we are seeing the contrast of leadership qualities chosen by Heifitz, with how Paul approached the creation of the Medici Quartet. We are hearing a dramatic, entertaining, funny, and insightful description of Paul’s world, framing the subject of leadership. The use of storytelling and the interspersing of musical notes his violin is brilliant. Brilliant! [I am so proud that he is a fellow Cutter consultant in our Innovation Practice. It is both humbling and inspiring to hear his command of the topic.]
[Question: How do you become a millionaire as a quartet player? You start out life as a billionaire. The crowd erupts in laughter! (They do not do this for the money…)]
Paul’s talk is deeply engaging and I’m finding it difficult to blog while listening, given the style and mapping of his ideas to this topic. I’m going to freehand write for a while, and compose my thoughts into an extension of this entry later.
Posted by Mike at May 2, 2007 1:55 PM
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Cutter Summit 2007 – Paul Robertson; Art and Paradox of Leadership:
