Leadership in Action: Storycatchers Theatre -- "The Revolving Door"

I recently attended a Storycatchers Theatre production, "The Revolving Door"—an original musical written and performed by the Temporary LockDown Ensemble at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago.  This inspiring project, established almost 30 years ago, connects Chicago’s artistic community with incarcerated juveniles to help them “make thoughtful life choices through the process of writing, producing and performing original musical theatre inspired by their personal stories.” 

According to the Storycatchers Theatre’s website, during the organization’s first decade a company of professional actors presented original musicals based on stories gathered from Chicago-area youth, using these productions as a vehicle for post-performance reflection and discussions.  In 1990, the program shifted from using professional actors to engaging adolescents in the full process—from story collection to performance.  As the understanding of adolescents and their life challenges deepened, the Storycatchers model emerged.

Following the compelling performance I attended, the young actors individually shared reactions to their involvement in the project. Several thanked the volunteers for contributing their time and energy, while others added: “I want to continue doing this,” “. . . it got me out of my comfort zone,” “. . . it helped me overcome my fear of speaking before people,” “. . . I never thought I could do this.” 

As an instructor of leadership principles, I found the performance led me to reflect on the meaning of leadership, and how the vision and success of this project exemplifies the concept of leadership in action.  As a member of the audience, I wondered how the lives of these young people would be affected as a result of their involvement in the project. Would they, in turn, become leaders within their own communities?

Clearly, the collective efforts of the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, Nancy B. Jefferson School, The Arts Infusion Initiative of the Chicago Community Trust and the volunteers involved in Storycatchers Theatre are contributing to the personal growth of young people who at some point lost their way but are looking to regain
control over their lives.

For more information on Storycatchers Theatre, go to http://www.storycatcherstheatre.org.

In closing, I’ll share a poem that appeared in the program, written by the Temporary LockDown Ensemble.

Why Do I Try To Fly?

Why do I try to fly when I’m destined to fall?
Why do I try to run when they want me to fall?
I spread by wings so I can soar and take off.
I try to stand tall, aim for up above.

My battle’s lost, and the devil’s won.
The storm clouds in my head block the sun.
Nobody sees my tears, not anyone.
I refuse to be the things I have done.

All my desperation, all my red rage
Put my feelings on paper, and call it a ram-page.
Am I a fool?  Being used like a tool?
My perception of decisions, it is wrong or is it cool?
Walking through the valley of the numb and deceived
Should I keep on this road, or make myself believe
That anything is possible
With the strength that lies in me?
With the strength that lies in me?

Posted through LinkedIn 6/30/2016

A conversation with recent grad and future 21st century leader, Parag Gupta

Image of Parag Gupta originally displayed on http://www.sparkcleanenergy.org/

For the second installment of the "Conversations with 21st Century Leaders" series, I interviewed Parag Gupta, a recent doctoral graduate in Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University. For more information about Parag, visit the post on the LinkedIn Pulse to read his bio and find his LinkedIn profile.

The "Conversations with 21st Century Leaders" series is intended to help students in leadership courses at Northwestern University gain a real-world understanding of the complex issues today’s leaders face. The interview consists of four parts and you can watch all of them on embedded the YouTube playlist below. The videos are split by topic into four sections: Leadership and Personal Development, Cultural Connections, Getting to Know You Questions (submitted by students in my course), and a concluding Wrap Up.

Please watch the interview and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Letters from Leaders: The Importance of Integrity in Business and Leadership

Below is an excerpt from Stephen Joel Trachtenberg’s letter published in Letters from Leaders: Personal Advice for Tomorrow’s Leaders from the World’s Most Influential People.  Trachtenberg’s words eloquently address the importance of integrity in business and the role of leadership. 

I offer these thoughts as a parting gift along with my congratulations and best wishes to my graduating students. Exploring the theory and practice of successful leadership with you has been truly a privilege and a pleasure.

Business needs expansive leaders.  But business also needs leaders who appear trustworthy because they are trustworthy—leaders who will keep their promises to their employees, stockholders, and customers.  To put it simply—and as optimistically as I can—I would say that business needs leaders for whom integrity is built in or second nature.  If you will, Integrity is not a product or the result of a course on the way to earning an MBA.  It is not a veneer or public stance.  To the contrary, it should be bred in the bone and be as important in one’s life as one’s public life; always on and functions, 24/7.

Leaders with such a deep-seated sense of integrity would, I believe, profoundly and rather quickly help restore a great deal of the public’s confidence in American business.  Good leaders would also choose to work with others who have the same sense of integrity or, failing such perfect recruits, do everything they can to instill the same belief in the irrevocable importance of integrity.

This last point is important. Part of leadership is the ability to teach formally and by example.  Are there such young people available today?  Are they on the campuses of America’s colleges and universities?  And are they thinking of careers in business and especially hoping for positions of leadership?  Yes to all questions.  Are there enough of them?  I don’t know the answer to that.  I think it has to be part of any university’s mission to look at the character of its students and to encourage them to do the right thing.  In other words, to increase the number of young men and women for whom integrity is the norm.

This is no easy job, but neither is teaching quantum physics or neurosurgery, both of which we do extremely well.  The questions “leaders” have raised are difficult—and of course that is why they have raised them.  But if difficulty were an insurmountable obstacle, there would be no universities—and few if any men and women of any age would be willing to take on the burdens of leadership, no matter how great the rewards.  But leading a life of integrity and honesty is not an obstacle but an outlook.  And I am, finally, optimistic enough to believe that many young people share that outlook and that many more, seeing their success, will emulate them.  Integrity, I would tell them, does pay.

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
President Emeritus and Professor of Public Service,
The George Washington University

Letters from Leaders highlights excerpts from Letters from Leaders: Personal Advice for Tomorrow’s Leaders from the World’s Most Influential People, compiled by Henry O. Dormann, who says of leaders: “Some leave money, others leave inspiration.  Many leave both.  But all are anxious for young people to learn from their successes and even their failures.”

Published through LinkedIn 6/1/16

Students' Questions 2.0 - Module 5

[How does one achieve a mindset to understand . . . ] "The importance of looking at the world via various socio, cultural, historical, and political contexts in understanding various perspectives."

Students' Questions 2.0 - Module 5

"How can you connect with all of the people that you are trying to lead and have them achieve a goal together?"