The Deep, Meaningful Work of Shared Leadership
For the Jazz Leadership Project, Shared Leadership is a one of the four principles of our model. The foundation of jazz music is a “we space” of shared purpose and goals, inclusive group synergy, and high-level collaboration. As a foundation for collaborative responsibility and accountability, Shared Leadership is grounded in respect and trust based on common goals.
A group mechanism—fueled by the collective intelligence of a common operating platform and common language—this principle moves us from silos and cliques into what we call the jazz mode. In a jazz ensemble, each member is a leader in their own right, based on their role and instrument. They share values and intention, as well as risks, leading to high performance. Shared leadership is a foundation for the collective intelligence of great jazz bands.
The Choreography of Shared Leadership
From left, Robert Battle, Jonathan Stafford, Wendy Whelan, Kevin McKenzie, Eduardo Vilaro, Virginia Johnson, photographed at Lincoln Center. (Credit: Justin J Wee for The New York Times)
When I read the article, “Troupes Discover Their ‘Collective Strength’” in the New York Times, it felt like a beautiful example of this principle in action. The piece reaffirmed the many ways in which the arts point to innovative paths to strengthen and build relationships. Jonathan Stafford, Artistic Director of New York City Ballet, reached out to Robert Battle, Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, to talk through pandemic-related issues and the Black Lives Matter movement. They invited Eduardo Vilaro of Ballet Hispanico, Wendy Whelan, the associate director at City Ballet, Virginia Johnson of Dance Theater of Harlem, and Kevin McKenzie of American Ballet Theater to join the conversation.
The group of six directors have been meeting since August 2020, and, as Whelan put it:
With our group, it feels like a hardened shell has been cracked off our organizations, and a new flexibility and energy has emerged. All through the pandemic we have been addressing the culture of ballet — so many dusty, old habits and outdated traditions that were holding us back. Bad habits and unhealthy power dynamics that have been built into the system and passed down generationally hadn’t been effectively addressed until recently.
Finding great value in their collaborative effort, the directors have continued to meet weekly to source ideas, devise solutions, and explore strategies to affect change in the dance world. No longer siloed, they’ve discovered a collective strength in their shared leadership to address covid-related issues, performance concerns, and even the importance of voting. They’ve found commonalities and new perspectives, while appreciating the diversity of their varied approaches. A major result of this new endeavor was the production of the BAAND Together festival at Lincoln Center last month—the first performance program these companies have ever created together.
The collective intelligence of shared leadership opened a pathway to source needed change as well as new artistic endeavors.
Policing Reimagined Through Shared Leadership
The City of Ithaca/Thompkins County’s new collaborative website for “Reimagining Public Safety.”
Greg and I recently facilitated onboarding workshops based on this principle to help address divisive issues around policing. Through an initiative called “Reimagining Public Safety,” The City of Ithaca/Thompkins County invited members of their community into a collaborative process to dissect and reinvent what public safety should look like. Purposeful intention and great care went into including a multiplicity of voices and perspectives in the process to establish the groundwork for high-level communication, a foundation of trust, and ever-present respect.
Elected officials, community residents, activists, and law enforcement have committed to engage in conversations and public forums, to design plans, submit and review ideas, and to develop tools to build the future they want to see. Envisioning a more just and safe community through the reimagining of policing is a critical and significant undertaking that can only be truly accomplished through the shared leadership of all stakeholders.
Whether an artistic endeavor or a civic vision, shared leadership can deepen relationships, restore interdependence, and elevate our collective meaning for a better future.
