The Transforming Power of Creativity
25m
·
Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme
·
Stop playing it safe
In this podcast Tracey Camilleri and Samenua Sesher explore the power of art to renew, re-engage and reinvigorate, especially during times of trauma. As the Founder of the digital Museum of Colour, Samenua reflects on some of the creative journeys of her contributors – and on her own visceral reaction to the Pitt Rivers Museum of anthropology in Oxford.
Informed by her 'Respect Due' Gallery , she invites us all to take time out to honour those who have influenced our lives, especially our elders. Samenua exhorts even those who don’t think of themselves as being ‘creative’ or those who don’t work in the creative industries to try the untried, to change up their ‘unofficial board of advisors’, to dare to follow their imaginations. At times like these, we need to stop playing it safe. Samenua brings a much needed playful, joyful optimism to bear on our sombre times, believing that the development of the vaccine has shown us that ‘we can do things faster than we think’. ‘Joy is a wonderful place to work from’, she declares and leaves us with her 2020 playlist which, she says, gladdens the heart. Samenua Sesher is a culture management consultant, a coach, an unconscious bias trainer and the founder and director of the Museum of Colour, exploring the creative journeys of British people of colour. She has experience of delivering multi-million-pound programmes and has fed into national cultural policy; set up and run a local authority culture service and lectured. She was a 2008/09 Clore Fellow and was awarded an OBE for Services to the Arts in spring 2018 from the New Year’s Honours List. Samenua is a People's Palace Project (PPP) Associate, member of the Advisory Board for The Art of Cultural Exchange and the is on the faculty for Oxford Cultural Leaders. All her work is underpinned by a passionate belief in the power of creativity to transform us, challenge us and help to improve our understanding of the world, its people and ourselves. Digital Museum of Colour · The Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthropology at Oxford · Samenua's Spotify playlist · Connect with Samenua on LinkedIn
The episode The Transforming Power of Creativity from the podcast Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme has a duration of
25:00. It was first published
More episodes from Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme
Leonardo, Lock-down and Lateral Thinking
Martin Kemp (Trinity College, Oxford | Emeritus Professor)
In this episode, Tracey Camilleri talks to Oxford art historian, author, academic and world expert on Leonardo da Vinci, Professor Martin Kemp.
Originally trained as a scientist, Kemp speaks about the advantages of looking at the world through multiple lenses and disciplines. He considers the importance of authenticity and the crucial difference between fakes and the real thing. He reflects on the toppling of statues in response to Black Lives Matter (#BLM) and how some images, like that of Che Guevara, become icons. As an expert in looking and focused noticing, he discusses the current pandemic and how the virus is represented visually.
Above all he reflects on the messiness of being human in a digital world of AI and computer simulation. Connect with Martin on LinkedIn · Martin Kemp's website with links to his books, lectures and research · website · Connect with Tracey on LinkedIn · Connect with Sam Rockey on LinkedIn
Leonardo, Lock-down and Lateral Thinking
Martin Kemp (Trinity College, Oxford | Emeritus Professor)
In this episode, Tracey Camilleri talks to Oxford art historian, author, academic and world expert on Leonardo da Vinci, Professor Martin Kemp.
Originally trained as a scientist, Kemp speaks about the advantages of looking at the world through multiple lenses and disciplines. He considers the importance of authenticity and the crucial difference between fakes and the real thing. He reflects on the toppling of statues in response to Black Lives Matter (#BLM) and how some images, like that of Che Guevara, become icons. As an expert in looking and focused noticing, he discusses the current pandemic and how the virus is represented visually.
Above all he reflects on the messiness of being human in a digital world of AI and computer simulation. Connect with Martin on LinkedIn · Martin Kemp's website with links to his books, lectures and research
An impatient desire to change the status quo
Dr Yoge Patel (Blue Bear Systems | CEO)
Here we have the good fortune to talk to tech entrepreneur Dr Yoge Patel, CEO of Blue Bear Systems a UK leader in unmanned flight technology about how she began to grow her company.
She reflects on the developmental benefits of being in the middle of a family of 7 children and how that gave her with the opportunity to watch and listen as she was growing up – key capabilities for an entrepreneur.
In the conversation she reflects on a characteristic that unites all entrepreneurs – an impatient desire to change the status quo. Although she is a self-confessed ‘techie’, her approach to running a business has a solid human-based foundation, built on simple principles – or ‘mantras’ – and a non-hierarchical shared ethos.
Her secret of success?
Even after her mother told her as a child to ‘stop smiling, people will think you are simple’ – it is always to be herself, whether speaking to a cabinet minister or the youngest recruit in the office. She reflects on some of the advantages of the Covid lockdown amongst all the difficulty, ‘I love it when one of my most senior guys tells me that he has to break off a video call to put his two year old son to bed for a nap. We have won back time from our commute for our families.’
She is optimistic about the development of technology – believing that it must always contribute to broader societal value, always be a tool for the furtherance of mankind and that good emotional design is the foundation for good engineering. Connect with Yoge on LinkedIn · website · Connect with Tracey on LinkedIn · Connect with Sam Rockey on LinkedIn
An impatient desire to change the status quo
Dr Yoge Patel (Blue Bear Systems | CEO)
Here we have the good fortune to talk to tech entrepreneur Dr Yoge Patel, CEO of Blue Bear Systems a UK leader in unmanned flight technology about how she began to grow her company.
She reflects on the developmental benefits of being in the middle of a family of 7 children and how that gave her with the opportunity to watch and listen as she was growing up – key capabilities for an entrepreneur.
In the conversation she reflects on a characteristic that unites all entrepreneurs – an impatient desire to change the status quo. Although she is a self-confessed ‘techie’, her approach to running a business has a solid human-based foundation, built on simple principles – or ‘mantras’ – and a non-hierarchical shared ethos.
Her secret of success?
Even after her mother told her as a child to ‘stop smiling, people will think you are simple’ – it is always to be herself, whether speaking to a cabinet minister or the youngest recruit in the office. She reflects on some of the advantages of the Covid lockdown amongst all the difficulty, ‘I love it when one of my most senior guys tells me that he has to break off a video call to put his two year old son to bed for a nap. We have won back time from our commute for our families.’
She is optimistic about the development of technology – believing that it must always contribute to broader societal value, always be a tool for the furtherance of mankind and that good emotional design is the foundation for good engineering. Connect with Yoge on LinkedIn
At any Moment Everything can Change
A conversation with Margaret Heffernan.
In this wide-ranging episode, Tracey talks to Margaret Heffernan about the importance of paying attention to what is not being said - as well as learning to listen closely to others who have a very different perspective and experience of life.
She ponders the limits and oversimplifying 'narrative tidiness' of stories told in the present about complex situations, as well as the blundering misuse of big data. She reflects on the inadequacy of what is still an essentially 19th century education system and the need for lifelong learning as we embark on Uncharted territory.
She laments how many management processes seem designed precisely to constrain rather than enable experimentation, creativity and flexibility - the expression of our neuroplasticity. Margaret refers back to her earlier book, 'How She Does It', as she talks about the different way in which women lead and establish systems in organisations.
Thinking about an unknown future she hopes for a world where we can all be more curious, ask better questions, one where we are prepared to give up some of our comforts for the good of the next generation and, as leaders, tell the hard truths as we see them rather than settling for short term, easy lies that lead to the costly erosion of trust that we are currently living through. Connect with Margaret on LinkedIn · website · Connect with Tracey on LinkedIn · Connect with Sam Rockey on LinkedIn