Managing Creativity - Deborah Rutter, President, John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts

Mar 20, 2020

"You have to give up a little bit of control in that (creative) process....it is an iterative process and allowing people to be as creative and crazy as you possibly could imagine and then noticing when there was really a fantastic moment that we all had to say, 'Ah-ha! that's it, let's go there.'"

Deborah Rutter on Green Connections Radio

As we cope with complete upheaval in our lives and work due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s time to step back, take a breath, and find creative ways forward.  But how?

Some of us are naturally creative, others of us are managers and leaders, needing to elicit and nurture creative ideas from our teams.  But how? Listen to this enlightening and inspiring conversation between Green Connections Radio host Joan Michelson and a master at doing this: Deborah Rutter, President of The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for The Performing Arts, the nation’s premier arts center.

You

You'll hear:

• How Rutter successfully elicits and nurtures creative people, helping them bring forth their best ideas and solutions.
• About Rutter’s secret weapon to managing for creativity: “listening for understanding, compassion and beyond…”
• Why patience, “waiting and letting an idea simmer” without controlling the process is so important – even in a world driven by instant feedback… and how it birthed their “Sound health” initiative with a renowned musical star.
• Why ROI – return on impact – with a focus on fulfilling your mission is a better metric than a focus on dollars.
• And great career advice too!

Read my Forbes blog about my interview with Deborah too.            

“My special talent is, I work hard…I talk about this with my daughter all the time…I’m persistent and I work really hard. If you keep working hard, if you think about other people probably more than you think about yourself, you will have opportunities. ”

Deborah Rutter on Green Connections Radio podcast

You may also like:

• Courtney Bickert, comedienne and consultant who uses comedy to drive innovative ideas with various industries.
• Ingrid Daubechies, “Genius” awardee, Duke University professor, whose work you probably use every day.
• Angela Duckworth, Author of “Grit: The power of passion and perseverance,” TED Talk superstar, and Univ. of Pennsylvania professor
• Angela Dutton, “Genius” awardee, and sea-level rise “detective.”
• Hire the Outliers: What Else We Can Learn From Megan Rapinoe”: my Forbes blog on hiring for creativity and innovation.

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