CEOs for Future – Music in leadership training
With her format “PianoBox”, Maria combines art with business and anchors emotional music mediation as an active part of the programme in trainings for executives.
Yvonne Pirkner, an absolute (non-)insider tip when it comes to innovation workshops, approached Maria to ask if she could design a musical part on the topic of “change of perspective” in the trainings she conducts for managers. Asked, done.
The real challenge in this task was to create the change between the rational morning with social-anthropological insights into other forms of society, into a creative afternoon. So Maria knew what mindset the participants would be in and where they should be led. The participants themselves had no idea what was going to happen, because there was no piano concert on the agenda but suddenly a pianist was sitting at the instrument (usually the reaction is: now it’s getting boring).
In her “PianoBox for Executives” format, developed for and with MORS, Maria talks to the audience about the emotions in the works she then plays, tells the stories she thinks about and shows how and what the music tells her. She used this approach at CEOs for Future to show from classical music history why it took the world 250 years to use the piano not only on the keys but with all its elements. You can put your hand on the sides and discover completely new sounds.
The second story was Maria’s very personal change of perspective and what it took for her to find her creativity as a pianist (and not a composer who creates new music). The music was about a love story where each listener can decide the outcome for themselves – the way you feel it is the right answer for you. She had the audience in the emotion!
The last part was the build-up into the active for all participants, a story and the music on the theme of youthful energy and the power one draws from the group. After only one hour, this approach left all participants open to allow their own creativity and embrace the playful approaches of Yvonne’s programme more quickly.
As you can see from the pictures, Yvonne and Maria had a lot of fun with it, they are currently working on designing their own workshop on how to actively discover and use music and art in business – the complete opposite of boredom!
Photos © Paris Tsitsos