Arts-Based Learning for Managers (BUSN 6288) was a short course offered by the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University, co-taught by Professors Anthony De Ritis (former Chair of the Music Department with a joint position in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group) and Janet Bobcean (former Chair of the Theatre Department). The course ran three times: Spring 2012, Fall 2012, and Spring 2014.

Arts-Based Learning for Managers was a special “intersectional innovation” course first offered by the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Spring 2012

Course Format

The course meets in two 5-hour sessions, two weeks apart. Class members are presented with a five minute radio play (a short script), and are tasked with performing the play in front of their peers and other invited guests. Requirements include assigning roles, memorizing lines, designing a set, props, sound, costumes, lighting — and agreeing on a creative vision for the performance.

The course has two additional requirements: 1) during the two week period between class sessions, each participant selects five remarks from the book Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director’s Chair by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich, and comments on the application of its leadership lessons generated from the theater within the context of their own respective jobs. These comments are posted and shared in an online forum designed for the class; 2) after the final performance, participants write a paper where they reflect on their performance experience through the lens of six Harvard Business Review articles related to collaboration, learning from failure, creative spaces, leadership, innovation, and experimentation.

Course Context

Arts‐Based Learning in Management Education was a focus of the 2011 Leadership Conference co‐sponsored by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and the MBA Roundtable. A principle theme of this conference was that people in organizations are too often limited in the range of competencies they use and organizations have become overly reliant on rational‐analytical competencies. Aesthetic competencies are under‐explored as potentially valuable resources in perceiving, understanding, and acting on complex challenges in organizations. Globally, leaders are calling on their people for more creativity and more innovation and are calling upon the arts for inspiration. Arts-Based Learning for Managers presents how arts experiences can contribute to the learning and development of managers and leaders. Class members participate in practice-based methodologies found in the creative arts. These practical experiences are discussed in the context of how and why increasing numbers of corporate leaders are bringing artists and artistic processes into their companies, with the goal of stimulating management education and leadership development outside the traditional confines of the four walls of a classroom.

Learning Outcomes

Approaches to out-of-the-box thinking; learning new methods toward shared creative experiences; improvisation as a means to stimulate innovation; embracing failure and experimentation; the benefits of rehearsal and practice for audience presentation; interdisciplinary study and methods; learning how to express oneself individually as a leader while simultaneously maintaining the role as a team member.

Readings (book)

Hauser, Frank, & Reich, Russel. (2003). Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director’s Chair. New York: Walker Publishing Company, Inc.

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Readings (articles)

Adler, P., Heckscher, C., & Prusak, L. (2011, July- August). Building a Collaborative Enterprise. Harvard Business Review, 89(7/8), 94-101. (Reprint R1107G).

Edmondson, Amy C. (2011, April). Strategies For Learning From Failure. Harvard Business Review, 89(4), 48-55. (Reprint R1104B).

Fayard, Anne-Laure, & Weeks, John. (2011, July–August). Who Moved My Cube? Harvard Business Review, 89(7/8), 102-110. (Reprint R1107H).

Ibarra, Herminia, & Hansen, Morten T. (2011, July-August). Are You a Collaborative Leader? Harvard Business Review, 89(7/8), 68-74. (Reprint R1107D).

Martin, Roger L. (2011, June). The Innovation Catalysts. Harvard Business Review, 89(6), 82–87. (Reprint R1106E).

McGrath, Rita Gunther. (2011, April). Failing by Design. Harvard Business Review, 89(4), 76–83. (Reprint R1104E).