Inspiring words: Leading through poetry

“The discipline of poetry makes you really focus on the essence of what you’re really trying to say, to get that over in a way with images that people will really connect to.”

Zoe van Zwanenberg of the Scottish Leadership Foundation and poet Elspeth Murray describe how poetry can develop leaders and benefit almost any type of organisation.
 

Video Transcription

Zoe van Zwanenberg: “In developing leaders, you’re trying to develop people’s total capacity, you’re trying to develop them as human beings, not just as factotums of organisations. So you’re looking to develop their insight into themselves, their insight into other people, their ability to communicate, their ability to vision a different future. The arts are fundamental to being able to do that.”
 
Elspeth Murray: “I think poetry can be a great tool for leaders to use. It can help empathise and understand other people’s point of view and as a way of connecting and conveying ideas persuasively.”
 
Zoe van Zwanenberg: “The discipline of poetry makes you really focus on the essence of what you’re really trying to say, to get that over in a way with images that people will really connect to. And so for leaders, where communication is absolutely critical to everything they do, poetry can give them some new ways of communicating, and some disciplines about communicating that would really help them.”
 
Elspeth Murray: “I think poetry could have relevance in any workplace where people are communicating through words or writing, in any place where jargon is used excessively, places where people are memorizing things, places where they’re presenting ideas and where there are patterns to the routine of work. All of that has got some kind of poetic resonance.”