Transformation through the Arts Tactible Meaning & Tactible Leadership

1. Transformation through the ArtsTactible Meaning & Tactible Leadership Kurt Stuke

2. Tactible Meaning - Introduction • Understanding both how to lead and what is meaningful, when viewing a model that is consistent internally, are intractably related • It seems reasonable to base leadership upon meaning as found in doing • Geertz uses the construct of tactible to describe the phenomenon of ideas (and their meaning) grasping and changing the very environments in which they are embedded • If we connect Geertz’ notion of tactible meaning with Dewey’s nuanced version of “experience,” we have an enhanced epistemological starting position

3. Tactible Meaning – Shared Experience • What does Dewey mean when he writes of “experience?” • triadic structure • relation among the parts - all entities involved within the experience are mutually touched or impacted by the experience. • Mode/nature of experience - “watching a storm reach its height and gradually subside.” • Connectedness is at the heart of tactible meaningMeaning is not a one-dimensional dictionary entry read privately by a sole reader within an ivory tower; it is not a serene and content immutable universal floating blithely in a Platonic heaven. It is a shared transformative and very visceral experience. • Df: generative moment In the moment of doing, there is simply an ineffable indescribable rhythmic action; a timeless moment , a shared breathing in and out, in which all three parts of the structure seem to join or touch. In that moment, when the doing at hand is “in the grasp,” action and change occurs. Meaning is born.

4. Tactible Meaning - Boundaries • Wittgenstein’s “Sprach Spiele” & generative moments • Tactible meaning is not unbounded • Tactible meaning is located within context • Anthropological Turn • Understanding context in terms of common communities • Df: Leadership MomentsA leadership moment, like a language game, is the generative moment born of a specific task, as experienced within a specific community, by those members of the community who are doing the task or who are reflecting upon an instance of the task performed previously.

5. Tactible Leadership - Impact • Primary question: What is the impact? If leadership moments shape and transform not only the end result (the objective at hand) but the team leader and team member(s) alike, tactible leadership employs vision that needs to see not only the task at hand but to appreciate and understand the transformative impact of these moments. • The impulse to emphasize product, results, or end-game states (even if the afore-mentioned is mission-critical) is to ignore the potential Trojan horse of transformative impact that leadership moments bear • Within the tactible realm, the focus is organically moved from product to a company’s most valuable assets – its people and their development.

6. Tactible Leadership – The Playbook • There are no identifiable formula or set of rules that predefine the “how” of tactible leadership. • The only checklist is openness to valuing the importance of leadership moments and the transformative potency contained within these moments. • organically valuing all entities within the moment • impact of a moment and of connected moments • New FocusManaging and encouraging growth or movement forward, within a moment and among related moments, is primary; attaining the objectives is a by-product of proper management.

7. Questions & Comments