Lessons from Leonardo

Happy New Choral Year to the membership of the American Choral Directors Association! As you think about new starts this year, I will share some lessons that I have drawn from one of my heroes that I use to help me in the leadership and the managerial aspects of my work.

One of the early requests of the ACDA Executive Committee to me when I began my work as Executive Director was to publish my activities on behalf of ACDA so our membership could get a glimpse of the work that takes place to advance our mission and purposes. This listing forms part of their desire to create a totally transparent ACDA. As we explored the many ways we would demonstrate transparency, I decided to create the “Executive Director’s Log” that accompanies my monthly column in Choral Journal, and was later expanded to give a glimpse into what I read (“What’s on Tim’s Kindle) and listen to (“What’s on Tim’s Ipod”). Of course, this is just a glimpse of my activity, but the hope is that it creates some degree of transparency and participation.

With a similar desire for membership involvement in the activities of the executive administration of ACDA, our ACDA Technology Committee asked me to use Twitter, and to expand other social networking resources such as ChoralNet, Facebook, and YouTube for the possible interest of our membership. While I was initially reserved about sharing the mundane as well as the occasional profound aspects of ACDA work from my personal perspective, I quickly discovered that it was a new window of communication that was different than the Choral Journal log, but no less important due to the myriad ways that people choose to communicate today.

Long before these recent communication additions, I was documenting my activity and thinking as a result of what I call my “Lessons from Leonardo”. While I read as many management and administrative books as anyone in my position with their numbered steps to success, it is Leonardo da Vinci that wrote my management manual for me in his notebooks and by his example.

Perhaps due to being enamored all of my life by the Renaissance person, Leonardo’s life as a musician, painter, entrepreneur, inventor, and multi-tasker became my model, at least in example. In addition to the secondary sources (most recently Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl), I have made a point to see his original paintings, frescoes, and drawings, view the sketches and pictograms in his notebooks, and see models and copies of his proposed inventions. By model and observation, I created my “Lessons from Leonardo”, and I offer it at the beginning of a new choral year as yet another management model, or at least the one I use:

-Leonardo kept a notebook, writing all of his ideas down, no matter how trivial or inconsequential. He tied his notebook around his waist and it served as his constant companion. In one margin he wrote he was taking a break from work “perche la minestra si fredda” (“because the soup is getting cold”). Sure, it is a great reason to stop, but why write it down? That was what he did. No idea was trivial. (Was he the original “Twitterer”?)

I keep a notebook and write every idea down.  I value it so much that I give Moleskine notebooks as graduation gifts telling my students to “fill it up”. I also encourage those that work with me to keep a log of their ideas.

-Leonardo observed everything. Not only did he observe, he intentionally observed. He made time in his life to ponder; we know this because he wrote it down. Leonardo’s most often used word was “perche?” – “why?”  You find this word used over and over again in his notebooks. One entry begins “Perche li cani…” or “Why does a dog…” It was not enough to observe, but he also questioned “why?”  Leonardo traded in doubts and questions. He signed himself “Leonardo Vinci disscepilo della sperentia”—“Leonardo Vinci, Disciple of Experience.”

I take and make time to ponder. I seek out new experiences and delight in the opportunity to observe the motivations behind various vocations and activities. I value my formal education as one of the great gifts of life, but I equally value the risks I have taken to experience other ways of knowing in vocations outside of academia.

-Leonardo posed difficult challenges to himself. He gave himself tough tasks such as the description of the tongue of a woodpecker or the description of the experience of thirst. He was not afraid of problems, and might even be described as a problem creator.

Along with Leonardo, I see problems and challenges as opportunities to learn something new, not as obstacles. While I don’t intentionally create them, when they inevitably come, my first thought of resistance is followed by my second thought of new understandings.

-Leonardo was raised between two homes. His famous practice of writing backward has been explained as a possible example of dyslexia, or possibly evidence of being self-taught to read and write. Leonardo did not complete some of his projects. In fact, he started a lot of things that he didn’t finish.  But, he started them. He never achieved his life’s dream to fly.

While my life has had none of the hardships of Leonardo’s, I do have things I would like to achieve in life. Although I want to see projects live that are sustainable and live with a sense of urgency about various initiatives, I choose not to lose sleep over issues of closure.

-While Leonardo is thought of as a visual artist and musician, he pursued military contracts for his income. His vocational title on any given day could have been military contractor, inventor, painter, or musical entertainer. Leonardo was a dreamer. His lists ran from practical to fantasy. Leonardo was very human. He loved people, food, and life. Leonardo was playful.

We don’t have to say much about Leonardo’s work ethic, but more should probably be written about his play ethic. There is ample evidence that wit and winsomeness accompanied his hard work.

In this new choral year, I invite you to journey along with me through our new 21st century networking tools. I invite ACDA members to follow my work through Twitter (following TimothySharp), Facebook (Tim Sharp), Facebook (American Choral Directors Association), Sharp Notes Blog  http://acda.org/sharp_notes , Linked In (Tim Sharp /ACDA), and Plaxos (Tim Sharp). All of these efforts are connected to a single message, a daily routine, and are probably simply digital versions of what Leonardo would have done.