Learning
Business Arts Forum
Business Arts Forum
The LIFT Forum develops creative approaches to workplace issues via visits to the theatre, creative workshops and conversations. By bringing people together across sectors, ages, cultures and working backgrounds, the Forum is building an international learning community intent on making sense of the world and on developing the strategic skills and connections needed to build more sustainable forms of work, society, and organisation. The Forum is guided by experts on culture, organisational learning and environment including Charles Handy, Gerard Fairtlough, Arie de Geus, Barbara Heinzen and Karen Otazo.
In order to ensure a balance of perspectives across the group, membership is through application only.
Background
1995 — 2002
Throughout LIFT’s history, it has engaged with businesses. This relationship has emphasised public relations benefits to be gained through sponsorship of LIFT’s most popular productions. In 1995, a revolutionary initiative - the LIFT Business Arts Forum - opened up the Festival in a different way directly challenging the idea that the Festival was a just a vehicle for advertising. It claimed that, in a world undergoing profound change, there was much to be learned from LIFT and the full range of contemporary performances we staged. The claim was supported by The Financial Times, and leading business thinkers Charles Handy and Arie de Geus.
Why would businesses wish to learn from the contemporary theatre?
The 1980’s and 90’s saw deregulation of state industries, escalating technological power and issues of environmental and human rights rise up the agenda. These crises forced businesses to conclude that profound structural change was needed simply to remain competitive. Different forms of discourse were needed with people outside a familiar sphere. At the simplest level, the Forum facilitates a new form of discourse in the public sphere, beyond the boundaries of any one organisation. By immersing all participants in a shared experience of theatre from different parts of the world, discussion immediately moves to a metaphorical and cultural level where the big questions of humanity are explored. It is through this prism that participants are able to move beyond preoccupations of delivery of their work to consider its purpose and value. This level of engagement is a precursor to tackling structural change and more sustainable forms of wealth creation.
How does the Forum work?
The Forum is a series of seminars and events in the Festival. Participants carry with them the question: What do I learn from LIFT events? What would I do differently in my work as a result? A theatre director leads the group through a series of workshops which encourage people to use powers of perception beyond the simply verbal. The Forum includes people working in business, the public sector (government and health service), professional artists, LIFT staff and consultants in various aspects of management development or organisational learning. In recent years, the Forum has also included young performing arts students.
What do people learn?
The Forum is a place from which people are able to talk to and think with people they would otherwise never meet. They share an experience - going to international contemporary theatre productions all over London - and together tease out what they have seen. This automatically means that people are challenged in their assumptions. Everyone sees things differently. This helps foster attitudes of listening, openness and tolerance. It produces a degree of ’creative discomfort’ where differing views can be heard. It is a place where people can step out of their usual hierarchies.