THNK The Amsterdam School for Creative Leadership officially launched yesterday, 19 March. The team of founding participants and faculty looks very promising and they seem eager to get their hands dirty. Over the course of 18 months they will work on challenging real word projects together, while developing their personal skills as creative leaders.
During the launch event, Stefan Marzano, the founding dean of THNK, encouraged them to have their heads in the cloud, but to also have their feet firmly on the ground. “Creative leaders are not just fancy thinkers. They need to be ready to step into the mud, and to expect some tomatoes thrown in their faces, as innovations are not always immediately successful”. Well said, and completely in line with the famous quote from Samuel Beckett “Fail. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.”
So congratulations to THNK. It has been a tough process at times to get everything lined up for this final official start. The school has been 3 years in the making, including a few pilot projects during the past year.
STBY is proud to have contributed to the start up phase of THNK. About a year ago we conducted an extensive series of interviews with creative leaders (to be) around the world, and talked with them about their expectations for a school of creative leadership. We learned a lot about their thoughts on the program, the topics, the tutors, and also the type of organization and collaboration would want to experience.
The results of this study informed the staff of THNK in further developing the plans for the institute. It was great to hear that they made good use of it.