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5 minute read

There’s magic in resilience

What performance arts can teach us about leadership

Dr. Will Houstoun, PhD and performer in residence at Imperial College London’s Royal College of Music in the Centre for Performance Science, shares how using the art of magic and performance can help doctors, patients, and business leaders in Becoming Resilient.

What medicine - and management – can learn from magic

 

How can the unlikely marriage of medicine and magic inspire us as resilient leaders?  In this episode, Dr. Will Houstoun, the performer in residence at Imperial College London’s medical school, describes how he bridges the disciplines of medicine and magic to train tomorrow’s surgeons. His insights into handling disruption, embracing the audience’s assumptions, and using risk to innovate are as relevant for today’s business leaders as they are for Dr. Houstoun’s craft.

"Magic is fundamentally about assumptions. The real power in magic, I think, is that it proves we tend to not think we're making all of these assumptions. Magic's that little reminder that you are making assumptions all of the time. Approaching things with that openness and looking for connection rather than looking for differences seems to be a better way forward."

Episode Highlights

For more information on Dr. Will Houstoun, visit www.drhoustoun.com

Bill Marquard: Welcome to Resilient. I'm Bill Marquard, a managing director with Monitor Deloitte and host of Becoming Resilient. During this series, we explore the connections that wide ranging topics have to business issues and bring you insight from others in their own journeys to becoming resilient.

For example, what can magic teach us about resilience?

Today's guest is Dr. Will Houstoun, a performer-in-residence at the Medical School of Imperial College, London. He helps physicians-in-training to develop better doctor-patient interactions from his own experience as a magician, performing for audiences. Will is a PhD and a lead magician also for Breathe Arts Health Research, a London-based nonprofit. He uses magic to help young people with brain injuries develop function, cognitive abilities, self-confidence, and independence.

Will Houstoun: Magic is fundamentally about assumptions. The real power in magic, I think, is that it proves we tend to not think we're making all of these assumptions. Magic's that little reminder that you are making assumptions all of the time. Approaching things with that openness and looking for connection rather than looking for differences seems to be a better way forward.

Bill Marquard: I hope you enjoyed this preview. Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app, we're on Apple podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you go to get your podcasts.

If you're curious about how other leaders are navigating their own paths to becoming resilient, I encourage you to visit our Global Resilience Hub at deloitte.com/resilience.

Until next time, stay curious, find the connections, and continue your journey of Becoming Resilient.

How can you lead through crisis and disruption? Find out on Resilient, the podcast of authentic and engaging conversations with leaders who don’t leave adversity where they found it. Launched in 2016, the series broke new ground by featuring interviews with those who embody resilience and went on to win the Gold-level AVA Digital Award and Gold-level MarCom Award.

Resilient leaders don’t take obstacles as the final answer, nor do they allow adversity to define them; hear their personal stories of resilience by visiting the Deloitte US Resilient podcast library page.

Meet the host

Bill Marquard

Deloitte - United States
Bill is a managing director in Deloitte’s strategy and analytics practice—and a former philosophy major with a passion for applying liberal arts disciplines to business leadership. He leads Deloitte’s market efforts on resilient leadership, and also works with CEOs, senior executives, and their teams to develop and deliver growth strategies and retail customer experience. Earlier in his career, Bill served as a c-level executive for a Fortune 200 wholesaler/retailer, where he started and ran a chain of limited assortment stores, managed a $3bn supply alliance, and led major cost and IT transformations. He is the author of Leadership Lessons from Leonardo, as well as Deloitte’s five signature articles on resilient leadership which emerged from the COVID-19 crisis. His business strategy book, Wal-Smart: What it Really Takes to Profit in a Walmart World was selected as one of the top five business books of the year, and he has been featured as a leader in business strategy in multiple media outlets including CNN, CNBC, First Business, the Wall Street Journal, and the Chicago Tribune. Bill also served on the faculty of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and has lectured on leadership issues at the White House, Duke University, the University of Notre Dame, and DePaul University.
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