What do you do with all the material you’ve imbibed from NEXT24? We’ve heard about creativity and artists, and about mindsets and about citizens. How about we create something now? How do we take the knowledge and the uncertainty that comes with that, and craft something new from the conference?

John Michael Schert spent part of his career as both a businessman and a dancer. But for now, he’s going to be the businessman, and give instructions to his husband, who’s the dancer…

Most of us attending NEXT are managers: we’re him in this situation. We’re the ones giving tasks to Brett. But he’s the one making creative choices within the process. And that’s the teams we work with.

Brett’s in a vulnerable position. Yes, he’s a trained dancer, but he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. Watching his improvisation against instructions is funny: but why? Is it because it reduces the tension, because he’s good at what he does, or because it reminds you of Sesame Street?

We went from a single speaker, to a duo, to a collaboration of multiple people during this session. We’re all now part of the piece of art. How often do you rehearse with your colleagues? How often do you get to be Brett and go through a process of discovery with your colleagues?

Setting a goal and building a process to get there is not creativity, it’s just strategy. You need to be open to emergent things to create something new. To do that now, they add music. It’s a macro force, which shifts the context.

What are we seeing? Many answers from the audience: Flow. Teamwork. Energy. Confidence. Emotion and connection. Trust.

Sometimes we are trapped by what works; we end up afraid to change, to disappoint. Now, we’re violating the norms of the space, by having Brett perform on one of the tables.

The manager needs to provide enough protection for us to feel secure with this.

The energy is changing, because more people are getting involved. There’s more risk — and more complexity. There’s rule-breaking! There’s dependency. But also less clear process.

What a fascinating way to end the main stage sessions at NEXT24: finding energy in collaboration, but also in uncertainty and vulnerability. Such potential — if you can harness and bring it into your workplace.