season 2 episode 13 – art to build connection and trust | Adam Rosendahl

Resources and links

Artworks and other topics mentioned during the podcast can be seen in the following links:

• Late Nite Art’s website
• Adam Rosendahl’s Medium page
• Berkeley Art Center
• Youth arts empowerment camp on Whidbey Island, Washington
• Heart of Facilitation course
• UC Santa Cruz
• Forest Stearn’s website and podcast episode
• Scaling Intimacy School of Experience Design

Transcripts

The transcript was produced by an AI, mistakes might appear. 

[00:00:00] Nir Hindi: Hey, Adam, welcome to the Artian podcast.

Adam Rosendahl: Thank you, NIR. Thank you so much for having me. I have been looking forward to this for a while now.

Nir Hindi: I woke you up quite early. No what is the time now in Oakland.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah, it is just a bit after 8:00 AM in Oakland,

California,

Nir Hindi: at least for our listeners. I can promise you that I do not look super sharp, and I can share these photos on our social media.

Adam Rosendahl: Oh, I am doing my best.

Nir Hindi: Adam Can you introduce yourself briefly?

Adam Rosendahl: Sure. So, my name is Adam Rosendahl, and I am based here in the San Francisco bay area in California. And, um, I run an organization that is called Late Nite Art and we, we call ourselves a creative learning and development lab. And what we do is we design workshops for organizations and conferences.

That is all about building psychological.

safety.

Nir Hindi: I love this late Nite art and I must share my own experience. And maybe I will talk about my experience later, because I think it is more important to get to know how you got into this concept of late Nite [00:01:00] art. And I am interested to kind of ask you what brought you into this world of art.

What attracted you to experiment with that?

Adam Rosendahl: As

far as I know. My mom always wanted me to be an artist. So, she enrolled me in a very interesting art program. When I was about four years old called the Berkeley Art Center, where all these little children would go and we would throw paint on the walls and they hired psychologists, too.

Help these all of us young people to like really to express ourselves creatively. And then they would tell our parents about our creative process and what that kind of meant about our personality. So, I think that was the beginning of me exploring and getting wild with creativity. But the big moment for me was when I was 13 years old, I was sent up to a youth arts empowerment camp on Whidbey island, Washington.

That was all about using different art forms. Like. Beatboxing and freestyling and painting and dance, but not as an art camp [00:02:00] to teach us to become better artists, but we would use these different art forms to connect with each other. And the teenagers who were at this camp were from many different backgrounds from native American reservations, many different cultures and religions, and, um, socioeconomic backgrounds were represented.

So I was. In a unique environment with, uh, young people who I had never connected with before and through these art forums, I was able to learn about myself and deeply connect with my peers in a way that kind of. It almost turned these group of strangers into family. And so, it felt for me like a magical experience.

And from the words of my mom, she said I had a, like a spiritual awakening. That was the moment I think, where I experienced how art can be used as a tool for connection and especially bridging difference between people who are coming from very, very different.

backgrounds.

Nir Hindi: First, I do not know your mom, but I already love her.

It is very rare to hear a parent that say, I want my [00:03:00] kids to be an artist. Most of the parents say I want my kid to be a doctor or technologist an entrepreneur lawyer. So that is, first, I am already inspired by.

that.

Adam Rosendahl: It is funny though? Cause if I, so my mom is like an organizational consultant. She works inside of organizations and does a lot of work around leadership and conflict and communication.

But I think she always wanted to be an artist, so she was determined to raise one.

Nir Hindi: Beautiful. I love it. So, at the age of a 13, you realized something very important about art that I think it is kind of spot on. It is a way to connect people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different disciplines, different ages.

How did you pursue this in your life that led you to, to start late Nite art?

Adam Rosendahl: really

inspired, like I said, by the facilitators of this program. So. The facilitators, this camp, um, had very deep experience in utilizing art forms as a bridge for connection and for building trust. And so, I started studying in a way, I mean, I [00:04:00] became deeply involved with this program.

So, I went back year after year and took a six-month course on facilitation, which was called the heart of facilitation, which is really like my initiation into. Being a guide of group process and exploring group dynamics and the emphasis of this facilitation training program, which is kind of like grad school for a lot of us as facilitators was around utilizing the arts.

And so, in this program, which was in Portland and Seattle, I developed my final project, which was kind of the beginning of what would become my organization at this time. It was just sort of a playful idea.

Nir Hindi: So

wait, did you study art? I mean, what did you did this facilitation workshop?

Adam Rosendahl: Sure.

Yeah.

So, I did study art, you know, I was, I have always considered myself an artist throughout my whole life. When I went to college at UC Santa Cruz, I tried to study other things like [00:05:00] psychology and business, and I felt like an imposter. So anytime I really looked in the mirror, I said, I am an artist. And if I try to study anything else in college, it feels.

Inauthentic. So, I came back, and I got my bachelor’s degree in visual art. I studied illustration and painting. You know, I went into the job market after that and was hit with reality that in San Francisco, I could not even get an internship after graduating.

Nir Hindi: because of your background.

Adam Rosendahl: Well, just because it is, you know, I think the opportunities were scarce.

And so even though I, I had a lot of mentors in the art world, it was very challenging for me to find any kind of job in the arts. And so, what I did is I moved up to Seattle and I started working as an AmeriCorps volunteer for this nonprofit organization that ran the camp that I grew up, um, attending.

And I became, uh, basically an art teacher inside of a high school in Seattle.

Nir Hindi: When

was the moment that you took this graduate [00:06:00] project that you had that later became late Nite art and tried it with people outside of your goals or your program?

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah. So, there was a moment that I was able to, I was invited into a conference to do this workshop that I had created.

And the conference was around diversity, equity, and inclusion. It was around exploring race in corporations around the United States. And how can we have conversations about race? And currently, it was. It was about 2013. And so, the conference was called D 2020. So, it was about what is the conversation of diversity in the year 2020, which is.

Nir Hindi: yeah, it was like to think about black lives.

matters.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah. I was brought in as a facilitator to lead my workshop. And to explore this conversation about race and identity but using this creative method that I had created. So, this is really my first time ever, getting invited into an outside [00:07:00] context to do my work. And it happened to be this very sort of high profile and heightened.

Conversation, which brings up a lot for people around talking about, um, differences and their identity with each other and what happened. There was fascinating,

Nir Hindi: Why?

Adam Rosendahl: Because it was a young white guy. Who is not very involved in the business world? And my audience was extremely diverse range of, um, business professionals who are all of them were the head of diversity and inclusion inside of their different companies, which are companies from all over the U S.

And, um, they had a lot of skepticism for this young white guy who was leading them through something that they did not sign up for. Um, but the, the impact of it was deep conversations using these art forms, where people were starting to humanize each other and really see their, their backgrounds.

And they had neighborhoods that they grew up in building empathy in a way that they would not have expected. And it led to a lot of [00:08:00] new friendships, new collaborations, and eventually one of the men in the audience hired me too. Come out to Louisville, Kentucky for my first corporate gig with his, uh, health care company.

Nir Hindi: I am

interested why you call it late Nite art? Why it is late Nite art if you are doing it with corporate America in the morning.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah, I know this has been, this has been a bit of a branding challenge for me for the last 10 years. So, the reality is the way this organization has been built and developed is very organic.

As most organizations, it was not planned. I did not have any grand scheme to turn this into a business that started off as a, just something I love to do. Like I said, when I was starting off in facilitation. And I was collaborating with a friend of mine who is deeply into bringing different, meaningful dialogue into group spaces.

So, he would host these dialogues in the evenings where he would have different people and he would pose questions and have people really have, um, a deep [00:09:00] and thoughtful conversation about that. So, he combined that, uh, his love of dialogue with my love of art and collaboration and music, and together, we kind of built this initial.

Idea which we were running more as a party. So, you know, we had food and we would bring wine and it was kind of a community activator, a way of just bringing new ideas and getting people to connect. So, from there, there was somebody who was at one of our initial workshops, who have really had the idea that this is an interesting business concept.

And she said, what if you. Added a gourmet food element and you called it late Nite art. So that was very early on, back in 2010, but that name sort of stuck. And so, my friend started running workshops under the name late Nite art in Vancouver, Canada. I started running in, uh, Oakland, California, and soon there was this, uh, brand and this, uh, movement that was starting to develop.

And, um, [00:10:00] both of our project’s kind of took different shapes and forms. He ended up moving to Amsterdam and, um, trying to start up a chapter of late Nite art in Amsterdam. It turns out that the culture there, it was, uh, a little harder to get strangers to connect with each other through this, uh, facilitated process.

So, it did not work out as well. Yeah, late Nite art really took fire in Oakland and the San Francisco bay area. And even though we would initially it started as like a community event at night. Um, it transformed into a corporate training and workshop that we were doing in the morning and afternoon and all over the world.

The feeling of the kind of sexy feeling of being late at night and having good music and having candles and flowers, we would still have that even in the morning. And so, the whole idea of what we do is. Turning a corporate training on its head. So how can we make learning more creative, interesting, and fun.

Even if people are learning about leadership development or diversity equity inclusion, or [00:11:00] if they are exploring, um, how to create a new onboarding process for their employees, it can still have this. Kind of playful nightlife feeling to it. So that’s part of the, um, the culture of what we do.

Nir Hindi: What I find interesting is that you started as a community building, but then it became a tool for change.

Even though you, we call it the corporate training, it is more than just let us have fun. Is there is a purpose over here to create change. And in a second, I would be happy to hear some examples. What do you perceive from participants that participate in it, but before that I want to share my experience because I attended one?

It was here in Madrid with our facilitated by our friend Forest Stearns. And I must admit it at the beginning. He told me Nir, you know, it has come. I want to organize it. We do it at a friend’s house. It is probably two, three hours. And I was like, what two, three hours? What are we going to do for two, three hours?

And I remember that [00:12:00] I came to this madrileño apartment, um, and we were six or seven people and forest was there and I enter, and the table was covered with a white paper and there were a lot of colors and different types of markers. And when I was asking myself, well, I thought we were going to do and slowly with every task that forest gave us.

And obviously we were six strangers over there. It became an amazing experience. One of the tasks that I remember strongly and vividly is that when I sit in front of someone, I met probably 30 minutes before and Forest kind of the guiding question was what you would wish her, if it were your sister and you look at a stranger and you do not know.

If she has, what is her status? What does that, why does she have brother, sister? What does she do for a living? You do not know, but this change to look at her, like you are giving kind of wishing something for your sister. It was very [00:13:00] powerful. And I remember that at the end of the night, when everyone, we needed to draw each other and write for each other, it was.

Very strong. So instead of asking you to describe it, kind of describe it myself, but I would be happy to, obviously, if you have something to add over here, because it was a really, unique experience to be able to open to people. I met 20 minutes before, so

Adam Rosendahl: yeah,

that is so fun and powerful for me to hear your experience in Madrid and hearing about my friend and co-facilitator forest Stearns and how he led the process too.

So late Nite art is, you know, we have done over 350 events in 12 countries, and I have trained six other facilitators besides myself to lead this process. It has happened in Uganda and Bangalore and London and Madrid. I think in each cultural context, there is a little there’s different nuances, but the main theme is that art crosses language [00:14:00] and boundary.

It has a way of humanizing people, even if it is translated into different languages. So, I guess how can it be used as a tool for communication beyond language? One exercise that I love to start with that is called the visual conversation, where I get people to sit in front of each other and let go of the normal way that they might say hello and communicate.

And they must stop talking entirely. And what I say is I am going to play music and I have you communicate through drawing. And although this seems a little bit silly and maybe random, it opens a new opportunity for people to connect outside of their analytical mind and let go of them.

Thinking they know where the conversation is going to go. And opening to connecting in a way that might feel nonproductive or unusual. And people move into like a more creative and playful way of engaging with each other. Um, and it really engages their imagination.

Nir Hindi: That’s by the way, you did live on stage in the Ted talk that you gave.

No.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah.

[00:15:00] Nir Hindi: Between those two ladies in the next sitting next to you on the Ted

stage,

Adam Rosendahl: I had like the 900 plus people in the audience take out pens and. Find a partner and, um, yeah, in my TEDx talk, I had folks do this very short exercise, which is just a good example of how we can engage our imagination with another person and how in just a minute or two minutes, some part of ourselves can come out, which we don’t normally see because when we draw and we show.

Our partner and we create something together. It brings out a whole new side of our personality that people would not expect. And so, when I do this with businesses and executives, and we start off with something like this, that just brings out a new side of people. It starts to build more of a sense of connection.

And part of the method that I have created is around starting with this connection and opening our vulnerability with each other so that then we can help each other. Collaboratively solve problems and find new solutions to what we are working on and strategically [00:16:00] show up for each other in our teams.

But if we do not start with this connection piece and this kind of imagination and creative opening, it is just more stunted. So, this is the way I like to

start.

Nir Hindi: That’s great. And I will make sure to put the link to, or to add the link to your Ted talk on the show notes. And before we will continue and hear some examples, let us take a short break.

So, we are back and talking about creating connection with art and especially activating our imagination with drawing. So, I am interested to hear. Adam from your experience working and you work with like some of the leading companies like Google, LinkedIn, Procter & Gamble and other I am interested. Can you share some memorable experience that you had?

You probably get into those rooms, especially in the corporate America and [00:17:00] everyone, I assume with suits, and you have group of men and women, and then. You ask them to draw. I mean, what is happening there. When was the moment that you knew the late Nite art concept is touching everyone, no matter your position or your color or your rank or whatever?

Adam Rosendahl: Sure. Yeah. I work with a lot of groups of executives. From different parts of the world as well. So, I mean, I am often met with resistance with, uh, folks who feel like time is money and they have a little bit of skepticism when they see art supplies on the table or on zoom. If there have been told that they are going to do some session that is related to creativity, there is a lot of.

Ambiguous feelings. I could see it in their body language. I could see it in their kind of resistance and the way that people turn off their cameras and things like that. So, I am used to that. And, but one moment that really stands out for me. I was in Cape Cod on the east coast and there was a group of executives that were, they were all the.

The [00:18:00] top clients of a huge company. And so, they were putting on this, this three-day conference as a gift in a way of connecting all their clients and to do research. And, um, it was a very, very high-end event. And so, these folks were, there was a lot of posturing and a lot of, I think, compartmentalizing where people are really showing the best part of themselves.

Everyone is wearing suits, of course. And, um, they end up in my session, which is about day two in the evening of a three-day conference. And there was a moment at the beginning where I asked people just to start off, to have a conversation with their partner and talk about what is one thing that they are celebrating.

And when I had a one man share in front of the room, he said that I am celebrating, being alive. Because I have had cancer for the last five years, and I really did not think I was going to make it. And, um, I am just grateful that I get to be here with you all. And when he said that.

Nir Hindi: in front of everyone

Adam Rosendahl: in front of everyone, he was standing up in front of this group of about maybe 80, very high [00:19:00] level peers who are all from different companies.

I could feel the whole room soften. I could feel, I could even feel the CEO of the company who was hosting this whole thing. He softened and people started sharing. One by one from their heart around, what is really going on for them in their lives, not just their business successes. And I could feel there was a massive shift in the room.

And so, people really started building these deep connections with each other, through my process. And. It was a profound moment. One for the guy who shared, he told me that just by sharing that he felt more connected to the whole room, and he built what he felt like were some lifelong friendships that weekend.

And it was really because he opened himself in front of his peers, but it just changed the tone of the entire conference from one of. Networking and posturing to. This is an opportunity to build deep relationships and friendships and, and of course business connections, [00:20:00] but in a way that was more centered around the heart, I think that is an example of kind of how.

The arts and how this process can open people up in an important way.

Nir Hindi: It is kind

of led me immediately to my next question because there are a few aspects to what you are doing as a tool for change that I see. And you already touched the first one communication and other thing that I think you bring with your method.

Is empathy. And I remember that when we had our previous conversation, you mentioned one story about the guy that said, if I remember, will he, or will he get married or something like this? I do not remember exactly. It was such a touching story that I would be happy if you can share it with

us.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah. You know, I share these moments because I think they are so unique in the lives of these, the teams that I work with.

I know that. There are certain moments that happen, that people, they come back to me five, seven years later and they say, I still remember everything about that, that moment or that, [00:21:00] that interaction, because you know, that has not, it is so rare that people really, um, sometimes. Feel such a depth of connection with their colleagues.

And so, there was a moment I was working with a huge multinational corporation in which each of the people that were there represented a different region of the world. So, each of them represented, um, parts of Southeast Asia, different parts of Europe, different parts of, uh, north America, south America.

And so, they have very big roles and there. Relationship with each other had a lot of weight and influence around what could happen in the company. So again, there was a very kind of pre prescribed way that people are interacting with each other, which is because it is really, there is a lot of, um, yeah, it is very important this meeting.

And so, I was brought in, uh, as usual to build the community of this group and to help them, um, sort of open their imagination to what is possible. And so. There was a moment where I had people go through a process called the board of [00:22:00] advisors where each of them was writing on the table. What is a question that is keeping them up at night?

So, a personal or professional challenge that feels really, important to them and relevant in this moment. And so, they would write that anonymously and then each of them would travel around the table and write different responses and answers to everyone else’s questions. And it is a way of. Kind of creating a mind map of responses and giving a lot of new ideas.

The idea is how do we create fresh new ideas to solve each other’s problems? And because its anonymous, people take Liberty to really get wild. Right. And so, I had one, one guy wrote on the table, Will he get married? That was it. And people wrote yes, no, next year, all different responses.

And so, when we came back to the table and we had, um, people share out loud sort of what their, their learning from this experience was, he shared that his daughter is getting married, but his [00:23:00] younger son has down syndrome and his younger son’s nine years old and he keeps asking, will I get married? And so, the whole group.

You could feel the whole group start to soften at this moment. And then he, um, you could feel that this man is getting emotional, and he says someone for all of you who wrote. Yes. It just gives me a lot of hope. And I just want to say, God bless you. That is what I remember him saying. And so then, Um, some other ones, uh, another guy then stood up and he said, you know, I wrote no, but of course, I did not know what you were referring to.

And I just want to say that I wish with all my heart, that your son does find love in his life and that he does get married. And then, you know, of course the guy who wrote that he started crying these two guys walk across the table and they hug each other, which you can tell is not a usual occurrence.

Nir Hindi: You are telling me.

the story again. And again, I get goosebumps. It is like,

Adam Rosendahl: And you can just imagine that how the [00:24:00] room changed after that.

Nir Hindi: It is like such a human.

moment.

Adam Rosendahl: It is such a human moment. And it is such a powerful example of vulnerability and how that brought so much connection and cohesion to this group where they really felt United.

You know, they all represent this huge company and suddenly, because they are so connected with each other, their ability to communicate, to have empathy for one another to, to even like, be open about revealing their faults and failures and things that are not going well, I think was. Dramatically increased.

And so, because of that, I think they can get a lot more done over the next couple of days.

You

Nir Hindi: know,

you started to mention that you ask them to kind of write any challenge, personal or professional. And that leads me to my next aspect that I see of late Nite art. We spoke about communication.

We spoke about empathy, and I see over here the role of late Nite art in team building and spirit, and you always kind of talk about. [00:25:00] That we always separate our lives, but through your process, we, we bring them together. our a person, a professional, can you share your thoughts on that?

Adam Rosendahl: I think that in different cultures, Uh, within different businesses and different cultures around the world.

There is, uh, a lot of perspective around this. How much do should we bring our personal selves to our work, the value, what is the value of personal and vulnerable sharing in front of my colleagues? But what I have found in working in over we have now done late in our, in 12. Countries and that when groups, when teams get together and there is some level of vulnerable sharing that happens when it comes from an authentic place, it is not a forced place.

It is always like, uh, someone is opting to share in front of their team, whether it is the leader of that team. Who is for the first time sharing that they feel uncertain about the future? Or it is a new intern who shares that they are [00:26:00] just like deeply honored to be part of the team, but they do it with this raw emotional way.

You can feel that the whole group changes. And especially when everyone laughs when an entire team who is in a room or a group of executives, when everyone laughs at the same moment, you can feel that their connection is just, you can literally feel the room change. They are dropping in together. There is a cohesion and a connection, like a unification that is happening.

That changes the culture of that whole group. And that lasts beyond that night. So, what I do is it is a burst experience. It is an hour and a half or two hours, but I know because I have heard so many times from my clients that it is often the, it lives in the life of this team for a long time to come because.

Once I have been able to bring a team to a certain place and they feel like I have never felt closer to this group of people than I have in my life. It makes it easier to come back to that [00:27:00] place. It kind of has like an imprint in their in their brain and memory that allows them to travel back there. And so, I think that it is worthwhile, even though it is a short experience and an experience like that can change the culture of how people treat each other, how they see each other.

And how they communicate. But if I am walking into an environment that is not psychologically safe, if people do not feel safe to take risks, if they do not trust their leaders, of course, it is not just like a snap to change that. So that takes a lot deeper work. And usually, it starts with the leader or the founder.

Nir Hindi: Beautiful Adam. You know, you started to, you give a lot of examples that coming from real life, real experiences and. Obviously in the last year we are living unfortunately behind screens. And I wonder, how did you manage to do this shift? How you manage in this time that now more than ever people need this human contact [00:28:00] and you are doing it over the zoom.

How, how do you find this challenge?

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah, I

recognize that before the pandemic, there was already a loneliness epidemic and, and a sense of isolation, anxiety. And depression in the United States. And so now with, uh, people alone in their living rooms all day, every day, there is, uh, an intense need for real connection, for a sense of like nourishment healing and anything that we can do to just to make people’s situation a bit better.

And so, I recognized early on that the work that we are doing with late Nite, art was like, Almost like an essential service, uh, to help people deal with some of the hardest time in their life. And so, we switched to virtual, and I started leading workshops around how to bring remote teams together and build this connection to [00:29:00] their vision, to, to each other, to, and it is mostly about humanizing each other because I think that when we are remote, it is much easier to be productive and get ours.

Projects done, but without the personal connection, it is easier to cut that part out because we want to spend as little time on zoom as possible. So, I am recognizing that there is a lot of people who do not feel the personal connection anymore. So, I think that the. The tools of zoom are limited, but we have been able to bend them to our will and incorporate, I am still able to use, uh, music and DJ environments to create different atmospheres.

And I get people to draw, to do creative writing, to do movements, and I have still been able to weave in all these different art forms into our online workshops. And create a real sense of magic, um, even in the online environment. And so, I think I have continued to explore and experiment, and we have now created a nice flow where we are [00:30:00] working with, um, groups as large as 250 people at a time.

And it able to bring them together in a very special way. But I think using the breakout rooms has been powerful way of continuing to build a sense of intimacy and connection. Like even in a large online environment.

Nir Hindi: Amazing.

First, I am very happy to hear the, the breakout tool is working.

It is great.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah. I mean, I am also part of a team that is called the Scaling Intimacy School of Experience Design. And so, we teach courses around how to design and facilitate experiences. Um, that translate the in-person experience to online and how to do it in a way that is weaving in these core principles of transformation, connection, and collaborative learning.

And so through, through my, my teaching and training with the Scaling Intimacy School of Experience Design, I have also been sort of on the cutting edge of the best way to utilize. Online tools to create a [00:31:00] powerful learning environment where people feel connected and, and, uh, not bored and disengaged.

Right. So, I do think that it is essential that people study how to make online meetings, more creative, engaging, and interactive because it is another epidemic out there in terms of like the burnout that people are feeling.

Nir Hindi: I am positive.

now everyone wants to have the crash course on scaling intimacy, but what is one tip that you can give people to build this intimacy?

At least one that people can.

use.

Adam Rosendahl: Sure. One of the principles less is more. And I think that online, there is a tendency to try to replicate in-person training curriculum directly to an online format. And it does not work. You know, I would say genuinely, we want to cut at least. At least 25% of, of what you would have done in person if you are doing it online.

And part of that is we need more time to integrate, um, in small groups. And so, getting people into breakout [00:32:00] rooms and having some more of a debrief process to integrate what they are learning is so important, partly because it keeps people engaged. And if we just try to talk and deliver content. People without a doubt, be emailing on the side.

So, I think that, you know, even the best of us, I get distracted during workshops where it is just, uh, keynotes, uh, slides and a speaker. So, I think that. Less is more take things out to make the experience, to integrate it into our lives and to give it space, to breathe and to allow for more opportunities for connection.

Nir Hindi: Great. Adam we are getting into the end of our podcast, and I have another question for you. If we have now a business leader manager that listening to us and wondering how they came, they want to bring art into the organization. What is the one thing that you will recommend them? To do, to make this connection successful.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah.

So, one thing that I stand for very [00:33:00] strongly is that you do not need to be an artist. You do not need to be a professional artist to use the arts in your work or in your life. And I think that the art, when I say the arts again, I am talking about all the different modalities from painting to theater, to creative, writing, to dance, there is a deep importance in these different creative art forms and how they can help us connect with ourselves and connect with other people.

And there are also tools. For learning. And there are a lot more interesting and effective than the tools that we often opt in for, which are just. Speaking and listening and slides slide decks. So, I think that I always offer up is to start with the imagination. So often we start with logistics, we start with, you know, we, we jump right into content, and I think that, of course we want to start with some connections.

So, people feel more like. They are really [00:34:00] seen and they are part of an experience, but I think starting with the imagination and if we engage people’s imagination, it invites more of them into the room. And so, one way to do that, that is very, very easy in like the simplest way is just starting with fun music, starting every single meeting, every workshop, every conference start with music because when people walk, when they.

Arrive in a zoom meeting room and there’s good music playing, and the host and you know that the host to the person who is curating the space is really feeling themselves and interested in like dancing a little bit. It creates such positive energy. That is contagious. And I think that that is something that has.

Really made it honestly a huge shift in a lot of the meetings. And the workshops that I have created is just using music and using it with intention. So, I think that is a very simple thing that you could do. And if, um, folks spend a little bit more time curating their playlist [00:35:00] and their music for their workshops.

It will have a huge impact. So that is just one.

Nir Hindi: you already

gave us a lot of tips. Uh, in this conversation, I highly recommend our listeners to take advantage and try those tools. Adam’s founder of the late Nite art in artist facilitator. A communicator. Thank you very, very much for taking the time and sharing all your thoughts and experiences and stories.

I will make sure to add the links to your Ted talk to the late Nite art, then some of those, a picture so everyone can see how sharp you are at eight o’clock in the morning, Oakland time on our show notes. Thank you very, very much.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah, thank you NIR for being the bridge between business and art. I appreciate so much that you are translating the creative process for so many different people around the world.

Nir Hindi: Thank you. It is important to have people like you that are doing similar things and kind of building these bridges. So, thanks

again.

Adam Rosendahl: Yeah, I feel, [00:36:00] I feel like it is one of the most important things that we could do right now is, is, uh, being, you know, the cultural translators between different worlds of technology and business and art and.

I love that both of us are doing that in our own way.

Nir Hindi: Thank you very much.

Adam Rosendahl: Thank you, Nir.