John Shibley, Director of Organizational Learning at EmcArts, has over 20 years experience leading complex organizational improvement efforts in a variety of industries and settings. After a decade of private consulting practice, Shibley joined EmcArts in November of 2005 to expand his work in the arts and culture fields.
John’s work focuses on developing the ability of leaders to learn, reason and act in innovative ways, using a variety of approaches drawn from Systems Thinking, Organizational Learning and Total Quality. His recent focus has been on supporting the development and implementation of innovative projects in arts organizations. He is co-designer and facilitator of the New Strategies Lab, an innovation accelerator for orchestras, and works with the grantees of the Irvine Foundation’s Artistic Innovation Fund. In addition, his clients in the arts and culture field have included the Orchestra Forum, the New York and Los Angeles school systems, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Brown University. His private sector clients have included Harley Davidson, General Electric and L. L. Bean.
John’s writing has appeared in The System Thinker, The Dance of Change, and The Systems Thinking Playbook. He is a chartering member of the Society for Organizational Learning and has taught at the MIT Senior Executive Program, the Systems Thinking in Action Conference and the Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership, among others. John received a Master’s Degree in Consulting Psychology from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, where Dr. Chris Argyris was his advisor.