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Leadership Lab: The Sound of Silence. What John Cage Teaches Us About Leading with PresenceFinding your leadership voice through radical attention

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Welcome to your fresh DesignChange edition, delivered every Tuesday at 8am to over 735 forward-thinking leaders like you!

I’m deep in research mode right now, preparing for an ArtTalk on the artist and composer John Cage and the“5 Friends” exhibition on November 6th in Cologne.

Cage once said after visiting Paris in the 1940s: “I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom.”

Wait. What?

This wasn’t a joke.

Cage was pointing to something leaders rarely practice: radical attention.

The ability to notice what others overlook. To listen to what silence reveals.

As I prepare for my own Paris trip next week, I’m thinking about what Cage understood: sometimes you need to step away from the familiar to hear something new.

🌿 The Leadership Lesson Hiding in 4′33″

You might know Cage’s most famous work: 4′33″.

A pianist sits at a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Plays nothing.

The audience hears everything. Coughs. Shifting chairs. Traffic outside. Their own breath.

Cage’s point? Silence isn’t empty. It’s full of information we usually ignore.

The same applies to leadership. The best insights often come not from what people say, but from:

💡 LeadershipLab Tip: The John Cage-Inspired Presence Framework

Your 5-Minute Leadership Reset

1. Create Space Before Speaking Like Cage’s deliberate silence, pause for three full breaths before important conversations or presentations. This isn’t hesitation. It’s preparation.

Try it: Before your next presentation, take three conscious breaths.

2. Listen to What’s Underneath Cage taught us to hear the room’s ambient sound. Leaders need to sense the room’s ambient emotion. What’s the energy level? Where’s the tension?

Practice: In your next team meeting, spend the first two minutes just observing. Don’t plan your response. Just notice.

3. Welcome the Unexpected Cage used chance operations to break habitual patterns and discover something new. You don’t need to flip coins like he did. But you can ask: “What would happen if I approached this differently?”

Try it: When facing a familiar challenge, ask yourself: “What’s one thing I’ve never tried in this situation?”

🤖 MirandAI Update: From Theory to Practice

My MirandAI Coachbot has been practicing these principles with real users.

Recent testing focused on presentation anxiety. One test helped the user prepare for a high-stakes presentation. The client through their anxiety with the MirandAI Coachbot. The bot didn’t just offer tips. It helped them:

What surprised me most?

MirandAI’s ability to ask: “What would your most confident self do in that moment?”

That’s a Cage-like question. It invites you to listen to yourself differently.

Want to try MirandAI in the beta version? Join the waiting list: MirandAI Waiting List

🔆 Kostenlose Offene Sprechstunde – Oktober 23 um 17:17 CET

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🧭 Your Leadership Voice Matters

The world doesn’t need more leaders who always know what to say. It needs leaders who know how to listen. How to create space. How to notice what others miss.

John Cage spent his life teaching people to hear differently. His lessons apply beautifully to leadership:

🤝 How I Can Support Your Leadership

With almost 30 years of experience and 3,500+ coaching hours, I work with leaders on:

Ready to develop your leadership presence? Book a complimentary consultation here.

Warm wishes,
Karla Schlaepfer and the DesignChange team

“I have nothing to say and I am saying it.” – John Cage (teaching us that presence speaks louder than words)_

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