The Music Paradigm uses a symphony orchestra as a metaphor for any dynamic organization. Whether an organization is looking to raise its performance to a new level, or is undergoing a period of exceptional challenge or change such as a merger, a restructuring, new leadership, or rigorous change initiatives, The Music Paradigm can be customized to fit any group’s objectives. During a session, the executives are seated among members of a professional orchestra. The conductor leads the musicians through a series of carefully crafted exercises that help illustrate key qualities and practices of high performing business teams—strategically designed to be in line with the needs and context of the executives in the room. The session is a high-impact learning experience, a powerful personal and team journey, and exciting instructional entertainment.

The themes and content that can be addressed in a session are limitless since each event is tailored around the sponsoring organization's circumstances. Some of the more common possible benefits include:

• Reinforcement of key strategic messages
• Examine and develop leadership skills and approaches
• Build momentum for addressing critical issues through a shared experience
• Clarify strategies that may seem vague or complex
• Provide executives with a safe environment for rethinking their assumptions and behaviors

Each session provides a highly memorable group experience that generates fresh insights long after the meeting is over, and lessons that can become part of your organization's internal dialogue and culture.

After seating the executives inside the orchestra, Maestro Nierenberg asks the musicians to do more than simply perform. He leads them through a series of exercises that demonstrate basic and important truths about the functioning of an organization. The effectiveness and relevance of those exercises stems from the preparatory meeting Mr. Nierenberg has in advance with the leadership of the sponsoring organization, to explore their issues and goals. From this meeting a desired outcome for The Music Paradigm session is determined. Only then does Mr. Nierenberg design the appropriate exercises to be demonstrated by the musicians in order to best reflect the content of that discussion.

Maestro Nierenberg has worked with over 90 different orchestras and thousands of professional musicians to create The Music Paradigm sessions over the years. As a result, he has an extensive network to draw upon and is able to bring The Music Paradigm to any city, in any country. When working in a situation where English would not be the primary language, the session can easily be adapted to incorporate simultaneous translation.

The interface of the musicians with the conductor is similar in many ways to the relationship between an organization and its leaders. The conductor may be viewed, for example, as a CEO or team leader, and the instrumental families (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion) may be business units or teams. Together, they find the best solutions for working together and producing an effective outcome. As the session progresses, executives develop new insights and gain fresh perspective about their current situation and their working relationships with organizational leaders and colleagues.

In brief, The Music Paradigm creates a learning environment that animates messages, turns audience into active participants, and doesn’t just describe possible outcomes, but demonstrates results in a tangible way.

After a distinguished career at the helm of two American orchestras, Roger Nierenberg emerged as a creative force for innovation in the presentation of symphonic music. For 14 years, he led the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida, where he succeeded in building one of the great concert halls in America. The pinnacle of his time in Jacksonville was the orchestra's appearance in the Carnegie Hall Festival of American Orchestras. During his lengthy tenure with the Stamford Symphony in Connecticut, the orchestra developed a reputation as one of the finest in New England.

Nierenberg has guest conducted many of the most distinguished orchestras and opera companies in the United States and abroad, as well as led performances at some of the world’s most prestigious music festivals including:

Nierenberg is the creator of the highly successful experiential learning event, called The Music Paradigm, in which an orchestra is used as a metaphor for any dynamic organization. With participants seated among the musicians, Nierenberg leads a series of exercises, carefully crafted to address the sponsoring organization's specific themes and issues. The Music Paradigm provides a creative framework for rethinking leadership style, philosophies, teamwork, and effectiveness. Since its inception in 1995, The Music Paradigm has held sessions for hundreds of major companies, government organizations, leading educational institutions, and global consulting firms throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Latin America with over 90 different orchestras. It has been the subject of reports on ABC, CBS, CNN, and PBS and was the sole feature of an hour-long broadcast of the BBC's Money Programme.

Maestro Nierenberg’s recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra can be found on Sony Classical Records and his recent book Maestro: A Surprising Story about Leading by Listening is published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Books, USA. It is available in a growing number of languages, including an e-book version, and was honored in 2009 as the Best Leadership Book from 800-CEO-READ.