Art + Leadership = Transformation | Adam Rosendahl
In a world where founders and executives manage through screens and leadership teams communicate via Slack, Adam Adam brings something radical to corporate boardrooms: paintbrushes, music, and the vulnerable art of human connection. What started as a life-changing experience for a shy teenager at an arts camp has evolved into a methodology that's transforming how the world's top executives lead—one 90-minute collaborative drawing at a time.
The Challenge: Leadership in a Disconnected World
Modern leadership faces an unprecedented crisis. Despite being more "connected" than ever through technology, leaders across industries are struggling with what experts are calling a loneliness epidemic. Teams work side by side for years without truly knowing each other. Power dynamics create invisible barriers. Titles become walls instead of bridges.
"We have a lot of affirming ways that we affirm the stories that we have about people," Adam observes. "There are so many little pieces of evidence to see why I don't like that person on my team. And they constantly are reinforcing that."
The result? Organizations where thousands of employees operate under leaders who themselves are disconnected—not just from their teams, but from their humanity. When executives can't connect authentically with each other, that disconnection cascades through entire organizations.
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MAGICademy Podcast (00:00)
This connection is the disease and creativity is the cure. ⁓ How seriously we take ourselves as adults and professionals and just learning from kids being able to be in a space of creative expression without judgment of themselves. It allows for people to go into really deep spaces without forcing it through some kind of like therapeutic conversation. It still feels more like a celebration and people are bobbing their heads and it has like a cool element.
that is very effective helping people see each other more deeply, creating spaces where stereotypes are melted and generalizations are cracked open and people have a sense of like, wow, I was so wrong about you. You know, like I thought of you as like a very guarded, you know, judgmental person and actually like, you're amazing. You know, it's like, it's like this funny thing where it's like, we have, there's so many judgments that happen in between people inside of teams and
The stories compound over the years and sometimes people just have decided that they just don't like somebody and they've worked together for 15 years. And in 90 minutes, that can change. So like that story can be broken and those people can become friends. They can become like
Jiani (01:21)
We've talked about Adam's founding stories of late nite art and how he was inspired by an art camp that's multi -sensory, multi -dimensional, multi -art forms experience really helps.
He truly appreciates the power of art and help him to realize that, there's a kind of leadership quality in him. And that encouraged him all the way to build and develop and grow late nite art for all the top executives across the world. And we also talked about the secrets behind.
How do we actually really bring people into this deeper, deeper mutual human connections? We talked about the power of music, the power of stories, the power of movement and the power of surprise and the power of actually sharing childhood stories and eye contact, many and many and many. And Adam lived his whole life.
trying to practice and develop and fine tune this art and science of facilitating art -based experiences for teams and leaderships.
Welcome to MAGICademy podcast. Today is a special guest, Adam. He is the founder and CEO of Late Nite Art, a creative learning development lab that leverages transformative, experiential learning, dialogue, music, and art to create transcending experiences, helping people to transcend
beyond culture, beyond generation, beyond power dynamics and shift and build new type of cultures within organizations. And he has helped many, many organizations. He's been hosting like 600 plus events across 12 different countries and helping people like executives coming from Pixar,
Adam Rosendahl (03:45)
Adobe, LinkedIn, Google.
Jiani (03:46)
Adobe,
Adobe,
all the way to probation officers from Louisiana, Louisville, Kentucky, all come to seek Adam's help and to build those type of transformative experiences. And he believes the power of art to help people get out of the daily routine.
deepen our connections, connecting ourselves to the deeper essence of our being and build and transcend our perceptions and cultures and humanize people more than what they are in terms of at work, but more in terms of who they are as a human. Such a great pleasure to have you, Adam. It's a very long intro.
Adam Rosendahl (04:33)
Yeah,
thank you so much, Gianni, for having me. It was fun to hear your introduction of me. I appreciated all the words that you used.
Jiani (04:42)
can you share with us what inspired you to start Late Nite Art?
Adam Rosendahl (04:52)
Sure, yeah. I think the story starts back when I was 13. My parents sent me to a leadership arts camp that was very different than the normal summer camp. over eight days, there was 50 teenagers and 25 adults. And the adults were all activists and professional artists and educators. And they would teach workshops using different art forms.
to help the teenagers connect with each other across difference and identify their strengths and what they could do to support the world in a good
you can envision this is 50 teenagers coming from all over the country who represent many different religions and cultural backgrounds who are ages 14 to 18. And they come in wearing hoodies with a lot of skepticism and like a too cool for school attitude and, you know, hands crossed. And over the course of this process, part of it is
as they're moving through and each of the adults is leading workshops in a specific discipline, like I said, around freestyling or around visual arts, it's giving these little moments for the young people to express parts of who they are be seen in different ways by each other. And then to kind of debrief and talk about how that was in front of the group and in front of the entire camp. And little by little,
turns from strangers into a community and through the arts and through this creative practices of singing together and dancing and doing art, it uncovers certain layers of vulnerability that just can't happen with just talking. And so we start to gain more empathy and more compassion for people's different circumstances and people who are really different from myself. I guess, yeah, people start to feel almost like family. Like it's like a sibling connection versus just a random stranger.
And I remember being so surprised that I felt like the people that were at this camp with me felt almost like my best friends and even deeper than the relationships I had with a of my friends at home. So that was just all a representation of really good facilitation and intentional use of the arts as a tool to connect people across difference and to create, strangers into a sense of community.
And so what happened for me the first year that I went, I came home and I really didn't wanna talk about it with anyone. what my mom, the language that my mom uses that I had a spiritual experience and that my heart was cracked open. And what happened was that, and it was...
through different art forms, including freestyling and beatboxing and visual art and guitar and capoeira. I started to, I'd say probably show more of who I was. And I was seen on such a deep level by my peers that it was almost, like I said, it was like a spiritual experience for me. And it happened through the arts. And so that kind of just set off a little bit of it. It started me on a new path in life.
that I think I've been following ever since then, which is how to use art forms, not just for beauty and aesthetics, but with a strategic purpose to connect with ourselves and connect with other people in a really meaningful and intentional way. And so that was the spark. And there's many steps along the
so 13 year old Adam, I was very small. I had braces. I was socially awkward. A lot of self doubt and, you know, kind of awkwardness, anxiety, like not trusting in my own voice. I certainly didn't perceive myself as a leader. I always was oriented towards art and creativity, but I never had really done it with other people. So,
Coming in, I was the youngest kid at the camp. so, and what happened for me, I guess like fast forward to the end of this experience, and I'm part of a group of eight people, which was called my family group. And they were reflecting back to me the strengths that they saw in me throughout the week and how they perceive me. And they saw me as a leader and they saw me exhibiting certain strengths that I didn't see in myself that...
really kind of expanded my idea and my identity of who I was. And I think that was really profound for me and just establishing like who I wanted to become and who I wanted to step into more of, especially the aspect of me being a leader, which I really didn't, I did not see myself that way. And so it was powerful to be reflected back.
Jiani (09:29)
And then the art gives you space to be who you are and then for people to see you. I think that's the magic piece of
Adam Rosendahl (09:37)
Yeah,
I mean, for me, think I just realized like I feel kind of at home and most comfortable when I'm in creative spaces. So if I'm dancing with people or drawing with people, the key element that I didn't mention though is creating a space that is not that is not where there's no judgment. And it's actually I'd say it's almost I can't think of almost any other spaces in life that I've seen that happen.
So even though a lot of people want to create quote unquote safe spaces that are judgment free, I think it's extremely difficult to do that. And so in order to create a judgment free space, requires a certain level of, there's really good facilitation that we can trust that can be a guide to create a container. But it also requires a lot of people who are on a similar level who are able to hold that space with each other.
I think that's what allowed me to actually expand and feel free and feel like I was able to access another part of myself.
Jiani (10:32)
how then do you translate and transform this experience now to executives of Pixar and LinkedIn and Adobe and all the other leaders
Adam Rosendahl (10:46)
Yeah, well, I was part of that youth empowerment arts program for 20 years. that's like, the spark was when I was 13, but it was a thread of a big part of my life and really was like a training ground for me to become a facilitator. And I learned from, I'd say, some of the, who I would consider like the world leaders in this unique niche of creative facilitation, using the arts as a tool to
create these non -judgmental environments that allow for people to drop in and connect with themselves and with other people. And so that really created the foundation for my, I guess, like my unique skill set, which is both as an artist, as a facilitator, as somebody who really has a strong value around depth and meaningful conversations and connection and being able
create environments where people feel seen and heard and understood in a way that just doesn't happen in very normal life. yeah, the big thread was how do we use art as a tool to help people feel seen? So that's been the kind of like, I'd say one of the biggest threads of my life. And a lot of the work that I do revolves around that value or that desire.
Jiani (11:54)
Yeah.
I love
this.
Adam Rosendahl (12:05)
Yeah, but I mean the path for me to then now working with executive teams around the world and using this process like for very strategic business problems like onboarding and leadership development and culture challenges. It's not a straight line and there's been a lot of different ways in which like the practice that I started when I was younger has kind of evolved and grown into a methodology and then an organization and then now somewhat of a movement
and a practice that I can teach other people that they can then use inside of their organization as well. but it started as an idea and then it became something I was leading in a classroom and then it became something I was leading as a nightlife event. And then from there, turned into something that was in conferences and then team building. And then just over the last five or six years, it
shifted into more focus around leadership and executive leadership development and working with the people who are running organizations and who are in some ways have no time. And so how to basically support them in the shortest amount of time possible in creating a deep sense of connection and ongoing collaboration so that they can hit their high priority goals and the kind of bigger
goals and dreams that they have in their organization and their life and watching how that then trickles down through an entire organization. So that's been the focus.
Jiani (13:30)
I love that. especially when our leaders are in a holistic, healthy and inspired state, the impact is tremendous.
Cause that's where the impact come from. That's the source of the impact. Curious, can you, what was the most memorable transformative or transcending moment? Late nite art.
Adam Rosendahl (13:50)
Yeah.
Jiani (14:05)
is able to create or cultivate
Adam Rosendahl (14:08)
The most important moment there's been. Yeah, so I mean, at this point I've lost a little bit of track, but I think we've led around 700 events and we've done it in 18 countries. I have a team of nine facilitators now, so it's not all the events are not being led by me. But one event that stands out, I was in Germany and I was working with a massive.
pharmaceutical company that also does a lot of work in agriculture. And it was the board and then the CEO and the top 50 leaders. It was a very, very sort of like high leveraged executive offsite. There were security guards, there was, I had to take three or four COVID tests in one day before they allowed me to step into the room. It was like this really intense kind of environment. There was a lot of skepticism around like, what is this guy going to do something with art
creativity and like, how does this connect to our high priority goals and like our two day, you know, agenda and part of what that what happened at that offsite though is I was asking people right from the beginning to think about one thing that they're celebrating in their life. And some of these executives, they started standing up and sharing about really deep personal things that were going on with their kids that were going on with their health.
that were going on with the kind of situation in their country that they were from, because each one is from a different country. And yeah, you could feel like the emotion in the room, and I could feel like the room kind of dropping into a level of depth. And that coming from that place, that changed the tone of the entire session. people are along these long banquet style tables
are covered
a thick roll of drawing paper down the table and there's art supplies and flowers. And I'm in the front of the room with a microphone leading them through this pretty vulnerable, spontaneous, facilitated process where I ask a question and then they connect with the person across them in some way and then they're drawing some part of their partner's response on the table and then reflecting that back to their partner. So it's really around using storytelling music and art as a tool to help.
people connect with each other in a deeper way. After each question, they rotate to another chair and over the course of two hours, they maybe connect with about 10 new people. And over that process, there was tears, there was a lot of vulnerable sharing, there was a lot of epiphanies that people were having and I could viscerally feel the barriers melting down between people because in this particular situation, there was a lot
sort of charge around the power dynamics in the room and the people who are new and the people who are older and people who had authority. And I could feel that the humanity coming into the room as people talked about their life as they were kids or the kind of passions that they have outside of their work. And so it's an interesting thing because what I do is both mixing and allowing people
talk about their greatest challenges at work as leaders and executives, but it's also getting them outside of that range of work and talking about some of the experiences and stories from their life that have shaped them. all that to say, I think it was part of it was like the intensity of the buildup for that. And then watching how vulnerable people were and for people to share with me that that's never happened before. Like this group of people and this configuration of people, they just don't go there. And
For me to be the one who's able to create the space for leaders to do that, it feels very special and important and so needed. Because each one of these people has thousands and sometimes even like, I don't even remember, 8 ,000 people under them. And so the impact of them connecting with each other and connecting with themselves can have a huge ripple on the entire organization.
Jiani (17:42)
Hmm.
I really love that moment where you mentioned like the humanity is really coming into the room and dissolving all the power dynamics and divides among people.
How do we build, because 90 minutes is very, I mean, very short period of time or like 90 to 120 minutes, very short period of time. How do we, and especially folks who are leaders and they are responsible for a lot of people and they need to, they want to take care of them as leaders. So there's a lot of pressure and, and stress.
and expectations, how do
set the stage or kind of prep the environment for people like that to really let their guard down and really start to prime themselves, heart, ready for a deeper journey together.
Adam Rosendahl (19:10)
Yeah, I think that it's so, the opening is so important and the, like as you're saying, the primer of how people feel when they walk into the room and what are the kind of small steps that I take at the beginning to help create the environment where people feel like they can let their hair down. And there's a lot of elements that happen underneath the surface that allow people to feel more comfortable and safe in a work event because they're not.
They're not opting in. Everyone is forced to be there. So there's a lot of people who are coming in with resistance, and they have their own kind of challenging relationships with team building or what they consider forced fun or forced connection activities or an outside external facilitator who's telling them what to do. So part of the way I diffuse that is through music. And like in this particular offsite that I'm describing that happened in Hamburg, Germany,
I had participants who were there from Brazil and from Italy and from China and Japan. And I'm very intentionally using music from all of the different countries where people are coming from. And not a stereotypical song from that country or that culture, but a song that would really surprise someone who's from Japan, for instance, like an old folk song that is beautiful, but very subtle. they might come. And so I've had, you know, just recently
At an offsite that I was at a couple weeks ago, I played a song from Nigeria, a song from Brazil, a song from Italy, a song from Spain. And each time I played one of these songs, the person who was from that country, came up to me separately and they said, how do you know this song? You know this is a song from my country. And I was like, yeah. And they said playing this makes me feel like I'm at home. And so that's one thing that I'm able to do
the curation of the music that creates an environment where people feel like, this is going to be fun. This is going to be exciting. I feel like I want to be here. And that goes a long way just in terms of that's kind of a building block to then what comes next. But generally, think the way I think about it is creating building blocks of increasing levels of vulnerability or risk taking.
So I'm starting at the beginning. I'm not forcing people into a space where they're having to answer a really intense question. Like, what is the biggest challenge that you're facing in your life right now? It's more starting off like, what's, what are you celebrating? And so it's very, it's very accessible. And then the next exercise takes it one step further and getting them to be a little more reflective. And then I might get them into a story from their life, but it's very careful in
forcing people too far before they're ready to go there. So I think that's one of the ways. Yeah, that's one of the ways that I think it's really important in order to create an environment where people feel comfortable, that it has a casual feeling to it, but it's structured. And there's also an element of facilitation in this practice that is not authoritative.
Jiani (21:46)
So it's an art and science.
Adam Rosendahl (22:05)
And so as a facilitator, I'm really working with the balance of how can I feel like a peer and an equal to those in the room? I'm mostly facilitating with questions and I'm not inserting myself too much in the process. So I'm not really a keynote speaker. I'm more the guide that is supporting the process and setting the container. And it's a very different feeling. So people feel pretty quickly, they realize
Late Nite Art is not about me or it's not about the facilitator, but it's about the process and it's about them connecting with this person in front of
Jiani (22:39)
It's almost like visibly invisible.
Adam Rosendahl (22:42)
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot going on, but it's hard to tell all the layers.
Jiani (22:48)
Yeah, yeah. Just like when artists want to explain how do they create this masterpiece, it's a little bit challenging because it's like 20 plus years of experience. Your whole life in
Adam Rosendahl (23:00)
Your whole life, yeah. Your whole life.
Jiani (23:12)
is a lot of power dynamics. So human and human, there's already a lot
divisions and masks and separations. Adding on top of that the power dynamics. So how do we navigate that? How is this kind of power dynamics being mitigated or smoothed?
Adam Rosendahl (23:37)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, every single room that we're part of, there's the invisible power dynamics that are kind of like, you know, planets orbiting each other and certain ways, like when I'm walking into executive off sites, like everyone is subtly looking at the CEO, and how are they orienting to the program? And so there's like a gravitational pull in different directions. And so I'm very aware of the power dynamics, even for me having a microphone and being
a facilitator that's hired to lead this program, it gives me a certain level of power in the room, which I never want to abuse. Especially when I'm working with leaders, if I'm like hogging the microphone, for instance, and sharing overly about myself, it can start to feel like I'm forcibly inserting myself in a situation. But a big part of what I do is about melting barriers and melting hierarchy.
and creating a sense of, when I say humanity, I think about creating a sense that everybody's equal and people look at each other as a human being and not as the head of marketing or the head of customer success. and that part of that comes through personal stories. When people share a story about the neighborhood that they grew up in or an experience from their life that shaped
and they're starting to weave in some of the nuances of their culture and where they grew up and who they are and what drives them. It really starts to open up the who like who is the person in front of you is so different than what stereotypes or small boxes or, you know, ways that we categorize people. And so generally, you know, our idea of somebody is is pretty limited.
And so when that starts to open up, it really shifts the dynamic. And when we talk about who we are as kids, it also immediately kind of equal equalizes the power dynamic between two people. So I have like a very visceral memory of working for a private equity firm in which the managing partner who is a very big bulking guy who is actually like an Olympic rower, you know,
you know, a professional athlete and now manages like billions of dollars and is a highly respected person in this firm. And then, intern who joined that week, who is a very, you know, smaller person and clearly intimidated by his boss. and they had never had a conversation before. And so they were partners in this activity and I was watching them and
the body language of the guy who was big and then the guy who was like kind of small and more contracted. And then I just watched the body language shift as they were talking about the neighborhood that they grew up in. And then they were drawing an image from each other's story, writing three values that they saw in their partner from their story, and then reflecting that back to each other. And there was laughter, they were hugging, and there was a sense
They were just two humans. Even though they worked together, it felt like the power was diffused from that moment. And I think that's really effective in the future as they engage with each other and they see each other in different ways, not just based on their
Jiani (26:44)
I really appreciate that story. Sometimes it's, we just need to, we're forgetful. Sometimes we just need to get nudged a little bit and start remembering, yes, we're all humans and we have different childhood, probably all like a particular flavor of cakes when we were little. And there's like more similarities to us than the difference that we have. And sometimes when we put a title to someone, it's one of the easiest way to separate people.
and the title.
matters but it does not matter at some point of our lives.
Adam Rosendahl (27:19)
Yeah, it's tricky. Yeah, it just it does become it becomes like too much of a way that we categorize people is the title that they hold. Yeah. So I think it's I love creating spaces where stereotypes are melted and generalizations are cracked open and people have a sense of like, wow, I was so wrong about you. You know, like I thought I thought of you as like a very guarded kind of intense.
Jiani (27:21)
It's cheesy.
Yes, yes, beautiful.
Adam Rosendahl (27:45)
you know, judgmental person and actually like, you're amazing, you know, it's like, it's like this funny thing where it's like, we have, there's so many judgments that happen in between people inside of teams. And this story is compound over the years. And sometimes people just have decided that they just don't like somebody and they've worked together for 15 years. And in 90 minutes that can change. So like that story can be broken or the spell can be, can be broken and those people can
Jiani (27:48)
You're not.
Adam Rosendahl (28:15)
friends that can become like collaborators, you know, so I think that's a really powerful opportunity.
Jiani (28:29)
That's wonderful. And it's kind of like you see a person, you think you know them maybe on the three level kind of depths. then with art, with dialogue, with drawing out, with opportunities to tell stories, they are able to actually kind of peek behind the curtain and see
see more in -depth layers of that particular person and that very moment of surprise gets our attention and opens our heart open and ready to receive. wait a second, okay so what's more? I guess the curiosity kind of lead the way for us to start exploring the other person as like different universe or planet, something that's mystical and I wanted to learn more like...
Adam Rosendahl (29:18)
Yeah,
Yeah, and just the way that we work, have a lot of affirming ways that we affirm the stories that we have about people. there's so many little pieces of evidence to see why I don't like that person in my team. And they constantly are reinforcing that. But so like you said, surprise is kind of the key element that I use. And late nite art and the method that I created, a big part of it is around harnessing the element of surprise.
And part of it is that using music and storytelling and collaborative art and constantly switching partners and getting people into like a space of like where they don't know exactly what's going to happen. It especially when there's a moment of surprise and you could see somebody take an inhale like and like their eyes go wide. And usually it's a moment in which somebody has drawn something on the table that represents their partner's experience. And when they reflect it back, that person says, wow.
Like you really get me or you saw me in a certain way. And that moment, that's where I could see the things melt away. And it's beautiful because I've had people that they remember, they're like nine years later, they said, I've done like thousands of workshops, I've been in this company for however long, everything I forgot. The only thing I remember is like when I did Layton at Art, like these moments with people, they're so memorable.
partly because of the surprise and the novelty of it, that it sticks with people. So that's part of the impact, I think, is that like creating, opening up the door to build a real relationship or a friendship or a new perception of somebody in an environment that you work together, you see each other every single day, but that could just change the course of a relationship. And it changes the energy of a team.
Jiani (31:03)
help us to
help us to see each other for who we really
Adam Rosendahl (31:08)
Yeah, you know, yeah, Brené Brown talks about like people are hard to, they're hard to judge or hard to hate when you get close up. So yeah, the closer you get to somebody and the more you kind of learn about their life and what they've been through, I think it's a really beautiful way to build empathy and just more understanding and feeling like more flexibility of like, yeah, these people have quirks and
Jiani (31:08)
who we really are.
following them.
Adam Rosendahl (31:32)
They operate differently than us and everybody has a different personality type. And so we think that, you know, why, are they doing things so differently? But it's amazing how I think because of the art element, turns us into kids really quickly. So it, just like feels less, it allows for people to go into really deep spaces without forcing it through some kind of like therapeutic conversation gut, you know,
So there's a way in which what I do, a lot of people think it's like art therapy inside of organizations, but it still feels more like a celebration and people are bobbing their heads and it has like a cool element that is very effective just in terms of like, the whole goal of what we're doing is helping people see each other more deeply, it's really important that they don't feel like they're being forced into like a kind of therapeutic experience that's like making them uncover their old.
challenges from their childhood or something
Jiani (32:28)
Yeah, therapeutic. I mean, when people think about therapy, it's usually like, it's kind of stale and step by step. And when we think about art, it's very fluid and intuitive and it's like very human based and it can flow with the dynamics at that particular time.
and it's collaborative experience rather than just a singular person sitting in a room talking to a stranger. Beautiful.
Adam Rosendahl (33:00)
Yeah,
yeah, and there's a lot of learning that happens through the group experience and seeing ourselves and others and yeah, this is also the power of experiential learning.
Jiani (33:08)
Wonderful.
Yes, the collective. Moving into the future, if you were to envision an ideal future where late nite art will be able to create fantastic experience, what would that look like? What role does technology play or not?
Adam Rosendahl (33:32)
Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting moment that we're in with like screen addiction and mental health crisis and this disconnection and loneliness epidemic being called out as one of the greatest challenges of our time in the world, especially in the U S and so the work that I'm doing feels like it's directly addressing getting people off the screen. It's, you know, we have a no phone policy during our sessions.
Jiani (33:35)
Mm.
Adam Rosendahl (34:02)
getting people off the screen to look each other in the eyes and to kind of like teach them again how to be compassionate human beings. I am actually in some ways like guiding people through a process of like looking them in the eye, acknowledging them with a handshake, a high five, a fist bump, saying thank you. know, it's kind of like step by step, just like helping people engage socially. They're also using their hands. There's this tactile element where they're using art tools to create with each other. And a lot of people haven't touched paintbrush.
since they were a kid. Or if they've done it, they've done it with their kids, you know, as a, and so it's a very novel experience, I think, for people to use art supplies in the, in the workplace. And that is just, like I said, it's a very effective way of like dropping the, the normal ways that people operate with each other. So it's, it's been, there's a certain level of like self judgment and the inner critic that needs to be released.
And there's a whole process that I do about releasing that so that people can just enjoy the process of using the art supplies to connect with each other.
Jiani (35:16)
That's beautiful. So as we move into the magic portion of the conversation, I would like to give a brief recap for our audience.
We've talked about Adam's founding stories of late nite art and how he was first inspired by an art camp that's multi -sensory, multi -dimensional, multi -art forms experience really helps.
He truly appreciates the power of art and help him to realize that, there's a kind of leadership quality in him. And that encouraged him all the way to build and develop and grow late nite art for all the top executives across the world. And we also talked about the secrets behind.
How do we actually really bring people into this deeper, deeper mutual human connections? We talked about the power of music, the power of stories, the power of movement and the power of surprise and the power of actually sharing childhood stories and eye contact, many and many and many. And Adam lived his whole life.
trying to practice and develop and fine tune this art and science of facilitating art -based experiences for teams and leaderships.
Moving to the magic portion of our conversation, what did you, you kind of maybe shared a little bit, like, however, maybe just for you, without the camp or just you on your own.
What did you enjoy creating so much in your childhood that time disappeared for you?
Adam Rosendahl (37:09)
Yeah, well, like, the story has it, I don't remember that I started painting when I was two years old and there's a lot of pictures of me with a canvas and doing like crazy, you know, paintings. I was, so art has always been like a through line, you know, and even like saying it out loud, I'm like, I would love to actually do more like big scale, like abstract paintings. even like the pictures of me just drawing
big on these huge sheets of paper when I was a kid. But I don't know when, maybe 11 years old or so, I started making mixtapes. And so I would be totally addicted to listening to the radio. And then when I would hear the song, a really good song, come on, I would record it. And I would just make these mixtapes. And I would make hundreds of them. And then came burning CDs. And then I was making burned CDs.
Jiani (37:40)
I can see
Adam Rosendahl (38:06)
And then came eventually came Spotify and now it's like curated playlist, but the act of putting songs together and putting it into a flow and having that be a kind of soundtrack to life or to an experience or as a gift. That's always been something that I've done since I was in sixth grade, I think fifth or sixth grade and definitely kind of taps me into somewhat of a flow state.
Jiani (38:29)
that. I love that. And does that tell like wonder still live within you and what role does it play now?
Adam Rosendahl (38:37)
Yeah, you know, I mean, it's funny that on one hand, it's great that I have aligned my life and created a business that is aligned with my values and what I truly care about. then of course, on the other side of that is like, when the things that I love that I'm passionate about become my work and the ways that I'm also making a living. It's kind of like, how do I have space to just be free and be creative and playful outside of
the world of commerce and other people's opinions. so I think hanging out with kids has been a really important part of that. Yeah, just the playfulness and imagination and kind of like wild creativity that is in my godson who's two years old is like a great reminder and a teacher. Yeah, a lot of my friends have kids and I'm very close with them too,
I feel like that infusion of energy is really helpful in taking myself less seriously and giving me an outlet to like be more like in theater improv or dance, like without judgment or drawing wildly or a number of, or just like playing into characters, you know? So yeah, this is the way I want to live. And I feel like a lot of my work is helping adults get to that place. And I think for me, like the biggest teachers right now have been kids.
Jiani (39:58)
I love that. There have been research about how we should really learn from kids and there's like a people are conducting research and so there's the truth is always there and we're just yet able to measure and quantify and explain that. So wonderful.
Adam Rosendahl (40:18)
Yeah, especially with
like how seriously we take ourselves as adults and professionals. you know, I think just learning from kids being able to be in a space of creative expression without judgment of themselves, like, you know, usually the judgment starts, I don't know, like 11, 12 or something, but like before then, like they're not second guessing themselves. And that's such a powerful teacher for us, right? Like
Jiani (40:43)
Yeah,
and I think the judgment.
Adam Rosendahl (40:44)
I mean, for me, I'll just
speak for myself. Yeah, it's like, it's a powerful teacher for me to like, especially dance to like to dance freely without self criticism in front of a group of people and not worry about what other people think of me when I watch kids dance. I mean, that's super inspiring.
Jiani (41:01)
Yeah, I resonate with that as well and I hope our audience resonate with that as well as well. Such a great conversation and we're nearly end of our conversation for today. I wish it can
The next question is overall, what do you think is your magic?
Adam Rosendahl (41:30)
I a lot of people have been surprised by my ability to enter into so many different rooms and environments and connect and build trust and rapport with different audiences from, like you said, like law enforcement or the mayors of cities or executives to kids and youth from many different countries. so there's, I guess you can call it magic. think it's, there's something
that I've learned that has helped me be a cultural translator or a shapeshifter that allows me to connect with really different groups of people and have them feel like I am one of them and I'm not an outsider. And so I say that's my magic and it feels in some ways like an important skill to cultivate now because there's so much polarization and division and like in -group out -group energy, politically
like geographically and like all around there's so much kind of like this is, this is, you know, these are like the people who are, who are part of the group. These are people who are not part of the group. And, know, I used to think that between art, art and tech, used to be a huge division. And, and so it's interesting to be weaving in my way through all of these groups. And I think it's such an important skill for people to learn is how
be able to be curious about people who are different from them and to be able to enter into different spaces of people who have totally different life and personality type and skill
Jiani (43:05)
really appreciate your sharing your magic with us in this conversation and I agree with you that the world is being more and more separated and divided maybe out of fear maybe out of... maybe fear is a big players right there I think and I think if we're able to really open our hearts and see each other as human
as who we really are, multi -dimensional, multifaceted. And we all grow up from a cell, little baby cell into this human. we just have more similarities than the differences that we have. So thank you so much, Adam, for this important work that you're doing, weaving the world together, one art session at a time.
Adam Rosendahl (44:02)
Yeah, thank
Jiani (44:03)
And
thank you so much for coming and I hope our audience are having a good time and listening to your stories and as a result maybe they will start asking themselves, I wonder what did I enjoy doing when I was a little kid and with that little pen brushes I need to pick up over this weekend just by myself.
Adam Rosendahl (44:28)
Yeah.
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. The phrase that I've been saying a lot is that disconnection is the disease and creativity is the cure. And so I think the arts and creativity, it's funny that we, I think we keep getting like reminded, like all of the ways that they can be used as a healing tool for the time that we're in with our tech addiction and all of the things that are ailing our society. But yeah.
I think there's just endless opportunities to continue to use the arts as a tool to address the challenges that we're facing right now. And so I hope that there's some ideas sparked for people around how they might be able to do that wherever they live and whatever industry they work
Jiani (45:02)
Great.
I it. And for folks who are interested to get connected with Adam, his information and social links are in the show notes below. So we strongly encourage you to get connected and create new heartfelt deep connections for you, your teams, your organizations, and wherever you want the impact to be. It's your stories to write. Thank you, Adam.
Adam Rosendahl (45:37)
Thank you Gianni for bringing me
Jiani (45:38)
You're welcome.
The Innovation: Bringing Childhood Wonder to Corporate Boardrooms
Rosendahl's solution seems absurdly simple: get powerful people to draw pictures together. But beneath this apparent simplicity lies a sophisticated understanding of human psychology, group dynamics, and the neuroscience of connection.
The methodology emerged from a profound personal experience. At 13, Adam was "very small, had braces, was socially awkward" with "a lot of self-doubt and anxiety." Then his parents sent him to a leadership arts camp—eight days with 50 teenagers and 25 adults who were activists, professional artists, and educators.
"Over the course of this process, it turns from strangers into a community through the arts and through creative practices," he recalls. "It uncovers certain layers of vulnerability that just can't happen with just talking."
The transformation was profound. By the end, his peer group reflected to him strengths he didn't know he possessed, particularly leadership qualities he'd never recognized in himself. That moment of being truly seen changed the trajectory of his life.
The Elements: Music, Stories, Movement, Surprise, and Eye Contact
Twenty years of refinement have distilled Rosendahl's approach into five core elements that consistently create breakthrough moments in corporate settings:
Music as Cultural Bridge
"I'm very intentionally using music from all of the different countries where people are coming from," Adam explains. But not stereotypical songs—rather, pieces that surprise and delight. When a Japanese executive hears an old folk song from their homeland, or a Brazilian leader recognizes a childhood melody, something magical happens: "Playing this makes me feel like I'm at home."
“The musical foundation creates building blocks of increasing levels of vulnerability or risk-taking.”
Graduated Storytelling
The process doesn't start with deep sharing. Instead, it begins accessibly: "What are you celebrating?" Then gradually moves deeper—stories from childhood, experiences that shaped values, moments of challenge and growth. Each step builds trust for the next level of openness.
Physical Creation
"A lot of people haven't touched a paintbrush since they were a kid," Adam notes. The tactile element of creating art together breaks down normal workplace personas. There's something about using your hands, making something visible and tangible, that bypasses the usual social defenses.
Strategic Surprise
"Surprise is kind of the key element," Adam emphasizes. "Usually, it's a moment in which somebody has drawn something on the table that represents their partner's experience. And when they reflect it, that person says, 'Wow, you get me or you saw me in a certain way.'"
These moments of unexpected recognition create lasting memories that participants recall years later.
Eye Contact and Presence
In an age of screen addiction, simply getting people to look at each other becomes revolutionary.
“We have a no phone policy during our sessions. The process teaches executives how to be compassionate human beings through basic human interactions—eye contact, handshakes, and saying thank you.”
The Case Study: Breakthrough in Hamburg
The methodology's power becomes clear in Rosendahl's account of working with a massive pharmaceutical company in Germany. The setting was intimidating: security guards, multiple COVID tests, the CEO, and top 50 leaders around banquet tables covered with drawing paper and art supplies.
"There was a lot of skepticism around like, what is this guy going to do something with art and creativity and like, how does this connect to our high priority goals," Adam recalls.
But within minutes, something shifted. Executives began standing up and sharing deeply personal stories—about their children, their health, their home countries. "You could feel like the emotion in the room, and I could feel like the room kind of dropping into a level of depth."
Over two hours, participants rotated through conversations with ten different colleagues, sharing stories and creating art that reflected their partners' experiences. The transformation was visceral: "I could feel the barriers melting down between people because there was a lot of sort of charge around the power dynamics in the room."
The breakthrough moment came when humanity entered space. "For people to share with me that that's never happened before—like this group of people and this configuration of people, they just don't go there."
The Measurable Impact: Long-term Relationship Changes
The results extend far beyond the session itself. Adam describes watching two colleagues—a managing partner who was an Olympic rower managing billions of dollars, and a small, intimidated intern who'd joined that week—transform their dynamic completely.
“I just watched the body language shift as they were talking about the neighborhood that they grew up in. And then they were drawing an image from each other’s story, writing three values that they saw in their partner from their story, and then reflecting that back to each other. And there was laughter, they were hugging, and there was a sense that they were just two humans.”
This isn't temporary team-building euphoria. "I've had people that they remember, they're like nine years later, they said, 'I've done like thousands of workshops, I've been in this company for however long, everything I forgot. The only thing I remember is like when I did Late Nite Art.'"
The ripple effects multiply throughout organizations. "Each one of these people has thousands and sometimes even like 8,000 people under them," Adam notes. "So the impact of them connecting and connecting with themselves can have a huge ripple on the entire organization."
The Future: Scaling Human Connection in an AI-Driven World
As artificial intelligence reshapes the workplace, Rosendahl's work becomes increasingly relevant. "It's an interesting moment that we're in with like screen addiction and mental health crisis and this disconnection and loneliness epidemic being called out as one of the greatest challenges of our time."
The Late Nite Art methodology directly addresses these challenges by getting people "off the screen to look each other in the eyes and to kind of like teach them again how to be compassionate human beings."
With 700+ events across 20 countries and a team of nine facilitators, Adam has proven that this approach scales. But the real measure of success isn't in numbers—it's in the moment when an executive realizes they've been completely wrong about a colleague they've worked with for 15 years, and that realization changes everything.
The ROI of Human Connection
In a business world obsessed with metrics, the return on investment of Late Nite Art might seem difficult to quantify. But Adam has observed the outcomes repeatedly: teams that collaborate more effectively, leaders who inspire rather than command, organizations where innovation flourishes because people feel safe to be vulnerable and creative.
"Disconnection is the disease and creativity is the cure," Adam says. In corporate America, where engagement scores remain stubbornly low and leadership development programs struggle to create lasting change, his formula offers something different: a way to remember that behind every title, every power dynamic, every professional persona, there's a human being who once was a child, who has dreams and fears and stories that matter.
The magic isn't really in the art supplies or the music or even the facilitation techniques. The magic is in the recognition that great leadership begins with great humanity—and that sometimes, all it takes is 90 minutes with a paintbrush to remember what that feels like.
Editor’s Note
Arts-based leadership development interventions (Garavan et al., 2015) represent a paradigm shift from conventional approaches by emphasizing transformative rather than instrumental learning. Unlike traditional methods that focus on behavioral skills through didactic instruction, arts-based interventions utilize performative experiences and creative methodologies to develop aesthetic awareness and reflexive capacity in leaders. These approaches deliberately embrace ambiguity and trigger emotional engagement to promote double-loop learning, helping leaders challenge assumptions and expand their responses to organizational phenomena. The theoretical foundation emphasizes developing both intellectual and emotional tools while fostering leader awareness of relational dynamics within a team's expectations through disorienting dilemmas and analogical reasoning.
According to Sutherland & Jelinek (2015), through observational and interview data with 15 participants, the research demonstrates that arts-based methods work by creating sensory triggers that immerse learners in rich aesthetic experiences, leading to sensemaking through associative work that transforms felt experiences into new organizational insights. The key learning outcomes centered on two critical areas: understanding the relational nature of leadership through experiencing the "strings" and "energy" between people working together, and developing a visceral awareness of power and responsibility that moved beyond intellectual understanding to embodied knowing. Participants discovered that effective leadership emerges from social interaction rather than top-down authority, learning to appreciate distributed leadership and the importance of listening, connecting, and serving rather than controlling. Most significantly, follow-up interviews 6-12 months later showed lasting behavioral changes, with participants reporting fundamental shifts in their leadership practice toward more humanistic, people-focused approaches.
Based on a more recent comprehensive systematic review (Sandberg, 2024) of 31 studies, the field of art-based leadership development has emerged as a promising yet underexplored domain that demonstrates significant potential for transforming traditional leadership education paradigms. The evidence reveals that art-based methods—encompassing visual arts, applied drama, dance, music, and film—consistently produce positive outcomes across multiple dimensions of leadership capability, with qualitative research dominating the field and showing more impactful findings than quantitative studies. The key impact areas identified include enhanced reflective and reflexive practices (reported in nearly half of all studies), emotional development and personal growth leading to increased emotional intelligence, improved interpersonal and social competencies, including empathy and communication skills, and the development of higher-order cognitive skills and sense-making abilities. A study by Romanowska et al. (2011) also found improved health impact of art-based leadership development.
These interventions create transformative learning experiences that engage participants far beyond traditional lecture-based approaches, often pushing learners outside their comfort zones through what researchers term "constructive disturbance." While the evidence strongly supports individual leader development, there is a notable gap in addressing collective outcomes and organizational-level transformation, with interventions primarily focusing on personal development rather than systemic leadership change.
References
Garavan, T. N., McGarry, A., Watson, S., D’Annunzio-Green, N., & O’Brien, F. (2015). The impact of arts-based leadership development on leader mindset: A field experiment. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 17(3), 391-407.
Romanowska, J., Larsson, G., Eriksson, M., Wikström, B. M., Westerlund, H., & Theorell, T. (2011). Health effects on leaders and co-workers of an art-based leadership development program. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 80(2), 78-87.
Sandberg, B. (2024). Outcomes of art-based leadership development: A qualitative metasummary. Behavioral Sciences, 14(8), 714.
Sutherland, I., & Jelinek, J. (2015). From experiential learning to aesthetic knowing: The arts in leadership development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 17(3), 289-306.
⭐ Adam’s MAGIC
According to Adam, his magic is his ability to enter diverse rooms and environments and connect authentically with vastly different audiences - from law enforcement and city mayors to executives to youth from many different countries. He describes himself as a "cultural translator" or "shapeshifter" who can build trust and rapport across different groups, making people feel like he's one of them rather than an outsider. This skill allows him to bridge divides and break down the in-group/out-group mentalities that create so much polarization in our world today. He sees this ability to be genuinely curious about people who are different from him and to enter spaces with people of totally different backgrounds, life experiences, and personality types as particularly crucial in our current climate of division and separation.
Connect with Adam
Adam Rosendahl is the Founder and CEO of Late Nite Art®: a creative learning and development lab that shifts perspectives through experiential learning, dialogue, music, and art. From executives at Adobe and Pixar to Federal Probation Officers in Louisville, Kentucky, a diverse range of companies, universities, and public institutions depend on Adam to create transformational events and gatherings that help teams deepen connection, lean into creativity, and mold institutional culture. Adam has delivered 600+ events across 12 countries and is considered a global leader in facilitating group experiences that humanize people beyond the roles they play at work. He believes in the power of art to transcend cultural, generational, and professional divides, and uses art as a vehicle to help people get out of their heads, drop into their hearts, and disrupt their routines.
Instagram @theadamrosendahl
Adam's monthly drawing and playlist: https://info.lateniteart.com/receive-a-drawing-a-playlist-each-month
Credits & Revisions:
Guest Reviewer: Adam Rosendahl
Story Writer/Editor: Dr. Jiani Wu
AI Partner: Perplexity, Claude
Initial Publication: June 6 2025
Disclaimer:
AI technologies are harnessed to create initial content derived from genuine conversations. Human re-creation & review are used to ensure accuracy, relevance & quality.
