Unlock Organizational Potentials through Music | Genein Letford
📑 Chapters
00:00 Intro to Genein
03:27 Understanding Neural Somatic Leadership
06:24 Lyrics as a Tool for Leadership Development
07:19 Exploring the Genius of Prince
09:46 Childlike Wonder and Creativity in Adults
13:00 A Child is a Creative Genius
16:07 The Power of Curiosity & Open-Focused Observation
20:10 Differentiate Observation & Recognition
24:14 Unpacking Intercultural Creativity
29:08 The Role of Diverse Perspectives
33:26 Understanding Brain Energy and Creativity
37:21 In-Group vs Out-Group Dynamics
41:37 The Power of Music and Connection
43:55 Finding Your Magic Through Creativity
-
Genein Letford, M.Ed (00:00)
My magic is the concept of prismatic leadership, of showing people that with a prism, with a diamond, with a drop of rain, you can see the hidden colors of the rainbow when you're in light.
was when children are here, they have something called a lantern, almost a lantern observational field, right? So they just see everything. Whereas when we get older, it's more of a spotlight, right? Like I'm focused on the mailbox. So let's just go to the mailbox and then go home, right? But Sean's like, but there's a snail. What is this snail about? It is slimy. It's like, let me sit for seven minutes with this snail, right?
which is a true story, by the way. And but that got my curiosity up.
Jiani (00:41)
I love it.
I feel
Genein Letford, M.Ed (00:44)
And we call that an anthem, right? They have an anthem. say is that does something called neural synchronization. When people sing together and they move together, their brains are actually synchronizing together, which plays out into them increasing in collaboration, increasing in their ability to shift perspectives to the other person's point of view.
There are actually different neural networks used for people who my brain in groups with versus out groups with. And so if I out group you, it's harder for me to be empathy and to have empathetic connections with you. It's harder for me to shift perspective to see your lived experience. It's harder for me to know you have autonomy with your choices and your decisions. But if I in group you,
I can make stronger connections with you. I can shift perspective.
Jiani (01:34)
Welcome to MAGICademy Podcast Today with us is Genein Nice to meet you Genein I just love your name so much Genein Genein is a national thought leader and creator of the program called lyrics and leadership You heard it right lyrics it's like
Genein Letford, M.Ed (01:41)
Glad to be here.
Yeah.
Jiani (01:58)
lyrics for songs and things that we create as we build music and leadership. So it's a very interesting combination. This program and this whole framework integrates a lot of concepts there. neural somatic leadership, there are concepts about intercultural creativity, there are also concepts about prismatic leadership.
she is also called as the America's creative coach. So for the goal of this conversation, we will dive deeper into
Genein Letford, M.Ed (02:23)
yes.
Jiani (02:35)
What does intercultural creativity really mean? What is somatic? What is neuro somatic leadership? What are some evidence-based framework that's underlining all the programming and why does lyrics have anything to do with leadership at all? So it's a very interesting topic and hope you stay tuned and let's get it started. Exciting.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (02:52)
Yeah. Yeah.
excited to be here. Thank you so much
for having me.
Jiani (03:06)
Yeah. So happy. All right. So now let's get started with the first question.
Beep beep beep. In front of you lands a spaceship and out walks a very friendly alien. If you were to use one word, one sound, or one movement to invite them to play, what would that be?
Genein Letford, M.Ed (03:27)
do a movement of opening my body to show, to show welcomeness and to show an invitation to connect. Yes, yes.
Jiani (03:36)
Mmm,
I love that.
All right, let's get into it. neural somatic. So there's a lot of concepts that we're gonna unpack here. Let's first start with the neural somatic. So it's like neural and somatic. So it's our brain, our body, our emotions, our heart. Can you help us understand a little bit about
Genein Letford, M.Ed (03:48)
New terms.
Jiani (04:07)
the concept a little bit.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (04:10)
Sure, sure. Well, I am an educator by trade. I taught in K-5 for 15 years, ran a nonprofit for 6th 12th graders and teaching entrepreneurship, creative thinking, financial literacy. And I also taught at the university level at California State University Northridge. And then now I do a lot of corporate training, so with adults as well. And so I had a position and opportunity to really see the entire pipeline really, you know, from the beginning of the lifespan, even working with people with great grandchildren.
and things along those lines. And so it really gave me an interesting perspective to say, OK, well, what are the actual tools and skills we need in order to not just survive, but to thrive in this new future of work, right? Especially with AI coming in and the people needing to continuously learn and upskill and sometimes re-skill, right?
And so that's where I left the classroom in 2019. And I was really looking at, what does the term creativity really mean? And what does it mean to be creative in this climate? And so first of all, a lot of people think creativity is only artistry. So I have to of dispel that myth. Artistry is definitely a part of the creative process. But it's not in all of the endeavors. You can be creative in any field. And so the definition that we are a
using is it's the process of problem finding and problem solving with relevance, value and novelty, right? Highly creative people are not just waiting for their leaders or bosses to give them projects. They're out there asking questions. They're observant. They're seeing patterns and they're just making connections that a lot of people aren't doing. And so with that, I saw about intercultural creativity that actually came first.
And then a neurosomatic creativity came in. What neurosomatic creativity is, it's the better joining of and combining of the brain, the mind, which I separate the two, they are highly connected, but I talk about them in different facets, but the brain, the mind and the body. How can we better connect the brain and the mind and the body in order to increase our creative thinking?
Jiani (06:24)
lyrics, you mentioned about the lyrics. And the lyrics is actually the very beginning. So lyrics and leadership. So there's no way for us to not talk about lyrics.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (06:30)
Yeah.
people love music. People love music. Music, we know there's a lot of research coming out with like music as medicine and music in the mind. There's a lot of neuroscientists just focusing on music and dance on the brain. And I'm trying to just make the connection, right? I'm an educator, but I'm deep in the neuroscience and I'm deep in the arts.
and now deep in business and entrepreneurship, even health care. I've done training over there. So I'm just jumping around all these disciplines, seeing where the dots are. And I just thought, why not use artists, musical artists that people already love and look at their lyrics and find out where are these leadership skills embedded in their lyrics, right? And then how can...
We get people together because there's an isolation epidemic. So getting people socially connected even from around the world and together and dancing to the music, singing to the music, and then doing the work, looking at the lyrics and saying, OK, well, this artist is saying this. What does this look like in our life? They're talking about creativity. They're talking about taking risk. What tools can we implement in our life so we can walk that out? What is our brain doing?
that's trying to stop us from taking the risk and how do we overcome that to move forward? And so with lyrics and leadership, we have decided that our inaugural artists will be, This is Prince, the icon, the genius on so many levels. And the reason why we chose him, and I say, I didn't choose him, he was chosen for us, but.
just because of his level of genius within the lyrics. He's a great poet. People don't really think of him that way because we see him as a singer or a guitar player, but he's a poet first and foremost. And he is a philosopher. He is a leadership trainer. if you look, because I really didn't grow up a Prince fanatic fan, and I knew of some of his popular songs.
Jiani (08:09)
you
Genein Letford, M.Ed (08:34)
But there's people on this earth who like know every single song. They have his side tattooed on their body. Their house is purple, right? That was not me by far. But just in the past few months of doing deep research, hours of interviews, analyzing song lyrics and really comparing it to the research coming out in neuroscience and in leadership training in psychology, it's a win-win, right? He was very just deep in teaching.
resilience, teaching creativity, teaching interpersonal relationships and interpersonal conflict. How do you resolve that? And I just think that people who love prints or another art, artists that we may use in the future, would come to learn because it's prints, but then they're getting tools that they can actually implement in their own lives as well.
Jiani (09:25)
Can you, I'm fascinated, can you give us an example, maybe a live demonstration or anything that you, that will help our audience and our listeners to further kind of conceptualize and contextualize and embody this methodology, this approach.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (09:32)
Yeah.
Sure, sure. So there's a lot of songs. We're coming out with a short free free class around and I'm not sure when this is going to be published, but around the Super Bowl time, right? What are the leadership lessons that he implemented for his Super Bowl show, which people arguably say that it is the top Super Bowl halftime show ever. But a song that a lot of people know is Diamonds and Pearls, right? And I like that one because my logo is a diamond, right?
Jiani (10:14)
Please mad at me.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (10:14)
yes.
And I actually live on the street. When you look at the etymology of my street name, it means Pearl. So I'm like, my goodness. It's meant, meant to be. Yeah. So just, that's why I say I didn't really choose him. He was chosen for, for, for me. But, but you know, one of the lyrics is, for diamonds and pearls, there will, there will come a time when, when love will blow your mind and everything you look for, you'll find.
Jiani (10:22)
Wow.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (10:41)
And so I can just take that stanza and just say, you know, everything you're looking for, you'll find. then she sings, take a look inside. so for people to realize that a lot of your gifts and your abilities, you're already harb-harboring, right? So like my, I'm gifted in teaching. I love to teach. I can teach all day. but I was carrying that gift. Now I had to go and refine it. I had to go get a teaching credential and, you know, and learn how to teach well.
but the gift of connecting with people, the gift of using the arts to connect with people, the gift of being around for the aha moments, that is my ability. And I just had to look inside. A lot of times when we work with children, which is the beginning of my career, children show you a lot of their gifts earlier on, right? Your early speakers are the ones speaking up and they won't be quiet. Maybe they're meant to be on the stage in 20 years.
your problem solvers, look at my own six year old son and the way he's tinkering with things, a man just walked past and was watching him. It's like, wow, he has an engineering mind. Like they are showing you these gems. They're already inside of them. And so for adults to realize, wait, had I, have I ever stopped in and analyzed, you know, what, what I'm carrying with, with me. And so just for us to enjoy the music, right. I'm all about music. I'm a music teacher, then stop.
and take a moment and really think about the words, right? And analyze them. And that's what I've done for years with my students in my job. And now we're just looking at to bring it to not just some United States of America, but to the world. Because as far as Prince and some of the other artists we'll be working with in the future, they're global, right? Prince was known all over the world. Yes, and for...
Jiani (12:27)
Yes, the music has no boundaries. Yes.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (12:31)
people with different backgrounds, different cultures to interact with the music and the life lessons and the lyrics in their way, and then come together and share it. We're all about building community. So we're looking to build an online community around Prince and then about the other artists that we're looking to build this out with. But people want to come together. People want to communicate and socially connect. What greater reason than to do it around a musician who we both adore?
Jiani (13:00)
beautiful. That's beautiful. you and there's further there's like more concept that I'm sensing and then I wanted to kind of unpack. So you mentioned about like the hidden gems of natural talent when we have it when we're little kids and you've kind of mentioned that maybe music maybe art is a way for us to
reawaken or at least help us to start thinking about that. So what do you think of that? How do you define that kind of childlike sense of wonder in adults? Like talents and also it would be interesting to imagine like executive leaderships like CEO, CFOs and COO or the C-Suite people. What does childlike wonder and that kind of
Genein Letford, M.Ed (13:49)
Mm-hmm
Jiani (13:54)
creativity mean to people in that space and even like startup founders who face a lot of challenges and potential risks.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (14:01)
Sure.
I think I have a unique position on this because number one, I wasn't a child as all of us were, but I also spent the first part of my career working with these creative geniuses who were from four years old to about 10. And so I understand it and I have my degrees in psychology and human development. And so I'm looking at it and then I'm a mom, right? So I actually had a human grow in my body and then.
Jiani (14:11)
Really?
I love you.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (14:30)
now, you know, just watching stage by stage. So that was a whole other experience as well, because I was an elementary school teacher. So I got the math four. So I missed the first four years of their of their development. But when you have your own, you really get to see that up close. So that was mind blowing. And just, you know, because I believe, you know, I love your podcast, you have some great people on and one of them mentioned, you know,
Can we really get back to childlike wonder? Because the brain changes, you know, significant throughout childhood. And then you go through adolescence and there's a lot of different brain growths. You know, they call it the pre-brubescent brain and adult brain, right? And so I do agree with him there that the brain is, you know, physically different. That's not really debatable. It's fact. But I didn't agree with him when he said, you know, we can't tell people to go back to their childlike wonder because I think we can.
And when you work with children on a day-to-day basis, you see that. For an example, I go to get the mail, right? I'm going to the mailboxes, which is a little bit down the street. If I would go by myself, I would just walk, get the mail, and walk back to my house, right? Three minutes, five minutes, Tom. I go with my two-year-old, and it's a 35-minute adventure, right? Because he is looking at everything. We stare at a snail. I talk about it in my book.
Jiani (15:41)
you
Genein Letford, M.Ed (15:48)
right there about, he was around two years old when the pandemic hit. And thank goodness we were in a location where we were on the side of a hill. So we had a lot of open green areas We really got to explore the environment, but I had to chance to explore it through his eyes. And what that taught me,
was when children are here, they have something called a lantern, almost a lantern observational field, right? So they just see everything. Whereas when we get older, it's more of a spotlight, right? Like I'm focused on the mailbox. So let's just go to the mailbox and then go home, right? But Sean's like, but there's a snail. What is this snail about? It is slimy. It's like, let me sit for seven minutes with this snail, right?
Jiani (16:34)
You
Genein Letford, M.Ed (16:35)
And
which is a true story, by the way. And but that got my curiosity up. Right. And on my podcast, I sat with Dr. Allison Hoismaster, who's who has her degree in workplace curiosity. And she says, Genein, curiosity is the top skill CEO leaders need today, because if you're not curious. Well, because she said, if creativity is the driver of innovation. Curiosity is a driver of creative thinking.
Jiani (16:38)
I love it.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (17:02)
Right? And so if you, that curiosity isn't there and it's a skill, you can develop it. But what people forget is you came here with it. I didn't have to teach my, my, my infant how to put things in their mouth because they are so curious. They want to experience the world around them and use all of their faculties to do so. Right? All of their senses. And so we lose that. And what I'm trying to get adults back to when I do my adult training, it's kind of like what, what we did before we came on air.
is to get reconnected back to their body, right? Because your body is an instrument of thought. And so that's one, that's probably how I've answered that question. Be aware of your observational field, try to expand it. And, know, of course you do have an adult brain. You can't literally go back to your pre-adult of progressive brain, but you can intentionally slow down, expand your observational field, ask additional questions, right? Like I found out the...
genitals of a snail's were in the back of the neck. Who knew? But I would have never asked that had my two-year-old son not stopped and looked at a snail for seven minutes, right? But I was like, well, let's look at the body parts of the snail. And I found out like five new things about a snail that I never knew just because we stayed and we stopped and we went deeper, right? And to something my brain was like, you know a snail, it's a snail, keep going. But his...
What is this and how can I learn more about the world I'm in by interacting with this species at this time?
Jiani (18:33)
That's so beautiful. It's like, it's just the act of stopping and observing itself. It's artsy. Like, you don't have to be an artist to be artsy. I think one way to interpret it, like what is to be artsy, what is to integrate art is observation, is slow and focused.
and observation and awareness. It's the process guided by the curiosity, wanting to know more, wanting to switch your laser lights back into the lantern light and see time differently because a lot of times when we see time it's like, I need to go. Time is money.
However, that limits, puts a, that prison, like that put our mind in prison because we fall below the concept of time versus when you are observing the snail for seven minutes, you rise above the concept of time where you feel like time is so abundant.
and you can have five minutes or seven minutes on the way to pick up a mail. I mean, why not? And all of a sudden the dynamic between us and the time is changed and we become the master of time rather than be the other way around, which takes our power and our agency away. I really like that. That's beautiful.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (20:09)
Yeah, and
just to extend on the word observation. So it comes from the Latin observer, which means to attend to. So what are you paying your attention to? Right. And Dr. Root-Bernstein and his wife, wrote a book called The 13 Creative Thinking Tools of highly creative people or something along those lines. And that's how me and my son and I wrote our book. I Am Creative, which we call the 16 Creative Thinking Tools. We just like the number 16.
And there's three more other areas, but what they talked about is Observation versus recognizing so when I come in a room I I can recognize the TV and recognize the radio and recognize that so my I don't have to spend time on it because my brain always wants to save energy right, but when I stop and observe there's you interacting with all of your senses and going deeper you're asking questions, right and so
you get to be more intentional about what you choose to stop and observe with, even on the walk to the mailbox or going on a hike or experiencing a new place. And so there's that observation piece and then there's the reflection and wisdom piece, right? And you had some great guests on your show talk about wisdom. And it's like, I'm looking at the snail. What's cool about the snail or new that I didn't know? And then how can I apply that? How can I parallel it?
to life lessons in my life, know, kind of like the butterfly. Let's just use that one because people know that one. The whole from the caterpillar coming into a chrysalis, not a cocoon people, a chrysalis. People mix that up all the time. Moths are in cocoons, butterflies are in chrysalis or chrysoli. I don't know how you pluralize that word. But then it has to struggle to come out of the chrysalis. And if you cut it open and it doesn't have that struggle,
the liquid won't get all the way to the ends of the wings and it'll fall flat and die. And so you're watching this happen and you're just in awe, right? And especially if you're a two year old child, like this is amazing. But as an adult, can you watch it happen and then do that wisdom parallel jump to your own life? You can have lessons about change.
Jiani (22:13)
You
Genein Letford, M.Ed (22:23)
You can have lessons about being in a chrysalis and stopping still and letting the work work on you, right? You can have lessons about the struggle of coming out the chrysalis. Life happens, your brain gets stronger and more resilient when you go through struggle and you have the tools to to exit out of it a stronger person, right? You can go through flying away as a beautiful, but you know, there's so many wisdom lessons in nature that we walk right past because we're not observant.
and we're not taking the time to be curious.
Jiani (22:53)
I want to let this sinking in a little bit. This moment deserve an alternation of time. And I think that resonates with where we get things started. We're talking about lyrics, we're talking about leadership, we're talking about neurosomatic, we're talking about creativity. And I think that kind of ties, just ties everything all together.
And we do need help to reawaken that part of wonder and creativity, especially the longer that we've been on this life, the more help that we actually need. And I would also wanted to anchor everything back into the intercultural-ness of creativity.
And a lot of times when we think about intercultural, we think about the most obvious, different countries and different maybe regions, mean, different like south and north and west and east. Usually the geography is something that we first thought of when we were thinking about intercultural. And I remember when we were talking about this in our initial conversation,
Genein Letford, M.Ed (23:56)
Mm-hmm.
Jiani (24:14)
you have a different way of perceiving the idea of intercultural in a more nuanced way. Can you help us to kind of unpack this idea and develop a little bit more depth about the concept of interculturalness?
Genein Letford, M.Ed (24:33)
Sure, sure, and I love it. You one of the reasons why I'm so excited about with this lyrics and leadership program is I get to bring up these concepts in interesting ways through other gates, right? Where people aren't, know, this isn't just a two hour lecture. Let's look at this concept through a song. And one reason, which I do have a purple brain, by the way, purple instead of purple rain, we say purple brains, purple brains, right?
Jiani (24:52)
cool.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (24:59)
One reason why I'm so excited to really re-present Prince to the world, to his friends, he didn't really say fans, but his friends, is because I believe he's the epitome of intercultural creativity. He's also the epitome of prismatic leadership. But when it comes to intercultural creativity, we have to understand that when I say cultural, I don't just mean ethnicity and race and nationality. A cultural group is just a group that
Jiani (25:08)
Nice.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (25:26)
You know, you have agreed upon beliefs and values and I say the theme song is, is how we do it, right? This is how we do things. This is how we run things. You can have a home culture. You can have a faith-based culture. You can have an ed culture, a tech culture, HR culture. Like, you know, because I speak about creativity, I'm in so many different fields where I see they have their own acronyms. They have their own phrases. They have their own, you know, KPIs over here. SSTs over there and...
Jiani (25:32)
yeah. This is how we do it.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (25:53)
ERG is over here, right? These things mean different things to different people depending on which social groups. And we belong to multiple social groups, right? And to be mindful that we are social creatures. So whichever social groups you're identifying with affects your identity, right? It affects how you see yourself and how you see others and how you see the world and how you view just the interactions between all of these micro and macro cause-cosms.
And so when I think about like our featured artist prints, one reason why I believe just with my research that he was so ahead of his time and so creative is because he was intentional about bringing different perspectives and different cultural groups or cultural identities within his sphere. And this is musically, this is...
just the books he read, the people who he was around, the activities, the projects. He wasn't just a musician. mean, a lot of people don't even know that his guitar playing and all of the instruments that he did play. And then he wasn't just in music. He was in theater as well. You know, he wrote poetry, which turned into music. And he was a visual artist. All of these covers and all of the...
Jiani (27:04)
lyrics.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (27:11)
the visual art on the stage and how you present a show, those are all the arts mixed in together. But the different perspectives that he connected with was huge. And so how do I teach intercultural creativity with someone that people are already attached to? That's how. And then I have people think about their own lives. OK, well, who are your board of directors? I call them board of directors.
Who are the mentors you have in your own life? Do they all look the same, all believe the same, all saying the same things? Or do you have a diversified board that will give you different perspectives about your movement and your goals? What type of arts are you bringing in your life? Are you only seeing this, listening to this one type of music? I only listen to country and that is it, right? Or are you being exposed to different genres?
Are you being exposed to people who like different genres? And when we understand, the last thing I'll say is when we understand what creativity sits on, it sits on your ability to entertain different perspectives. And then you allow your brain, your purple brain or your real one, then you allow your brain in the subconscious areas to make those connections when you're not even thinking about it. That's how you get your eureka moments. They don't just come.
You actually have been doing things to diversify your experiences, your people, your arts, your whatever intake you're bringing in. And then your subconscious and non-conscious mind does the work in the background. And that's really all these words you see me coming up with, intercultural creativity, neural semantic creativity, prismatic leadership, and now lyrics in leadership. You know, that's just my subconscious saying, hmm, I love music.
Jiani (28:58)
Okay.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (28:59)
I love lyrics. I love the wisdom these musicians are sharing. I wonder if I could attach it to leadership training. And here you go.
Jiani (29:08)
Hmm.
I love it. And when you first introduced the concept of intercultural, I was not thinking in terms of different beliefs or social groups that you associate with. Like career, like different career path is different cultures and different levels of leadership in the organization. As of now, maybe in the future, it's going to be flatter. Just basically what you do, what you expose.
what we call silos basically like we have different silos and and when you say like this is how we do it and I was like picturing this like music show of like a corporation and and different people in different like like jobs and are like singing the song this is how we do it and there's like different silos like dancing in their own groups and like chaotic
Genein Letford, M.Ed (29:54)
But it's the coming,
it's the coming together. And really quick, my brother currently is at JPL NASA. you know, he is a mathematician. My twin sister, we were born together. I'm a twin. Her major was astrophysics, right? And then I'm over here, kindergarten teacher, right? Same, my other sister's a nurse, you know? So, and my mother's a biology teacher. So they are all hard sciences.
I'm over here with psychology and education, but we were born and we were raised in the same house, same culture. We're all identified as African-American, same home, same socioeconomic status. But because they were trained differently in mathematics, I was not trained as a mathematician or an astrophysicist. Even the way we approach problems is going to be somewhat different because of the different cultures, our school culture, our training culture that we're in.
So people need to be very mindful of that. My husband is black, he identifies as black, but he was born in Kingston, Jamaica. I was born in Los Angeles. So even though we look the same, completely different cultures, so we're going to approach problem solving with different perspectives because of our cultural upbringing and our identifications.
Jiani (31:07)
That's beautiful. I do have a little bit harsh question on that one about the ability to embrace and interleave and weave different like cultures together. Because sometimes when
Genein Letford, M.Ed (31:12)
Mm-hmm, please.
Jiani (31:26)
It's about energy. It's where we when we feel energized or versus where we feel not energized. And maybe there's like a little like underlining things going on that that I that I don't know how to explain. So sometimes when you are able to associate with a particular cultural groups, maybe like whether it's from the career spectrum or from the cultural perspective or from whatever spectrum.
whatever belief and way of thinking that we categorize. And when we are associated with something that more similar to us, we tend to get maybe more echoing effect and maybe feeling like acknowledged and feeling like, I get my energies from being with people who we do this together versus when we are meeting people who do things differently.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (32:16)
Mm-hmm.
Jiani (32:21)
radically differently or differently than us. We feel like, I feel like it's hard to get energy from integrating or identifying with someone that's so different from us. I don't know if it's coming from like a biology design, how we are designed. So
Genein Letford, M.Ed (32:45)
It is, there's biology
and there's psychology involved. Dr. Lisa Fieldman Barrett talks about this. She's a neuroscientist Dr. Barrett says that our brain, she's used to...
Jiani (32:54)
Me
Genein Letford, M.Ed (32:57)
She compares it to a financial budget. It has a metabolic budget. So when you wake up, you have an energy, but you have a certain amount of energy for the day, right? That's why sleep is important. And your brain's job is to keep you alive, keep you safe, and to keep your organs running. That's the first, right? And so when you think about things like intercultural competence, which is your ability to connect with people with different lived experiences, different backgrounds, even different demographics.
When we think about intercultural competence and creative thinking, you're asking your brain, your purple brain, right, to do extra work and to spend extra energy because your brain's job is to be efficient with the energy. And that's why we have assumptions and biases because your brain's like, okay, I've seen that before. Here's what's going to happen. I've seen this before. Here's what you can think about it. Don't even think too hard, hard about it. We can just come to this assumption and move, and move, move on.
because your brain wants to save as much energy as possible for the more important functions. And so we have to understand that if your brain is not healthy, if you are not sleeping well, eating well, exercising is huge, right? That BDNF, brain-derived neutrophic factor, if you're not giving the brain what it needs to function well,
It's not going to have the energy that you're asking it to do to reach out to this person who you may not know their behavior because your brain is looking for patterns. Your brain is looking to predict like, hey, I know these people. I know what they're going to do. I know what they believe. These are my people. Right. So your brain doesn't have to work too hard to figure them out because you already have them figured them out with creativity. You know, if I'm not
Jiani (34:36)
This is something good.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (34:41)
being creative and I'm doing the same-o same-o, my brain doesn't really have to work too hard because I already know what's going on. I'm in my routine. I've been doing this for 10 years. I'm good. Your brain's like just coasted. But the second you get into a creative act where you don't know what the end result's going to be, let's see how this has happened. I have to think like your brain is actually working. And so once again, well-being health, brain health, right? We're talking a lot about that and the Center for Brain Health out of the University of
Jiani (34:57)
you
Genein Letford, M.Ed (35:09)
Texas at Dallas is doing some great work on giving people tools just to keep their brain healthy. So you can be creative, which leads to innovation. So you can connect with people who may not look like you, believe like you, but you have the brain energy to be curious. And curiosity is a huge thing because it hits brain health, it hits intercultural health, and it hits creative.
Curiosity is across the board. That's why it's so important and I hope there's more research coming out. And then people like you and me are making that research digestible for the everyday person. Because if you're not curious, you're not going to want to ask questions to connect with this person who looks different from you or who has a different belief than you. Because you're just going to go to assumptions and keep moving on, And curiosity just keeps the brain just
Jiani (35:57)
Yeah.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (36:00)
fluffy. Dr. Wendy Suzuki over at NYU, talks about having a fluffy hippocampus, right? She talks about the importance of exercise and working out, but curiosity is there too. You're exercising your brain. What are they about? What foods are they eating? What is their life like? What are they dealing with that I don't have to deal with because I'm in the majority of this demographic?
Jiani (36:02)
Aww.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (36:23)
And how can I find out stories, either ask them directly or do my own work and do research, read stories, watch documentaries about demographics that I may not have a lot of exposure to, but I'm asking my brain to give extra metabolic energy. And so if I'm not healthy, it's not going to want to go that route. And the last thing I'll say is your brain also is aware of in-grouping and out-grouping. So
If I see you, you know, and if I in group you because you're a woman, you are joyful, you love to learn, my brain's going to in group you and then I'm going to be able to connect with you faster. You know, but if I say, wait, you know, you're from, I believe you're from China. You're a China background, Chinese. Yes. If I say, well, she's Mandarin and she speaks with an accent. So I don't know. She's not one of us. So if I out group you.
Jiani (37:08)
China. Men, men in China. Yeah, yeah.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (37:21)
There are actually different neural networks used for people who my brain in groups with versus out groups with. And so if I out group you, it's harder for me to be empathy and to have empathetic connections with you. It's harder for me to shift perspective to see your lived experience. It's harder for me to know you have autonomy with your choices and your decisions. But if I in group you,
I can make stronger connections with you. I can shift perspective. And so I got that from Dr. Daniel Siegel out of UCLA, and he's doing stuff with the MindSight. And that's so important for leaders to understand that, because leaders who are doing promotions, leaders who are hiring, right? That's why we tend to bring in people who remind us of us. That is why.
Jiani (38:07)
Yes.
I'm roughly kidding.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (38:14)
And it comes down to this beautiful, that's my book up there, it's called My Brain, My Brain, My Beautiful Brain. Your brain is beautiful, but you gotta know how it works and you gotta know how it's sometimes tricking you into making decisions that you really don't need to be making at certain times.
Jiani (38:32)
That's so beautiful. my goodness. We've kind of, we've covered like a large range of topics so far coming from the, the, the integration of our arts into leadership. We're talking about lyrics and how lyrics is maybe like a poem and then the poem carries words and then meanings and something that gives us a venue for us to express in a space where it feels much safer. And then the words that
Genein Letford, M.Ed (38:38)
Mm-hmm
Jiani (39:01)
come together through the music and the lyrics gives us a talking point or discussion point of we, yeah.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (39:09)
And then we express through
the arts. You I want people doing their own songs and creating their own paintings and doing their own movements and dancing. We want to really connect all the arts to the lyrics and leadership program and then bring people together and let's have fun. Let's listen to a Prince Tribute band or whatever, and then let's do leadership training and then go out and do karaoke. You know, let's really make this a fun experience of learning and living together.
Jiani (39:27)
You're old.
I love that.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (39:35)
and let the music drive us and bring us together and unify us. And that's really when you think about the music of Prince, especially during his latter half of his career, that's what his music was about, bringing people together of all different backgrounds and having us be unified within love and life.
Jiani (39:53)
I love that. just, I just have this like this idea. I'm just going to talk a lot. I feel like every company, no matter how small, how big they are, they, they need a song. Just like every country has a song. So every, every company, startup, established companies, profit, for profit, nonprofit, we need a song. And then the song can come from
people working in different departments and trying to come together making this music. And then that could be fantastic. Just imagine the whole world with every group of people having their own lyrics and song and they can sing and they can dance too and they can do Arabic activities too. So we connect that with like health too.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (40:24)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yes.
And we call that an anthem, right? They have an anthem. And lastly, I'll say is that does something called neural synchronization. When people sing together and they move together, their brains are actually synchronizing together, which plays out into them increasing in collaboration, increasing in their ability to shift perspectives to the other person's point of view.
Jiani (40:47)
Yes.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (41:04)
And it's huge. totally agree with that. Every company and department and even family should have an anthem.
Jiani (41:11)
anthem yes my goodness that's so beautiful and all right so okay so i wish we could keep talking forever and i know we are on the tie and people people are living a busy life and however i hope our conversation in this past 40 some minutes creates an alternative space for you to dwell and to relax just like when jenny was with
her kids and on the way to the mailbox and picking up a mail, they spend five to seven minutes observing a snail and learning more about the snail and get involved in into the wonder and nature of this wonderful world. We're living, we are already in heaven as long as we believe it.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (41:55)
What a wonderful world.
I love that. Yes, yes. music and movement and the arts are a great way to make that connection, right? And for health, our brain health. And so thank you so much for having me. And I hope your audience goes out and listens to their favorite song, if it's Prince, even better, and enjoys what the arts and what this information can do for them and their health and their life.
Jiani (42:06)
Exactly.
Yeah.
Beautiful and I think before we wrap it up, I would like to Have the typical question about the magic. So I'm curious. What did you enjoy creating and playing so much when you were a kid?
Genein Letford, M.Ed (42:37)
I was into detective, like I read reading Cyclopedia Brown and I had these glasses that show you what's behind you and really looking for clues. And now in my adulthood, I see myself doing the same thing. Like, wait, that's a clue and that's a clue. And how could I make these like, what's the connection be between them? Right. And I just love detective works, Nancy Drew, but I was more of an Cyclopedia Brown reader. but yeah, I, that's what showed me magic is when I could find connections within the unconnected.
Jiani (42:54)
Yeah, finding patterns.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (43:07)
And now I do that for a living now, but I loved it in my childhood. And there's your hidden gifts that we talked about, right? What are those hidden gifts, those gems that the children are showing you that could possibly blossom into something bigger in their adulthood?
Jiani (43:14)
Yes.
Yeah, and I think an easier way is for everybody to reconnect with your kindergarten teacher if they're still there and ask the teacher if still the teacher still remembers. What did I enjoy creating and playing so much that you just find me losing in the beauty of time? That's beautiful. So yeah, so let's conclude that with your magic. what overall with everything that's being said.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (43:29)
If they're still here, yes.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that flow, right?
Jiani (43:48)
you are out there doing the work and helping people and bringing people together. What do you think is your magic?
Genein Letford, M.Ed (43:55)
My magic is the concept of prismatic leadership, of showing people that with a prism, with a diamond, with a drop of rain, you can see the hidden colors of the rainbow when you're in light. And Prince did that with his work. He helped a lot of people see their hidden strength that they weren't even aware of. That is my magic, is helping people come to this realization of, I am creative or...
wait, can do this. And to be there for that aha moment is a wonderful gift to see people going to the next level because you gave them an, just not even an idea, just gave them the confidence. You know, confidence is contagious. Just like fear is can take contagious. That's the magic of giving people that confidence to see themselves in a whole new light and to see the hidden colors and gifts that they're, they've been carrying the whole time. Like those song, diamonds and Pearl says,
Just take a look inside. It's always been there. Just take a look inside.
Jiani (44:51)
I love that. And also to connect with the in-group and out-group, the way that we see, we decide whether this person is in-group or this group of people are in-group or out-group really depends on how you see it, the perception. So using the charismatic or the diamond as an example, you may see this is a stream of purple light. This is a stream of green light. This different, green and purple is different. However, if you put them through a pre...
prism like that, you're going to see some common colors. And I think that's the ability to see beyond the difference into the common similarities is where the magic happens. It's uniting. And I think coming back to the lyrics, lyrics is a way to distill different light into
common grounds and allow people to see the commonalities among different differences and divide and separation and here this is the song, the lyrics. Everybody can sing, can dance, can listen, can read the lyrics. It's beautiful.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (46:07)
Yes, yes, yes. And going that next step of seeing the commonalities and the similarities and then learning how to appreciate the differences and learning from, because that's where creativity comes from. It's those different perspectives that the brain is integrating. So that's the next step. It's coming together for the similarities, like in this case in prints. We all love prints, yay! But then celebrating the differences of how are we interacting with the content from a different perspective.
Jiani (46:17)
Hmm.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (46:37)
And then growing from that and then finding our one song. There's a great song called the Future Soul song that he sings. I didn't know about it till my research, it's, Future Soul song, check it out. But it's him singing about us just coming together with one voice, right? But we all sound different, but when we sing together, we're coming together with one voice. And so, yeah, that's where the prismatic prints. And that's where that comes from.
Jiani (46:46)
Future Soul Soul Song
Genein Letford, M.Ed (47:06)
And that's the inspiration that I have to really produce this work, really re-represent his work to the world in a whole new way and help people just see the level of depth and wisdom, but also to apply it in their own lives so they can continue to upskill and re-skill in this future of work where AI needs us to be adaptable, resilient, and creative and curious. That's no longer a luxury now. That's a must.
And so why not do it in a fun, engaging and artistic way?
Jiani (47:39)
So beautiful. Thank you, Genein. It's such a wonderful conversation and I hope we stay connected and for folks who are interested in Genein's work, her information and contact are in the show note below. So please get connected. Please create your company, your organization anthem and unite people together, allowing people to see beyond their differences. It's hard.
However, it's totally doable and you can do it with fun and with music and with play and with dance. Why not? Thank you, Genein.
Genein Letford, M.Ed (48:15)
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
💕 Story Overview
In this episode of the MAGICademy Podcast, we welcomes Genein Letford, a national thought leader and creator of "Lyrics & Leadership." This innovative program combines music, neural somatic leadership concepts, intercultural creativity, and prismatic leadership to help us unlock our creative potential.
As America's Creative Coach, Genein explores how Prince's profound lyrics contain powerful leadership lessons, explains the science behind connecting our brain, mind and body to enhance creativity, and discusses how embracing curiosity and childlike wonder can transform personal and professional growth.
The conversation delves into how music and movement can unite people across different cultures and perspectives, ultimately highlighting the importance of these creative approaches in an era where adaptability, resilience, and curiosity have become essential rather than optional skills in our rapidly evolving world.
MAGICal Insights
Lyrics and leadership can be integrated through examining the wisdom in music lyrics to explore leadership wisdom. This approach uses music that people already connect with as a gateway to explore resilience, creativity, and interpersonal relationships while building community around shared artistic appreciation.
Intercultural creativity comes from intentionally diversifying perspectives beyond just ethnicity or nationality to include different professional fields, artistic exposures, and social groups. Exposing ourselves to varied cultural influences and maintaining curiosity across these boundaries enhances our brain's ability to make innovative connections in the background, leading to creative breakthroughs.
Neural somatic leadership involves reconnecting with childlike curiosity by expanding our observational field from a narrow "spotlight" focus to a broader "lantern" awareness. This intentional slowing down and deep observation, coupled with reflection on what we observe, enables wisdom connections that might otherwise be missed in our efficiency-driven adult thinking patterns.
What is Neural-Somatic Leadership?
Having worked as an educator across the entire educational spectrum—from K-5 teaching to university instruction to corporate training—Letford observed the skills needed to thrive in the modern workplace, especially with the emergence of AI and the necessity for continuous learning. Her definition of creativity extends beyond artistry to "the process of problem finding and problem solving with relevance, value and novelty."
Neural-somatic leadership is a new term developed by Genein Letford to recognize the crucial connection between the brain, mind, and body. It is inspired by a research conducted by Dr. Alison Horstmeyer (2022) which discovered that curiosity happens in stages that involve your whole self—your thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. These stages connect together, determining how strong your curiosity becomes, how long it lasts, and how often you experience it. Looking at curiosity this way helps us better understand what it feels like to be curious as a complete human experience, and how different people experience curiosity in their own unique ways.
How Do Lyrics Connect to Leadership?
Music as an entry point for deeper leadership development (Tucker, S., & Vincent, 2025). Letford explains the connection: "People love music... Music, we know there's a lot of research coming out with like music as medicine and music in the mind."
In her practice, she incorporates the lyrics of musical artists—starting with Prince—to identify embedded leadership skills and principles. Participants analyze the music lyrics, dance and sing to the music, and then apply those insights to their own lives and leadership challenges.
"Diamonds and Pearls" by Prince serves as an example. The lyrics "everything you look for, you'll find" and "take a look inside" suggest that our gifts and abilities are already within us, waiting to be discovered and refined. This approach helps leaders reconnect with their natural talents and develop them into leadership strengths.
What Does Intercultural Creativity Mean?
While "intercultural" often brings to mind geographical or ethnic differences, Letford presents a broader perspective: "When I say cultural, I don't just mean ethnicity and race and nationality. A cultural group is just a group that you have agreed upon beliefs and values..."
This includes professional cultures (tech culture, HR culture), home cultures, faith-based cultures, micro-culture, and many more. She explains that we belong to multiple social groups, each affecting our identity and worldview. Intercultural creativity (Yang, Yang & Jiang, 2024) involves intentionally bringing together different perspectives and cultural identities.
Using Prince as an exemplar of intercultural creativity, Letford notes how he incorporated diverse musical influences, artistic disciplines, and perspectives into his work. This diversity of input enabled his subconscious to make unique connections, leading to creative breakthroughs.
How Can Music and Art Unite Different Groups?
Letford believes that while adult brains differ physically from children's, we can still cultivate childlike wonder. She contrasts her adult "spotlight" attention (focused and goal-directed) with her toddler son's "lantern" observational field (wide-ranging and exploratory).
She shares a story about taking her two-year-old to get the mail—what would be a three-minute task for her alone became an adventure as they stopped to examine a snail for seven minutes. This led to discoveries about snail anatomy she would have never learned otherwise.
This kind of curiosity is vital to leadership: "If creativity is the driver of innovation, curiosity is a driver of creative thinking." Children naturally possess this curiosity, but adults can regain it by intentionally slowing down, expanding their observational field, and asking additional questions.
Why Is the Brain's Energy Budget Important for Creativity and Inclusion?
Letford references neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett's (2017) concept of the brain's "metabolic budget"—we have limited neural energy each day, and the brain prioritizes efficiency. This explains why intercultural connections and creative thinking require extra effort; they ask the brain to work beyond its familiar patterns.
"When we think about intercultural competence and creative thinking, you're asking your brain, your purple brain, right, to do extra work and to spend extra energy because your brain's job is to be efficient with the energy."
This biological reality has implications for leadership and inclusion. Our brains' tendency to conserve energy leads to in-group/out-group categorization (Siegel, 2010). When we "out-group" people, different neural networks activate that make empathy and perspective-taking more difficult. This explains why leaders often hire people similar to themselves.
"My brain is beautiful, but you gotta know how it works and you gotta know how it's sometimes tricking you into making decisions that you really don't need to be making at certain times."
How Can Music and Art Unite Different Groups?
Letford suggests that songs can serve as anthems for communities, including companies: "When people sing together and they move together, their brains are actually synchronizing together, which plays out into them increasing in collaboration, increasing in their ability to shift perspectives."
This "neural synchronization" (Weineck, Wen & Henry, 2021) helps people better understand others' viewpoints. The arts provide a common ground where people can connect beyond their differences. As Letford explains, prismatic leadership is about "showing people that with a prism, with a diamond, with a drop of rain, you can see the hidden colors of the rainbow when you're in light."
Conclusion: The Magic of Revealing Hidden Potential
Using Prince's words from "Diamonds and Pearls," she reminds us: "Just take a look inside. It's always been there. Just take a look inside." In a world where AI necessitates adaptation and resilience, creativity and curiosity are no longer luxuries but requirements. Letford's approach suggests we can develop these qualities through music, movement, and the arts—making the journey not just necessary but joyful. As she summarizes: "Why not do it in a fun, engaging and artistic way?
Reference
Barrett, L.F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.
Horstmeyer, A. (2022). A Phenomenological Investigation of the Multi-Componential Process of State Curiosity of Senior-Level Professionals. Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
Siegel, D. J. (2010). Mindsight: The new science of personal transformation. Bantam.
Tucker, S., & Vincent, K. (2025). The Power of Music: Connecting Leadership Developmental Theory to Modern Icons Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. New directions for student leadership.
Weineck, K., Wen, O.X., & Henry, M.J. (2021). Neural synchronization is strongest to the spectral flux of slow music and depends on familiarity and beat salience. eLife, 11.
Yang, Y., Yang, Q., & Jiang, C. (2024). How cultural intelligence facilitates employee creativity: The roles of intercultural citizenship behavior and perceived disharmony. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management.
⭐Genein’s MAGIC
According to Genein Letford, her magic is the concept of "prismatic leadership" — helping people see the hidden strengths and colors within themselves that they weren't previously aware of. She describes it beautifully when she says her magic is "helping people come to this realization of, I am creative or... wait, can do this. And to be there for that aha moment is a wonderful gift to see people going to the next level because you gave them... just not even an idea, just gave them the confidence."
Connect with Guest
As the 2019 LA Lakers Business Woman and the 2015 CA Charter Teacher of the Year, Genein is a national thought leader and creator of the concept of ‘Intercultural Creativity®, NeuroSomatic Creativity® and Prismatic Leadership®’. She is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of CAFFE Strategies, which trains C-Suite executives and employees to create sustainable organizational inclusion strategies while unleashing their innovative thinking for themselves and in their businesses. Her 7 Gems of Intercultural Creativity is a leading framework that encourages corporations in their diversity and inclusion development while developing critical cognitive tools for creative thinking. Genein believes creative thinking thrives best in an inclusive environment and she is often called ‘America’s Creative Coach’ for her work in reigniting intercultural creativity within our workforce.
Credits:
Guest: Genein Letford
Story Writer/Editor: Dr. Jiani Wu
AI Partner: Perplexity, Claude
Initial Publication: Feb 28, 2025
Revision: March 12, 2025: format
Disclaimer:
The content shared is to highlight guests’ passion & wonder. Please read evidence-based research to help you develop your unique understanding.
AI technologies are harnessed to create initial content derived from genuine conversations. Human review is used to ensure accuracy, relevance & quality.
