Leadership + Art = Vision
The Treachery Of Images by René Magritte
Art allows us to see something that wasn’t ever before visible. A peek into the unexplained, a riveting look at a moment that would have just passed us by in life, a journey, a vision un-known to us. It stirs our inner self and reminds us how this world we’ve created is so limited in vision. And begs us the question, Why Not? Art shows us the vision, can connect us to it, and regardless of what form it takes, our fascination with it makes us the most human of beings.
The best art follows no rules, but is a game to be played. Where it’s played and how it’s played are up to the artists. If it can be played inside of an organization so be it. If art in some way spawns new thinking in an organization, all the better. If it creates investment in an idea, then we all win. Organizations play by rules, and it takes unique leadership within an organization to allow the game of art to be played. Leadership + Art = Vision
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Posted by:
Brent Robertson
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brentr@fathom.net
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Seth Godin refers to the art we create in business as gifts: whether you are a sales rep at Nordstrom’s who works there for the love of knowing your favorite customers better than their spouse does or you are a CEO like Zappos’ Tony Hsieh who offers his new trainees $2,500 to leave on their last day of training, just to see how much they want to stay.
Per Godin, and now me, art is a gift. And, by its definition, a gift is not given for reciprocation. A gift is given for the shear act of giving. What you get in return cannot be monetized.
Art can serve many purposes (or none, but in that case is it still art?), but in my opinion one of its most powerful is the conveyance of an abstract idea or set of concepts not easily conveyed by any other means. A single painting, photograph, sculpture, building, can embody the essence of a society, a value system, a relationship of the part to the whole. It can deeply move us to embrace a new idea, better understand our place in the world, or help us to understand the boundaries we impose on ourselves. This is more elegant and powerful than any thick treatise.
Art can be as permanent as the traditional examples above. It can also be transitional, changeable, temporary, uncontrolled, like the seasons. Medium may be constant, but manifestation fluid. In that case its effect is about our relationship to it; how it appears at a given point in time related to our individual or societal internal state. Here the right combination of timing, internal state, and manifestation of art creates powerful results.
Then, Mood + Art = Change.
Interesting thinking Pete. What your driving on here is arts ability to create a new future, or multiple new futures depending on your perspective or state of being when you interact with it. As your perspective or state changes, so can it’s influence. This is a beautiful notion.