When I was growing up, I was into arts and crafts. I loved to create things and I loved to draw. I doodled in every notebook I had as I made my way through middle school and into high school.
In particular, I loved art class. Water colors, oil painting, and colored pencils. Still life scenes, nature scenes or people. I was fascinated by shading, colors and motion.
I also loved to build and make things with my hands. I made sand candles, tie-dyed t-shirts, pottery, silver smithing, wood carving and macrame. I worked in leather, strung beads, and even tried weaving.
One year in school, my friend and I spent months creating a stop action movie of a little bi-plane taking off, flying and landing. We were beyond engaged. We were 100% committed to creative expression and exploration.
As I got older, all of those activities started to fade away. The world of work consumed my time and energy. Creativity took a back seat to logic, calendars, appointments, and problem solving.
However, I think creativity is essential to good leadership. It opens the mind to consider new options and possibilities. It allows one to look at challenges, people and complexity from multiple angles and perspectives.
Recently, I thoroughly enjoyed rereading the following book: Kleon, Austin. Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, Workman Publishing, 2012. In this book, he asks a great question: “Where do you get your ideas?” I have pondered it for many hours.
When it comes to creativity, he tells us to “draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use - do the work you want to see done.”
As we begin the process of proactivity planning for 2021 and 2022, it is time for us as leaders to create the organizations we want to work in, and to be the kind of leaders we want to follow. We need to reclaim our artistic side and surround ourselves at home and at work with creative pursuits. As Edward Tufte reminds us: “I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world . . . plant a plant, walk the dogs, read a real book, go to the opera.”
I look forward to hearing about your upcoming dog walks, the books you are reading, and the plants you are planting. It is time that we do more creative work and to share it with others. The world needs more art!
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