Culture – Page 5 – The Consulting Artist

What Moves You?

What Moves You? Art as a trigger for the importance of subjectivity and different perspectives.

Since being established in 2012, World Art Day has been celebrated on April 15th – the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci. I had no idea such a thing existed until I saw my friend Crystal Miller had linked to it when sharing a few examples of ‘Art that moves me’ on her Facebook timeline. In addition to posting some of her artistic favourites, Crystal asked, ‘What moves you? and ‘Who is your favourite artist. I replied:

I love art in part because it is subjective, my answer to this question could change every day, hour, minute even. I see you have a Klimt in your montage. Last year we visited an amazing exhibition in a disused mine in Baux, southern France where works by Klimt and others were projected onto huge underground walls. There was musical accompaniment – the whole thing was incredibly moving. This photo may give you some idea of the huge scale of the thing. So today – I choose Klimt.

Sticking with subjectivity, I like to experience art I’ve not seen before now – I recall being particularly inspired by a chance visit to Tate Britain to see work by Kurt Schwitters. I joined Tate primarily to encourage me to experience more art for the first time and these new experiences in particular, deliver great value to me. Of course there are also times when my artistic encounters backfire, and occasionally I even seek out art I know I won’t like to reflect on my reaction to it.

I recently visited Inventing Impressionism at The National Gallery. The exhibition features a collection of impressionist paintings bought and then sold by art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. Durand-Ruel backed these fledgling artists when pretty much everyone else ridiculed them, and his early support was instrumental in the success of the movement.

When I visited the exhibition I experienced both the joy of unexpected beauty, and the trials of ugliness. The beauty was particularly stunning in a series of five paintings of poplars by Monet. Not only are these paintings individually beautiful – they have been curated wonderfully. This is an art experience in the moment, as I doubt very much that these five paintings will ever share the same wall again. For me the ugliness arrived in the form of Manet’s work, sorry all you Manet fans – but he does nothing for me. I have also noticed that each time I see work by Renoir I find his soft focus approach increasingly not to my liking either, it all feels too cutesy for me.

I enjoy the way art enthuses and challenges me, it offers a powerful reminder to acknowledge the importance of subjectivity. Even when we’re certain about what we are seeing – others may have a very different perspective, and I find it useful to be reminded of that.

What moves you?

My Favourite Thing Is You

A few observations on what makes for good networking, sparked by #Culturevist

On Wednesday I spent an interesting and enjoyable evening at a Culturevist networking event. A few of my friends have been to some previous Culturevist get togethers – but this was my first one. Networking often gets a bad rap, and we’ve all been to at least one session that’s ended up as a total cringefest, it’s not just me, is it? This event was a little different, so in defence of the art of good networking, here are my first impressions of this interesting group.

Welcome

On arrival I was immediately made to feel very welcome, by many people. This wasn’t an in your face, full on experience, just plenty of encouragement. Thank you to everyone who helped ease me into the swing of a new social situation.

Hello…And

The name badge I was invited to complete, with the addition of ‘And my favourite thing is…’ was a lovely idea. I figured I was there to meet interesting people, so my badge said ‘And my favourite thing is you’.

That dreaded intro moment

Something about networking that leaves me cold is when everyone stands up and introduces themselves to everyone else. Being a bear of small brain I struggle to remember more than about three names, and when the group is large, I also struggle to stay awake. Tom Nixon offered up a twist, and this time we were invited to simply say our name, and what we needed. This was a great idea – people’s brief responses were helpful and often funny too. Others in the group could then easily spot people they have something in common with, or someone they could be of possible use to. A lovely idea – I will look for other opportunities to try this.

Recollections

Throughout the evening, a couple of people approached me who have seen me at conferences and gatherings over the past few years and had positive recollections – those interactions were really touching, motivating too, thanks. I learned from this, that when you have a positive memory of someone, It’s lovely to share it with them. They might have forgotten – I had.

Conversation without judgement

I enjoyed the subjects put up for brief talks and subsequent conversations – the theme of the evening was ‘Open Source Culture – What Happens When Everyone Has A Say?’ I didn’t agree with everything being put forward and it was lovely to have a chance to discuss differences in such a respectful way. Too often we seek to brush even the gentlest conflict to one side – I’m a huge fan of open, respectful disagreement, and I did not feel I was being judged when sharing contradictory experiences and views.

I left with a head buzzing full of ideas, having met some lovely people for the first time and caught up with a few friends. Thank you to everyone, and particularly to Matthew Partovi for making things happen.

I hope this post is useful to some of you, and if you have any more suggestions about how to make networking work, please share them in the comments. And if you’d like to see someone else’s perspective on networking, I thoroughly recommend The Quiet Man, a beautifully written blog post by Richard Martin.

Do You Have A Best Friend At Work?

Does friendship at work matter, and what does it look and feel like?

Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. – Albert Camus

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. – Walter Winchell

I’m heading to the Meaning Conference in Brighton this morning. I can only stay for a few hours and the two main reasons I’m going are: the anticipation of being provoked and challenged, and to catch up with friends.

Do you have a best friend at work? So asks question number 10 of the famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) Gallup 12. Gallup go so far as to stay that when it comes to ’employee engagement’ their questions are the only questions you need. Seeing as their question set doesn’t include ‘How much do you love cake?’, I don’t agree with their assertion, but I do like question number 10.

I know people who like to snigger at this notion of friendship at work, and I also know from my own experience that the people I consider friends, are the ones who I enjoy spending time with, and who I can be of use to, at least some of the time. I know from the work I do that people who can develop a sense of friendship, and of getting to know one another better, do better work together. Yet somehow the notion of friendship at work is something that we often don’t readily compute. I can relate to that, and often when I’m struggling to apply something which feels unfamiliar to its surroundings, I first try and think of it in a more ‘natural’ state.

I recently joined a new cycling club, and the club gets a few requests to respond to the media about our interests in the sport. Over the weekend I was asked to consider and briefly write about the benefits of being a member of a cycling club for a feature on a sports website. Here’s the essence of what I submitted:

The people I rode with on Saturday think a good cycling club should be an encouraging place to be, and it should be a nurturing place to be. For example – when we are out for a ride, we regroup often, to wait for the slowest group member, we don’t leave people behind.

Variety is important, so we try and encourage different people to lead rides to different places. We have a few members in our club with an excellent knowledge of great places to ride, so we perhaps are a little spoiled for choice, but we think there’s nothing more boring than cycling to and from the same place every week – so mix it up.

We enjoy a lot of laughs when we’re out together – our sense of humour isn’t for everyone but we think spending time together should be good fun, so don’t take yourselves too seriously.

These brief thoughts – by themselves they aren’t the magic ingredients for great work. Unlike Gallup I don’t profess to have found the answer, or even twelve answers for that matter – and if there is such a thing as culture at work, I think it would be helpful if it were nurturing, varied and fun – among other things. How about you?

photo credit : Jlhopgood