ARTICLES
& REPORTS
Professional
Development
About
Innovation Network
- P r o f e s s i o n a l _ D e v e l o p m e n t -
to Executive Development
John J. Cimino, Jr.
What if there were a way, a sure fire way, to awaken not just our intellects, but the depths of our heart-felt knowing and the heights of our spirit wisdom? Wouldn't you buy it, bottle it, sell it, invest in it, use it on yourself, drink it down, swim in it, invite your best clients in for a dip?
"Sure!" you'd say. "But does such a thing exist? Is it real? Is this a joke or just another exercise in wishful thinking?"
The answer is what it always is when something "new" and exciting comes along: it's been in plain sight since time immemorial, but somehow became increasingly invisible to our tired, practical eyes. I'm talking about the "all time champion" of non-linear, magical thinking-feeling- knowing ... what many have called "the final and only enduring residue of great civilizations" -- the arts! Yes the ARTS!
Skeptical? You're right to be skeptical. Sometimes I wonder if most of us know anymore what we mean by "the arts." The fast, shallow, infinitely profitable images of our pop culture, so virtuosic in their anesthetizing effects on our psyches, get lumped in with the arts on the sheer strength of their commercial dominance. But they're hardly the soul stirring elixir I'dchoose to serve my preferred clients.
Our earnest search for enlightenment in the conference room or in the privacy of our souls, is not about to be catalyzed by the flicker of virtual reality. More likely, our search is a journey through the thickets, a time-intensive investment in seeing beyond appearances, hearing beyond the notes, conceiving of ourselves and the world as perhaps the not-so-very-different aspects of the same big idea. True art makes this journey, invites us along to be changed by the visions, the music, the touch, the language of new ideas, ancient ideas, even the merest fragments of ideas hinting at the possibility of how things might be. Some call it "holographic intuition" -- the whole seen in the part, the echo of the world in a grain of sand -- it'sthe way art expresses what we know, but cannot otherwise express. What price intuition?
I invite everyone in the creativity business to get to know the creators, performers and producers of art, music, dance and poetry who live in their communities. The potential for collaboration is enormous. In the theater of the mind, music is the sound of ideas, and art is a verb which means to be. The power of this reality should not be under-estimated.
As an example, imagine a group of bankers called together for a 4-day conference on productivity. The setting: The Institute for Learning of the Bank of Montreal. The players: 175 bankers and the artists and musicians of ASA's Creative Leaps International. Starters: a grand opening with kettle drums sounding "The Fanfare for the Common Man" linked to an introduction to "positive turbulence" and "styles of creativity" by Stan Gryskiewicz of the Center for Creative Leadership. Next, the keynote -- not a speech, but a Concert of Ideas entitled "Unless the Mind Catch Fire...," including music, theater, mime and poetry lifting everyone into high gear for the issue-centered meetings that followed. Mural visions about corporate culture and mythic storytelling on human potential (including a hilarious improvisation by the bankers based on Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree") punctuated the week. And the grand finale? A Cabaret Harvest of Learnings which celebrated our process and our common humanity. Jim Rush, Director of the Institute for Learning, commented, "The arts and banking? The arts and productivity? At first, an unlikely match, but innovation is like that, isn't it? Learning is always full of surprises and this learning has proven to be learning worth banking on!"
The word is out, and the word is "art." Find it, drink it in, go for a long swim in it. Then ask yourself, "What do I feel?" and "What do I think?" and listen to how the questions change. Playful, potent, truthful art -- it's a perpetual beginning. Go for it!
John J. Cimino, Jr. is the president of Associated Solo Artists, Inc. and Director of Creative Leaps International, the company's corporate services division. John can be reached at 914-528-5908. John will be a presenter at Convergence 97.