"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." October/November 2005 Vol. 1, No. 1 Welcome to the premiere issue of The Artful Professional , a free newsletter for people who wish to bring greater creativity and meaning to their work – and thereby be more wholly effective. The goal of each brief issue will be to share creative practices and an insight or two, and to generally encourage the Artful Professional in you. We invite you to share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues. If you wish not to receive this newsletter, please let us know. Enjoy! Sue Lebeck, M.S.,M.A. Founder and Principal What is an Artful Professional? An Artful Professional is someone who approaches professional life as a work of art. She or he understands that the story-lines we choose to live in provide the meaning that inspires and guides us – and that can deflate us or lift us up. She or he understands that the character-energies around and within us hold important knowledge -- and should be respected and consulted. Additionally, the Artful Professional understands that the visual imagery we create or encounter can be used consciously -- to help us discover or remember things we were not seeing before. With these understandings, the Artful Professional applies creative practices when confronted with challenging situations -- practices which shed a light on the stories, the characters, and the imagery at work. Artful Insights Our culture continually speaks to us through imagery. Our brains understand visual messages implicitly, and so we take in or reinforce many ideas subconsciously every day. Imagery can also speak to us explicitly in helpful ways, if we look to it for this purpose and dare to ask it direct questions. In this creative exercise, the Artful Professional poses a question, and then peruses a collection of imagery, choosing those images which tug at their attention. The Artful Professional then verbalizes about each image, thereby making a right-brain (visual) and left-brain (verbal) connection. Simple verbalizing practices include: describing the image; making one or more associations to the image; writing a haiku (simple descriptive poem in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern). Below is an example of this exercise. The question I asked: The following are a few of the responses I received:
For purposes of this publication, I limited my use to public-domain images, in respect of image property rights. For your purposes, peruse any physical or electronic image collection; the key is to view a varied set of images, so that you are not limited by pre-selected themes. An Exercise of Character In our life and in our work, we frequently encounter competing voices, competing points of view. As the professionals we are, we tend to mediate those voices quickly, getting to a compromise, and being careful not to allow our emotions to get in the way. What if, instead ,we gave each of the competing voices their full (respectful) expression, postponing our need to mediate. What might we discover? How might that change the problem? How might that change the solution? The next time you are faced with competing voices within your own mind, you might wish to try this Artful Professional exercise. First, identify each of the voices. Keep them as separate, for the moment, as you can. In turn, let each voice speak. This may take the form of journaling into a notebook. It may take the form of speaking aloud while you're driving to work or on an errand. Let each voice say whatever it is experiencing, thinking, and feeling, but don't allow it to blame or attack. Ask each voice what it needs, and encourage it to answer in as general terms as possible. What did you discover that you didn't know before? What might be a good way forward from here? Write Us Share with us your artful insights. We'd love to read them and learn from you. To write us, email sue@working-arts.com . Pass it On Share this newsletter freely to encourage the Artful Professional who lives within your friends and colleagues. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or ask a question, email info@working-arts.com . Working-Arts® Services Working-Arts offers a range of artful professional services for you or your organization. Applications range from leadership, visioning and team-building to problem-solving, decision-making, and product and service design. Go to www.working-arts.com and click on The Artful Professional . Working-Arts offers free public workshops from 6:30-8:00 pm on the first Wednesday of each month at The Blue Room Gallery ( www.blueroomgallery.org ). Called Ask Art , these workshops invite you to consult fine art for insights into your important questions. As a recent participant describes it, Ask Art is “Somewhere between a party game and an interactive Zen experience… It had the effect of drawing the participants out of themselves, and lowering interpersonal barriers." To plan an artful offsite for your professional team at a gallery of your choice, e-mail sue@working-arts.com . |
