A not so black canvas

The Best Leaders See Things That Others Don’t. Art Can Help.

The real art of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.

Today the most successful companies don’t just outcompete their rivals. They redefine the terms of competition by embracing one-of-a-kind ideas in a world of copycat thinking. Which means, almost by definition, that the best leaders see things that other leaders don’t.

That’s not as easy as it sounds, especially for leaders who have spent years at the same company, or in the same industry, or as part of the same discipline. Which is why, to summon the spirit of Proust, it’s so important for leaders to see their company and industry with fresh eyes — which means looking at their work in new ways.

Art, it turns out, can be an important tool to change how leaders see their work.

One fun exercise to encourage experienced leaders to challenge established ways of seeing took place recently in Providence, at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, in an annual event called Cops and Docs. The program, which has been running for 10 years, gathers highly accomplished medical professionals and highly trained police officers, people who in their jobs have to quickly make sense of the world around them, size up problems, and devise effective solutions to complex (often life-threatening) problems.

Needless to say, what participants saw was a function of the jobs they did and the experiences they’d had — which explains why different people reached such different conclusions about the same pieces.

Time after time, skilled leaders miss critical elements of a painting that send an important message, overlook signposts in a scene that speak to what’s taking place, or can’t figure out how to describe what’s right in front of them. Needless to say, what people saw was a function of who they were and what they specialized in. And what everybody learned together was far richer and deeper than what any individual would have learned on their own. That’s the real point, of course, whether the subject being observed is a timeless piece of art or a customer facility. For leaders who want to see with new eyes, remember that how you look at something shapes what you see — and you see more creatively when you look at the world with other leaders who have different backgrounds and experiences.

Read the full article, here.