Why to worry when things go 'easy'...

Some time ago I saw an interview with successful contemporary artist Erik van Lieshout in the Zomergasten (summer guests) series on Dutch television. Interviewer Jelle Brandt Corstius had a whole evening conversation live with the artist, exploring several elements of the artists life, work, experiences and insights. At some point they truly lost each other in the conversation, and I was sitting in front of the TV frustrated by the interesting topic that was now completely lost. Actually it was the frustration of seeing an autistic artist and an opinionated interviewer wasting such a great topic. The artist described things that would happen, and that I very much recognise from making art myself. Also I had several artists telling me they recognised the experience
link to the site with all elements of the interview.

Interview 
In the interview the artist explained that sometimes he would work intensely on an art work for hours and hours, it would feel amazing and everything would feel like 'just happening by itself'. Every brush stroke would feel great and he would lose track of time while enjoying the flow. After that he would go home and later return with his wife. And at that time he would discover the painting was complete crap, horrible, a disaster...
The interviewer asked about the influence of the artists wife and completely got lost in trying to understand how it was that his wife had such an impact. While the artist failed to understand why the interviewer just didn't understand that it was not about his wife, but about the different view you can have while being in the flow and afterwards. And how sometimes being in a flow you start to fly but lose connection with your own reality.

Experience making portraits

Is this a nice portrait...or
would we need to know
whether it resembles the  model
made it with Omnisketch app

It remembered me of the many portraits I made in my life, making my first caricatures at age 13 as part of a school event. Portraits are the most difficult thing to do; everyone has an opinion about it and when you get even the smallest part wrong it is a complete failure.
Interesting is the process of making a portrait, and especially emotions while making them. There are times when it is a struggle to create the portrait, actively observing the shapes, feeling the person, looking for the characteristics. At times from the start the drawing seems not to resemble the person, so you keep observing, trying to figure out what's wrong, continuing to detail and finally -with a big sigh - complete the portrait.
At other times the first lines I draw already show the person, and everything goes easily, adding more and more and in a relaxed way, actually knowing this will be a great portrait.
During my first experiences my brother was quite key; he would be brutally honest. It was tough at times, but it was also nice if he liked it, because he would not say that to please me.
And often - going against what I felt just after making the portrait - the easily made drawings were judged as 'horrible', 'who did you actually draw' and 'just throw it away and try again'.
While the ones I thought were product of a burdensome process were often very much liked, and really considered to show strong resemblance.

Related management observations
It might seem funny to you, but this 'experience' actually reminds me of team meetings where I did a monthly update for some 40 employees. I would normally present large part of those meetings and with my team leaders we had developed the practice of evaluating each time, which proved quite fruitful.
There would be meetings that would flow easily, the topic was clear to all, I was funny and bringing interesting information to the team. No tough questions and all quick and smooth.
Other meetings were tough, many questions of resistance, challenging me, difficult to get to the end and meeting proving to be longer than planned.
In the evaluation often the burdensome meetings seemed to be fruitful and I would receive positive feedback.
But after the meetings that seemed smooth and easy I was most of the times getting dramatic feedback (of course the team leaders would be polite, but I know feedback when I get it).
I guess that when it went easy I would go on the 'automatic pilot' and stop observing and interacting with the group; just delivering information and enjoying the flow.

Conclusions ?
A few conclusions or insights I would take from these examples and related experiences, knowing that this is not a true scientific analysis.
Whether it is painting or leadership situations - you have to fully engage to get the true results. In art there is an expression that 'true art scratches the soul of the artist'.
In meetings I now sometimes invite people to ask tough questions when things go too smooth. And when too much in flow while making art I create disruption (or look for pain within me) when drawings go too easily.
I also found it truly important to collect people around me that are brutally honest about what we do, passionate enough to care and not afraid to hurt others while searching for the best way forward.

And on a similar note I would like to share a view, having reflected on management in several sessions and contexts. There are quite some managers that feel that 'management is easy' and that they 'will tell the team how things work'. Well...I have observed in that case that many aspects and depths of management are overlooked and/or people are just disconnected and delivering their own view to others, so I would say:
whenever a manager tells you that management is 'easy'... they have no clue of what management is about.

Shared Imagination

Years ago I managed for the first time a large team of around 40 people, and we were responsible for processing financial transactions. Things were not going so well when I started as the team was located at a satellite office and felt a bit left alone at its separate location, isolated from the world. There were also some elements where they were clearly treated differently than teams at the headquarters. One example was that it was impossible to participate in the project aiming to put art on the walls; reasons were very practical and I tried to change things but it didn’t work.

Then team managers and I had an idea to turn this issue around and have an event where each team would create its art work. Although first reactions were quite skeptical (‘I cannot paint’ people would say) team managers and I decided to move forward and we organized an event after work; we organized drinks, snacks and some food. And being an artist I made sure all the materials were there.

Once the teams started it turned out they took it more seriously, had made several designs that they shared in the team, divided the roles within the team, and were actively painting. They looked at each other’s art work and at the end of the evening there were 4 paintings.

I observed a few things:
- people were proud of their art work, and wanted it placed as near as possible to the team.

- others were not allowed to be very negative about it, and it made the groups act more as one

- although people had to make compromises in the process, and objectively the art work probably would not have been considered 'the most beautiful', still people felt connected and thought their own painting as more special than the others.

"Je crois que non"
Power of subconscious concept



This event made me aware how strong the value of building a shared image where everyone contributes is. And the power of the image being there, remaining and reminding the group of what they share.



The power of images was not new to me; I used it already in many of my papers, reports and plans. I had discovered that when I start approaching a subject it would be difficult to start writing large texts; there were so many things to explain, and how would I present those as a whole comprehensive approach or description. How to make sense and at same time seem completely logical to any of the readers. Exploring this many times in the past I had found that it was best to start drafting an image. The image would try to provide a simple overview of the whole subject I was describing; the issues we were facing, a new service that needed to be offered, etc. In the process a few things would happen that then helped to contribute to the final document:

1. collect all the relevant information; taking time to obtain all relevant information during some time, not necessarily start writing or creating an image.
2. start drawing an image and simplifying it; at the start when trying to draw an image that represents the issues and the way forward it would have too many boxes, arrows and text. I would continue until the moment that the image would really be 'simple’ or show 'harmony', and still respecting an adequate coverage of all issues and required elements. When the image was still too complex and 'messy' this meant that I was not yet fully mastering the situation; I was still documenting information, but not showing insight.
3. writing with the image as starting point
Last step would then be to write the document around the images; I would use much less text and the images would make it easy for people to 'see' the natural 'logic’ of the story and more easily connect.

The example of creating the paintings with the group showed me new elements:
It is good if I take in all information and create an image to 'sell’ my view. It is even better if I can involve others in the creation, so it becomes our shared image; and they feel it also represents their view and aspirations. And in addition it will make the image better if we are able to benefit from all different views in the group.
The process where I interact with a group to find a 'shared image' I call Shared Imagination.

Some interesting elements I have found in other disciplines that support parts of this idea:
- David Peat explains in his book Gentle Action that we are all a 'molecule in the sea'. We are too small to create whole new movements by ourselves, but we can try to see the waves coming and be ready to be in front of the wave. When our shared image for the team is including all people’s views, we take the benefit of all connections and senses we have out there to ensure we see the waves coming.
- In social psychology it is known that 'we find what we look for'; what is 'activated' in our minds will influence our perception. Example: (i) If I am thinking about buying a new Toyota car, all of a sudden I see Toyota cars driving...(ii) If I suspect other people of a conspiracy or political behavior, I will start seeing strange behavior around me.
We can also use the positive element; if people connect with an image of where they want to go they will see everything around them in that view and what they will do will more easily follow that approach.

At a workplace the most complex part of Shared Imagination is that it requires some things from the manager:
- communication skills to really connect to everyone on the team; to guide the process but leaving people the option to bring in their ideas and help create the resulting image
- understanding the strengths of people in the team as well as which elements motivate the people. Frequently I try to find out what people feel their added value is in the team, and what they want to get out of the team work (what energizes them).
- using strengths of the people in the process; someone who can make nice designs, an expert bringing real insight, someone good in maintaining team spirit, another person good in organizing the sessions, etc.
- important element is that the manager lets go of his/her ego, and truly opens up, accepts to be wrong, and instead focuses on understanding all views and opinions.

Creating an image that is fully shared requires lots of energy and passion. It is easier to push your own image or structure on the world, and in current hectic world with many tasks it is tempting to keep pushing our ideas; and I still notice that I am tempted myself. The benefits of creating an image of where we want to go seem to grow exponentially when we tap into the Shared Imagination, as many things will go much more organically afterwards, building on the shared experience and insight we have created.

I also used this concept during a workshop in Tuscany with other artists and scientists when we made an art work together. Feedback received was great: people thanked me for the insight, suggested I write a book about this very organic way of leading. This lead to the articles on this blog, and I thank all in that group to have voluntarily participated in that experiment.

Searching for pain

Sometimes I notice that people are speaking about company politics preventing the right decisions to be taken; lack of support from management to do the right thing; bad behaviour of other people; others attacking them which puts them on a defence; working much harder than others but not being valued; others not playing ‘team’ etc.
Worse is when I hear myself speak like that. I have noticed that sometimes when I am tired I start talking like this, and generally my energy level does not go up. It's a bit (and sometimes more than that) like complaining. And why should I complain while as a manager myself I could have more influence on the situation than many others?

Art work:
Mooi gekwetst / 'Beautifully hurt'

Basically this type of complaining behaviour is a way to externalise the issue, kind of finger point at someone or something else - other people that have to change or having to solve the ‘real’ problem. This thinking becomes a reason to not have ownership of the issue we are facing. And what happens if all of us do that, if all managers do that...?
In fact putting the blame outside ourselves prevents us from facing the real pain: our personal limitations in influencing the situation. And it prevents us from making real choices; in fact for all these challenges we have only 3 options:
(i) Change or influence the situation
(ii) Accept the situation as is
(iii) Walk away
All 3 options may be okay. Choosing the option to change things requires acceptance that it is an important issue and that you have sufficient energy and fascination and take time to reflect, explore and learn. This is not always the case and there is no need to engage with each challenge or 'battle'. So accepting it (for now) can be an option and sometimes it is just best not to pursue but take another road that fits more with your personal values or skills. Sort of a “Pick your battles” approach. Complaining, however, is a way to avoid taking a decision on how to deal with the issues and therefore only takes away energy without solving anything.

As a famous expression from Chinese philosophy states:
When you are in pain you are just before the point of learning something important about yourself.
Basically, when we are frustrated or feel anger, it implies that something is touching us that we can not handle and that is close to our values. As an example, someone telling me that there is an issue with a slide in my presentation will probably not hurt me, but someone telling me I have not provided an honest view of the situation and I am just ‘arguing in my own interest’ could hurt me (the impact would also depend on the person that tells me this). The frustration and anger I feel in these situations come from the point that a couple of my key values are honesty and transparency. And people challenging me on these values while ‘I have done everything possible to take all arguments into account’ seems unfair.
My natural reaction to what I would see as an 'attack' would be to defend myself, but is that the right way to react?
In fact when I take a close look at the situation I could really learn from it, for example:
- How do I react when people 'attack' me when I am making a proposal in a meeting?
Defending somehow always keeps focus on me and my integrity. And when I keep arguing it increases the part this issue will have in the decision and whether management is willing to follow me. Maybe it is better even not to speak when under attack, because somehow I observe that whatever I say and how neutral I try to express myself, it just comes out in a defensive way. After reflecting and trying I have discovered a few ways to deal with these situations: (i) asking an open question: "which arguments do you feel should be added or changed?” This will take away the topic from my integrity and focus on the content. And it gives me some time to 'discharge' and reflect on what is happening and how I want to take it forward. (ii) Another option is to take a step back, lean backwards and share an observation about the situation: "Hmmm, somehow it seems we end up in a discussion about personal views and qualifications. I wonder what would be the best way to continue the discussion. Maybe we should sit down together and ensure the overview is complete and then present the updated view in this group?”
I have observed that this approach is much more effective, and helps to ensure that people follow me. And as a friend of mine used to say: "definition of a leader is someone that people decide to follow".

Another element here is that people normally learn 'more of the same'. When things go well they add knowledge that is similar to what they know. Even artists would often reduce experimenting once they have found a style that is rewarded by a certain audience and give them perception of success.
Similar things can happen when we have developed a style and approach of making presentations that seems effective in most cases. Why would we go and look for structural improvements to our presentation skills then. It is easier to blame the audience that they did not pay attention this time than to explore how I could have better influenced the dynamics. This type of learning makes us comfortable with our present skills and we just make small variations on our own patterns; I would say that this type of learning is stagnant and I would call that 'horizontal learning'.
It seems that when people are in pain they are shown that their current skill level is not enough and when they have the courage to face the challenge they could actually learn on a different level. It requires to ask different sort of questions.
‘What can I do ahead of the meeting to ensure I have some people there advocating for me?’.
‘Which seeds can I plant ahead of the meeting to ensure I can harvest during the meeting?’.
‘What will be the flow of the meeting to make view and decisions logical?’
‘What are the hot topics and opinions for the audience and how can I include that in delivering my message?’
Reflecting on pain and experimenting with new approaches brings people to a new level, it is vertical learning. And whenever there is pain there is the opportunity to discover a new level; and as it shows there is an infinite number of levels and there is therefore no end to the learning; and as a result it is good to accept that then there is no end to the pain.
An additional point this raises is that we should be humble as we are never done with learning, and we should keep listening to others to keep adjusting our views. In fact as Edward De Bono explains:
"A difference of opinion is based on a difference of information, experience or values". This means that when we approach issues we should see them as an opportunity to explore what information, experience or values of other people make them have another opinion. Instead of defending we can try to explore, and often then I have discovered that opinions are not that different and I learn new things.

So what can we do with all this information?
On a personal level I will challenge myself when hearing myself complain about the same thing for the third time. I will write this down in my notebook and take some time to decide how I want to deal with it.
When I feel frustrated I try not to vocalise my frustrations. People do not tend to follow a complaining manager that shows no ownership and influence on the situation.
When people on my team complain about something for the third time I will set up a one-on-one meeting. I will use the concept of 'pain' to verify whether they are at the point to learn new things. I have observed that these moments in fact are a valuable opportunity to make people change views, transform knowledge into insights and behaviour, and make leaps in influencing the team results. What helps in these conversations is: create a reflecting moment, sit back and openly explore the situation, what are the root causes and how could the person be influenced in order to change. Also important is to see where the manager can help or support, and/or if the manager needs to change an approach to help achieving the result.
I have also noticed that sharing concepts and views of types of learning and putting things in a broader perspective help people to step away from daily issues and really openly reflect.
I noticed when taking this approach that - once people see what they can learn after going through this experience- it is easier for them to develop energy the next time. The focus is no longer on the pain - it is on personal development that will be the result at the end.
In fact: we shift from focus on 'what is blocking’ towards the creativity of exploring new ways to influence our skills and results'.

Leadership comes when having the courage to transform your pain in showing ownership to change the situation and behaviour. It will show people the right role model and help to maximise effectiveness of the team.

What managers can learn from art: inspiration

In the Western world from very young age we are taught to push our structure on the world. And when it does not work...we learn to push even harder. In the work place managers traditionally do the same: they push methodology or their personal structure on their teams, and check that everyone delivers in that structure. When applying structure, and when forcing other people to deliver within the manager’s structure it seems the manager gets more in control. Plan-do-check-act and multiple other control cycles seem to guarantee results, and if the results are not delivered we confront the people and make them improve.

I had the same approach when I started my career as manager, but art made me see limitations of the 'control' approach. I could see that I was implementing controls, but actually needed to find the people that were willing to invest all their energy in the team and its services. I would say that the most important role of a manager or leader is to inspire people; energize the team to reach its maximum potential, remove barriers, and create a shared image of where the team needs to go.

What can we learn from art about inspiration?
This article is too short to cover all elements so I will just focus on a few aspects.

Inspiration for an artist becomes an important topic…
...when it is not there.
One of the most frequent moments for artists to lack inspiration is just after art school. During art school artists would have assignments and they would naturally find a direction and create the art works that go with these assignments. When they leave school they need to find their own direction; what do I want to do in my art, what role does it have in my life, which to choose out of all possible directions, what will become my style, what surface do I work on, what subject do I take and even which colors for my painting, etc.
For an artist therefore it is important to find a clear direction, some subject close to experiences and passion, a subject that touches the artist. A subject that is a drive, and at same time, gives courage to make decisions and make choices early in the process and then continue exploring the way forward. Setbacks in the process then no longer become a burden, they become the adjustment of the view of the artist and the growth even inspires the artist to explore new ways.

In companies I have observed several times that managers are not seen as inspiring. As a start a manager has to be able to inspire him or herself before being able to inspire others.
To inspire a whole team the manager needs to create a clear direction for the team. I would say that the manager needs to create a shared image of the added value of the team, the role the team has to play in the future; what does the team need to bring to its customers. The shared image should be a simple insight built on the contributions of the individual team members; it is not only the view of the manager. If a manager wants people to follow him/her, he/she needs the courage to accept the views and directions of others. The image should not be too close, as energy can drastically decrease when reaching the image and people would feel 'we are there'. The image should not be too far away as it makes people paralyze 'this is just impossible' or 'not realistic'. I call this process Shared Imagination, as creating an image with a team of how to approach their role or tasks is a valuable process. In fact, it can be compared to having a muse; unreachable but beautiful and clearly visible.

The next important step is how to engage people with the shared image. If a manager splits the overall journey into small tasks, providing everyone clear deliverables and timelines everything should be okay, or maybe not?
The key element is to see each person and their key talents and what they can bring to the team, and what is important for them to get from the team. A shift in thinking would be to provide the shared image to each individual and ask them to present to you how and what they will do to help the team get there. This allows the person to find a way that fits with talents and preferences, and remain energized during the journey.
But what about risk; how will you make sure that the person reaches the goal without your structure? Well, ask the person: "how can we ensure that we see when you are on the right track and when you need support?" In my experience this approach leads to a fully committed answer. Sometimes it takes time as people have been brainwashed in the current structures of deliverables and manager generated planning. But they will get there.

It is interesting that we see similar observations and approaches in recent leadership literature. For example John P Kotter refers to: creating a clear strategy, clearly scoping the role of the individual and make the person take ownership and provide support when needed.
Philosopher Heidegger put it very nicely: People are required to shape their own world around themselves. With that we follow the principle of reducing pressure and burdens. Because there is already so much to do we strive to organize things and ourselves to function reducing spontaneity, motivation and energy. Human kind therefore tries to get rid of its eccentricity and reflexivity by structuring its environment that it discharges it of those values that use to be seen in philosophical tradition as the climax of human dignity: spontaneity, reflexivity, freedom.

In my art I have also faced issues in getting inspired. But after some time I found my personal direction:
"I reflect on how I live my life, wherever I feel I can be a more beautiful person and with that intention I create a new concept. The concept is the translation of the intention into the way-to-create the art works. I integrate the intention into actual behavior while making the art work, connecting the idea to a deep physical and mental experience'.
One example of such a concept:
Personally I have also been raised with structure and discipline. This has brought me to where I am; a successful manager in financial service industry. But sometimes these 'programs' in my mind prevent me from being free, from daring to discover new things. In this concept I make beautiful drawings and paintings. And when they are ready I tear them in pieces… With these pieces I force myself to find a new composition. And in many cases the resulting collage becomes a more beautiful image than the original painting. This process makes me less afraid of letting go of my personal structure. And whenever I see such a painting when getting up in the morning, I smile and think: "let’s not be afraid today to let others the freedom to work in their way'.

…and then metaphorically… I walk naked into the sea with an inspired smile on my face...