The head, hand and heart of great art - extended version

Whitepaper
The head, hand and heart in the arts
Learning from creative disciplines for better outcomes in business and society
Publisher: Dirk Dobiéy Authors: Dirk Dobiéy, Kirsten Gay, Johann Sarmiento Contributors: Vincent Matyi, Thomas Koeplin, Milan Guenther
Dresden, Boston, Philadelphia, Paris
September 2014

Age of Artists / The head, hand and heart in the arts
ageofartists.org 2 / 91
This text is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org).

Index
Introduction 5
The Case for Change - Our Motivation 9
The Age of Artists Model 32
The Age of Artist Model revisited - Summary and Outlook 89

Introduction
Today, our community is composed of members from different cultures, countries, professions and generations. We combine many years of experience in business, art, design, anthropology, sociology and various other fields of expertise--not as individuals, but as a team and extended community. We examine, practice and convey how the artistic mind and craft can help to provide solutions for some of the major challenges that all of us experience today. We believe the artistic individual--which is not to say everyone needs to be an artist--can contribute more than realized before to meaningful science and sustainable business outcomes.
It will soon be fifteen years since some of us started our first conversations about the positive influence art can have on business and society. What if–we thought--we could distill how artists work and offer this knowledge to professional organizations--both profit and nonprofit--and to the people within them in order to support the idea of a more sustainable global economy. Already then we believed in the power of art-based processes when it comes to "doing the right things right." Too often professional organizations put a lot of emphasis on creating efficiencies but miss true effectiveness. Effectiveness for organizations means making wiser decisions leading to the results

that are desperately required: sustainable innovation, corporate social responsibility, improved customer experience, increased employee satisfaction and more. In contrast, business literature is full of stories about corporations that transition from being a leader in their own industry to irrelevance in any industry. For decades, studies and statistics have illustrated that most change initiatives in organizations fail1 while the majority of leaders still think they need a cultural shift to succeed in the future.
On the other side, research and literature on the subject of art and business available at the time was largely about conflicts between art and business, about art for representation purposes and artists in residence, or about including more art in education. While all those fields were relevant then and still are today, they seemed to focus more on keeping the two fields separate rather than merging them when appropriate in order to benefit organizations and the larger society. Also there were more conversations looking at the output of the artistic process, i.e., the product (the what), and less at art-based processes and the attitude of artists (the how and why). The latter however was exactly what we were more curious about.
As our lives full of family, work and friends progressed, we continued to observe and experience knowledge work from within corporations both large and small. We realized, sometimes even jointly while working side by side, that a major transformation was underway. Suddenly individuals with an artistic or design background or an affinity for the arts were able to deal differently and often better with the demands of our fast-paced, complex world. They managed to successfully and sustainably address significant challenges within and beyond their initially defined areas of responsibility and past boundaries set by process, structure and performance indicators.
1 For instance: Strategy & Survey reveals only 54% of change initiatives are sustained. An article in Harvard Business Review reports 70% of change initiatives fail. A web search for “change initiatives failure rate” delivers a substantial number of sources that report failure rates up to 70%.

We observed that such individuals were able to:
● analyze flaws and recognize patterns in processes and structures more easily, while at the same time making constructive suggestions for improvements;
● address problems with curiosity, empathy and a noticeable preference towards reducing complexity and driving simplicity;
● create sustainable concepts by balancing various, sometimes conflicting, viewpoints and demands;
● develop, drive and market innovation and change;
● better cope with change, ambiguity, uncertainty and even frustration; and
● collaborate more effectively with a wide range of individuals having different backgrounds and experiences.
As soon as we observed a potential pattern forming, we investigated the topic further, realizing a subject of such magnitude requires a broad range of perspectives, insights, experiences and ideas if done right. As a first step, we created a network of people we knew had a personal interest in researching the subject further in a collaborative fashion. Our community is now composed of individuals from France, Germany and the United States. Next, we responded to a call for papers from ENCATC (European Network on Cultural Management and Cultural Policy Education)2 on the subject of “Rethinking education: Investing in skills for better economic and social outcomes.” This first position paper, which was completed in March 2014 and accepted by ENCATC, allowed us to set the stage and be used to engage more broadly with interested individuals, thought leaders and--which has become our main occupation at this stage of our journey--with artists from all genres.
We do not approach artists expecting to receive solutions to problems we identify in the global economy and society (although
2 http://www.encatc.org/pages/index.php?id=169

they often have great suggestions). Instead, we simply like to learn about their attitudes and actions, or--to extend on sociologist Richard Sennett--about the head, hand and the heart in the arts. By collecting and combining3 many viewpoints and experiences, we hope to identify common patterns that can be explained and passed on to others as helpful--or necessary--in other disciplines such as science and business as well.
As said, a key aspect of our work is to collect and combine, to explore and exploit, the work of researchers and thought leaders who are “dancing on the cutting edge,” as violinist Miha Pogacnik describes it, which is to say the work of individuals who attempt to make a connection between various disciplines, such as art and business or art and science. We at Age of Artists like to see ourselves in the same spot in order to live our mission: continuously learning from creative disciplines for better outcomes in business and society.
3 We pursue a two-fold research approach where on one side we interview artists about their attitudes and approaches (yet not about their artwork itself) and by doing so aim at identifying patters across art genres that can be relevant for other disciplines as well. On the other side we read from and talk to scientists and thought leaders that have done already work that is a major contribution to the field we are investigating. By personally exchanging our ideas with them we receive valuable feedback, insights and most important verification or correction of our work.

The Case for Change - Our Motivation
“Art is the future of knowledge,”4 Chus Martinez stated when she was a member of the core team for dOCUMENTA (13). While a bold statement, it is a good representation of the evolution we are witnessing. When comparing the available literature on both art and business and art and science of fifteen years ago with what is out there today, there has been a huge increase in people’s thinking about the connection, resulting in the development of a broad range of ideas, concepts and practices.5 Why is this? We think it is because the time has come to look differently at many things and in particular to revisit the “idea of man,” as alluded to by German painter Aris Kalaizis. He stated that “we need to develop another idea of man if we want to lead change.”6 To us, it seems a yet unspecified avant-garde has already developed a certain readiness for change. They see clearly not only what needs to be changed for the better, but they also want to know how to possibly be the change themselves--both for themselves and for everyone
4 Chus Martínez, "Unexpress the Expressible: 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts. Documenta Series 075, Hatje Cantz, 2012, quoted from ID Factory.
5 Such ideas, concepts and practices for instance are: artistic intervention, art research, art transfer, organizational aesthetics and many more. Frequently contributions to the field are not associated to a certain scientific domain or subdomain but covering specific integration points for instance between jazz and the learning organization, theatre and management, music and society, poetry and systems thinking, etc. We refrain from providing references at this point as there are too many good examples and stating only a few would not do justice to all others. However, we will share our sources on our website as an emerging reference catalogue.
6 Interview with Aris Kalaizis, Visual Artist, Painter, Leipzig, July 24, 2014.

on the planet. They are realizing that it is important to first develop the right attitude within them and in parallel learn about what actions they might take in life and work to support the transition.
As we looked both back and ahead, it became apparent that the demands of our society and the globalized, digitalized information economies require answers that go beyond the traditional notion of work in organizations, growth in the economy, and advancement in science.
By now, it is common sense that people--both young and experienced--need to be equipped differently in order to succeed in this accelerated and complex time we live in. Skills and competences such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, improvisation and cooperation become more important. Many leading thinkers promote a new approach to leadership that embraces authenticity, curiosity, invention and collaboration. Organizations--and the large ones often struggle with this--need to constantly innovate to survive and need to look for sustainable ways to execute their missions. While all of those are noble endeavors, they are targeted mainly at maintaining the status quo and making sure we further advance in science and grow the economy. But what is the price of exclusively focusing on advancement and growth?
Clearly, something bigger is at stake. The world is full of major challenges and problems to be solved, and while many hoped-- even predicted or promised--that most of them would be gone by now, they are more present than ever. The evening news is full of conflicts, catastrophes and crises. Since the Enlightenment, science and the economy have become the two main pillars on which societies are built around the globe and more certainly in the Western world. Advancement and growth are the two most important mandates for the modern world and are big business.

Yet neither has led to solutions for the most urgent problems. Many believe some of the problems are likely to grow worse:
● Technological advancements have led to great things but also to an overabundance of options, resulting in acceleration that overwhelms many, directly causing fatigue and burnout. Studies show people in developed countries have not become happier on average since the fifties, despite increased wealth for a great number of people.
● Wealth is again at risk as the dominating financial system creates an unequal distribution of resources and exponential growth--not of value but of debt--by offering a few the opportunity to get rich without creating any value whatsoever. That condition is questioned by too few who actually have the power to change it.
● The growth dogma has reached its limits with “peak everything,” resulting in scarcity of natural resources, destruction of nature and climate change due to human intervention.7
● Many people feel a lack of meaning and purpose, leading to a collective crisis of identity. Their identity is also at risk as freedom grows precious again in a fully digitalized world wherein everything is transparent and nothing can be kept in private.
It would be shortsighted to blame abstract systems such as science or the economy and all the people within them. Most people have no bad intentions and also wonder where this is all going and what they can do to support a positive future. So, not every scientist or business person represents evil. The opposite is the case. Most scientists think hard about how to solve problems in all fields of life, and more and more managers do care about sustainability and social responsibility on top of securing revenue. This brings us to a key question: If most people would like to see the core problems resolved and think now is time, why is there so little progress? Maybe it is because we understand what is wrong--sometimes
7 Please refer for instance to the work of Niko Paech on the subject of the “post growth economy,” and Al Gore on “climate change.”

with clarity, sometimes not so much--but we don’t understand what attitude, what perspective is required to get started and how to act with the right means and priorities once we are in progress. This is where an artistic mindset and approach can help. It is certainly not a “silver bullet,” but it has the potential to make a unique contribution--in combination with other approaches--to re- establish a desperately needed balance. We believe such an approach can help in three major areas and represent the fundamental motivation basis for Age of Artists:
1. Challenges in a global society of individual people: making progress with wicked problems. Many challenges in the world are extremely complex and referred to as wicked problems. Success in addressing them as a global society is more likely when an artistic mindset and processes are applied. This is particularly relevant in the world of business and the economy. Business has always been important as a means to an end. Today, however, it seems to be the dominant force and sole purpose in life for too many. However, many leading thinkers believe for the economy to not create more crises and instability, a new approach is required. Fresh approaches and alternative concepts are more likely to become new norms when we bring beauty and meaning into business.
2. Future of organizations and leadership. The term business in its original, epistemological sense means to be in good company for mutual benefit. To survive, organizations need to evolve “back” to this original idea, as many of the key themes that define the future of organizations and their leadership are dependent on cross-disciplinary and cross-company cooperation, constant innovation and the balancing of multiple forces, needs, demands and targets. Much of what this evolution requires can be found in the arts. Organizations as a whole and leadership as a core activity in managing organizations need to support this change by creating safe environments where faith in people is more important than controlling them, where teams are built on trust so that collaboration can flourish, and where leaders coach their people as the future is emerging.

3. Artful living. People who spend more time with art and/or apply an artistic attitude establish multiple focuses, perspectives and viewpoints. The German word allgemeinwissen, or the French culture générale that already carry the idea of culture within and that both mean “broad knowledge,” are good synonyms for this. It is good to broaden one's skill set and expertise towards what is demanded today, but it also offers an alternative to the dominant idea of a linear career and restricted life that comes with it. In the future, it is more likely that people will have multiple careers or occupations; therefore personally exploring one or many art genres is good for a fulfilled life and might well lead to a more significant perception change when it comes to beliefs and attitudes towards what really matters. At the same time, engaging with individuals from various disciplines helps to create a more diverse and thus robust people network similar to what is known as the “artistic community” that supports, feeds, and nourishes but also questions, critiques, and challenges the person.
In the following three sections, we look in more detail into those three areas: making progress with complex problems, the future of organization and leadership, and artful living.
Illustration 1: Motivational Basis for Age of Artists: Individuals, Organizations, Global Society

Challenges in a global society of individual people: Making progress with wicked problems
The world is full of problems of different nature and size, and many human enterprises have attempted to provide concepts and approaches to help us cope with this challenge--whether as individuals or as teams and organizations. For instance, in cognitive psychology, the information-processing (or “rational”) model of how individuals solve “well-defined” problems describes problem solving primarily as a procedural activity in which a person takes a representation of a problem’s key elements and “navigates” or searches through a “problem space” toward an optimal solution by way of clear rules and heuristics. Playing chess, solving a puzzle or a basic mathematical word problem, and even perhaps buying a car or an airplane ticket, are situations where this model seems quite applicable.
Interestingly, there is a close resemblance between the information-processing model of human problem solving developed within the field of psychology and in many of the approaches to planning, optimization and decision-making in fields like administration, engineering, architecture, and even economics. This similarity is based on the assumption that the underlying properties of most real world problems are like puzzles and basic mathematical problems. Complex problems can be decomposed into simpler, more manageable ones, which can then be solved semi-independently. Partial solutions can be assembled to form a complete solution, the starting point and the goal state can be easily defined and represented (e.g., with numeric goals, quantitative key process indicators, etc.), and clear rules define what solutions are valid.
When individuals are faced with ill-defined situations that present them with problems that are complex, confusing, or not completely clear, we could still understand their experience using the concepts described by the information-processing model. But we are likely to realize that, at this level, the abillity to be fully

rational is limited--more “bounded” or “partial” than when dealing with tame problems or situations. Because of this, we are likely to notice that people often approach these problems not as perfect optimization challenges with one single optimal answer, but as situations in which they try to reach a state that might be “as good as it gets” given the information they have at the moment (“satisficing”). However, we might notice that the model is starting to show limitations and certainly says very little about the challenges of communication and interaction among multiple people engaged in solving the problem.
In fact, many have found the rational model of problem solving insufficient to tackle problems beyond the "tame" ones (i.e., easily decomposable, representable and/or easily solvable) that individuals (not teams or societies) work with. For instance, in the context of the problems related to social policy (e.g., tackling environmental issues like global warming, equal opportunity, health and wellness, etc.), the purely rational approach is limited because social problems, among other things, often lack a single complete definition, and involve multiple differing or pluralistic perspectives (linked to stakeholders who are unlikely to agree about “optimal solutions” and are also influenced by factors that unfold over time).
Horst Rittel termed these “wicked problems”--problems that are not just large, complicated or ill-defined. Instead they are a truly unique class of problem in the sense that they seem to be extremely hard to define even before one actually attempts to deal with them. (Often, iterating through solution attempts seems to be the only way to make progress in understanding these problems. The fact that such problems have a different nature calls for a new way of looking at them, including developing a new set of concepts (e.g., stakeholders, world-views, frames of understanding, etc.), new interactions (e.g., the interdependence between how a problem is framed and its solution), and a new repertoire of possible ways of engaging with these types of problems. For instance, work on wicked problems has motivated

new ways of doing authoritative regulation, promoting open competition, or supporting participatory planning in several areas of social planning. Clearly, being sensitive to the unique features of these types of problems has contributed enormously to our collective ability to address significant societal problems.
What does art have to contribute to the process of addressing wicked problems? Our working hypothesis at the moment is that the artistic mindset can provide a unique and significant contribution to tackling wicked problems. Its unique contribution might reside, ironically, in its intrinsic distance from problem solving as a central goal and to the need to engage the human world (stakeholders and their contexts) or create systemic solutions. As we shall explore later, our current insights into artistic practices point to possibly unique approaches that can clearly contribute to the meaning-making and sense-making challenges at the core of engaging with wicked problems.
One of those wicked problems we need to address might be the global economy itself, as many leading thinkers believe for the economy to not to create more instability and crisis, a new approach, such as a reform of the financial system, is required. Approaches and alternative concepts are more likely to move from niche to new norm when beauty and meaning are infused into business and the global economy. Violinist and visionary Miha Pogacnik described this with his own words: “Many people would rather go for a job that is less paid but they feel to be part of something that is emerging and it is addressing all the issues as one complex whole. There are people who are beginning to look at things as a whole and they feel very personally disturbed if you are only […] making quick money […] but on the other side you are destroying something.”8
8 Interview with Miha Pogacnik, violinist, Hamburg/Dresden, June 14, 2014.

The future of organization and leadership: Purpose-driven environments and studio leadership
The connection between art and business is probably as old as the two disciplines themselves. Some connection points have been thoroughly described. Others, like the ones presented in this paper, are currently evolving. Art and professional organizations have developed different forms of interaction, integration and collaboration that can be structured into four areas that do not necessarily build on one another or have a mandatory relationship between them.
1. Representation, branding and social responsibility. Organizations purchase art to exhibit within their buildings or in their digital space. They may build a collection and run in-house exhibitions. They sponsor events at museums or take similar action. In this way, they may try to express their brand and culture with architecture and design or use art to support marketing and sales activities. While this—in contrast to the following areas—is a rather superficial level of connecting business and art, it is the one that causes the most friction between the two disciplines, as many artists responded in the past with resistance or counterattacks when they felt art was being used for what they felt were wrong purposes.
2. Work-life-balance and community building. Many organizations support shared activities amongst their workforce. A company symphony orchestra, a big band, a corporate theatre company, painting classes and other such activities can be found in both large and small organizations. And very often their output reaches a considerable level of quality and improves the work-life-balance, sense of belonging, team building and networking after working hours. Cultural activities at work vary according to the business cycle and have a statistical association with employee mental

health, particularly in work environments producing emotional exhaustion, and may protect employees against subsequent emotional exhaustion. Such an effect was observable when the business cycle in Sweden went from ”good” conditions (which meant higher levels of cultural activity at work) to poorer conditions with rising unemployment rates.”9
3. Artistic intervention. Artists may be invited to work with and in professional organizations. They might come for a visit, support workshops or take on positions as a side job. “Intel has named Black Eyed Peas’ front man and hit solo artist Will.i.am (William James Adams, Jr.)... its director of creative innovation.”10 “And then there’s Ashton Kutcher. After playing Steve Jobs in the biopic of the late Apple founder, the actor was made a product engineer by Chinese technology company Lenovo.”11 A less spectacular but certainly impactful example comes from Korail, the Korean railroad company, which suffered from a negative reputation and realized it needed to change its image. Classical musicians worked with employees to create the Korail ensemble, which was then expanded by inviting citizens to join and become the Korail Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra travels with the train and performs in railroad stations around the country. “This project has changed the mindset of many employees and the reputation of Korail…” Employees have grown in confidence and pride in the orchestra, and feel they are providing a service to the community through art.12 Finally, FPT, the largest information and communication company in Vietnam, has expanded globally since 1999. Working with the youth union, the company launched numerous initiatives in diverse art forms. The company business school has conducted surveys to find out how employees evaluated the experiences, with astonishing results:
9 Töres Theorell et al., “Is cultural activity at work related to mental health in employees?” 2006-2010.
10 Jane McEntegart, Intel names musician Will.i.am creative director, Tomshardware.com, January 26, 2011.
11 Gulay Ozkan, Artists can do more than engineers to push innovation in tech, QZ.com, November 11, 2013.
12 Ariane Berthoin Antal, “Dancing to whose tune,” Cultural Sources of Newness, November 24, 2013.

1. “I see that artistic events help me better understand the company and people.” 88% agree.
2. “Attending artistic events and activities releases me from stress and tension at work.” 72% agree.
3. “Joining artistic events and activities, I feel proud of being a member of FPT and want to work for FPT for a long time.” 81% agree.13
Ariane Berthoin Antal and Anke Strauß provided excellent insights in their research report, titled "Artistic interventions in organizations: Finding evidence of values‐added.”14 They conclude, “There is evidence that artistic interventions can indeed contribute to such strategic and operational factors as productivity, efficiency, recruitment and reputation, but this is the area that is mentioned least frequently in the research‐based publications. Apparently, this is not necessarily what organization members consider as the most remarkable sphere of impact. Indeed, few companies that have worked with artistic interventions have sought to document such direct impacts. Instead, managers and employees seem to care more about how artistic interventions impact the factors that underpin the potential for innovation. The power of artistic interventions in organizations resides in the opening of spaces of possibility, which we call ‘interspaces’ in the formal and informal organization. In these interspaces, participants experience new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing things that add value for them personally.”15 The challenge is that “[a]rtistic interventions are by definition ephemeral phenomena in organizations. They start and they end, so the responsibility for deriving the benefits for the organization and sustaining the effects lies with managers and the employees.”16
14 Berthoin Antal, Ariane & Strauß, Anke, Artistic interventions in organisations: Finding evidence of values‐added. Creative Clash Report. Berlin: WZB, 2013, p. 3.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.

4. Art-based attitude and action at work: This is the area introduced and supported by this paper. Here individuals display an artistic attitude and embed best practices derived from art seamlessly into their actual work. This does not suggest everyone is suddenly an artist, but it means that there is a broad understanding and appreciation for art-based processes on an individual, team and organization level. This will lead eventually to behavioral change in individual employees and thus a cultural shift for the entire organization, economy and society. Introducing methodologies such as design thinking or agile software development represent early stages of such best practices. What is particularly worth noting about this field is that it is immune to economic and business cycles. Once art-based processes are accepted as standard in an organization, they are not at risk of being budget-cut, while all the other areas mentioned will be under critical observation in bear market conditions.
Illustration 2: Touch points between art and business and focus of Age of Artists
Looking at all four areas of potential interaction and exchange between art and business, it becomes clear that art has already

much positive influence on organizations and the people within. For instance, Michael Gold and Dario Villa17 suggest jazz as a metaphor for the “learning organization,” since it is an art form based in social learning that has innovated new products for over 100 years and was the basis for great wealth and inspiration. Such examples illustrate the untapped potential for professional organizations or, as Michael and Dario put it, “perhaps there’s more to this metaphor of jazz as a model for improvising organizations than meets the ear.” Both also quote a famous Playboy interview with Marshall McLuhan in which McLuhan commented on the arts as a distant early warning system.
The term business, in its original, epistemological sense, means to be in good company for mutual benefit. To survive, organizations need to evolve “back” to this original idea, as many of the key themes that define the future of organizations and their leadership are dependent on cross-disciplinary and cross-company cooperation, constant innovation and the balancing of multiple forces, needs, demands and targets. Much of what this evolution requires can be found in the arts. Organizations as a whole and leadership as a core activity in managing organizations need to support this change by creating safe environments where faith in people is more important than controlling them, where teams are built on trust so that collaboration can flourish, and where leaders coach their people as the future is emerging.
Organizations that embrace art-based processes and provide an environment in which an art-based attitude can develop will more likely be able to succeed in a world that is highly complex, changes fast, the competition is fierce and information grows constantly. In addition to established management best practices, learning from art--as a metaphor or literally--can help to address the main challenges organizations face today. By using methods, principles and processes derived from the arts, we become more flexible and
17 Michael Gold, and Dario Villa, Trading Fours: Jazz and the Learning Organization," 2012.

adaptive to change. Dr. Cho Hyunjae, the 1st Vice Minister for Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Korea, welcomed the participants to a recent conference in Seoul with a strong message, “Art can make business dance and stimulate innovation.” “Organizations need creative kicks” because “corporations need to learn to stimulate the emotions of employees,” so “Korea is seeking ways to bring down barriers between art and business.”18 But just how would such a connection between art and business look?
Miha Pogacnik illustrates the situation in which many organizations find themselves by comparing organizations to symphony orchestras:
If you have a symphony orchestra, you have 80 individuals who are quite problematic people. Musicians have big egos I suppose, including myself too. But as soon as they start playing Bruckner or Brahms, this ego is gone and the masterpiece takes them onto the next platform instantly. There is no problem with ego. That’s gone and you are immediately serving something much greater. So I ask: what is this code that’s missing in organizations that we don’t drop the egos? We don’t have that score yet, so the organization or business does not have yet Bruckner, Brahms or Mozart […]. But what are the elements of Bruckner or Brahms? Well, that's music but what are the elements in business? Well, you know music is written on five lines and business is today only written on one line which is the bottom line. That’s the problem. So what are the other lines?19
In building further on Miha’s idea, we tried to answer his question about what the five lines of business should be. What could the score for modern organizations look like? We suggest five

objectives for modern organizations that are the foundation for what we call the purpose-built and value-based organization:
Illustration 3: The five objectives for purpose-built and value-based organizations
For businesses, it is obvious they must keep a sharp focus on their bottom line, as simply without that, they will not continue to exist, whereas art can exist theoretically without it. Or as Philippe Rixhon stated: “Creation can be purely artistic; Innovation must be artistic and economically viable.” Yet he continues the same thought by saying: “The introduction of multiple bottom lines in other business sectors--at least in their research and development departments and divisions--seems to be recommendable.”20 His suggestion to focus on research and development is certainly a good recommendation for large organizations for which it represents a major shift to go from one to five lines. For the purpose-built and value-based organization, however, the concept must be extended to the entire organization to be truly effective.
20 P. Rixhon (2008), “Innovation leadership: Best practices from theatre creators,” in Führung, Innovation und Wandel (L. Becker et al., eds.), pp. 197-215.

When looking at the five core objectives stated above, each taken individually is already difficult to accomplish, but taken altogether, they seem almost impossible. This is why the management literature and business libraries are full of successful titles that play with fear and include seemingly easy solutions to the major threats organizations face today: complexity, market dynamics, global competition, innovation pressures, customer and stakeholder expectations, and technology change. Some solutions suggested including better planning approaches, new standards, sophisticated process models, more reports, stronger management, lean and agile teams, etc. Looked at individually, these might make sense, but when seen from above, they actually reduce the ability of an organization to accomplish the holistic set of objectives as outlined above. Each added piece further increases complexity, thus limiting people’s abilities to be successful--either individually or as a team.
Michael Brater suggests that organizations learn from artists and look at how they act and make decisions under circumstances of uncertainty and unpredictability. According to his research, artists cope with openness and uncertainty not through objectification, but through the following qualities:21
● Unbiased, exploratory actions instead of pondering and planning
● Free playful and experimental exploration without intention
● Confidence in the intelligence of the unconscious
● Alternating between action and perception, influencing and viewing
● Expanding perception ("expression," "feeling")
● Dialoguing with the subject: replying to "active questions"
● Picking up what emerges from the subject and be carried and led (by it)
21 Michael Brater, “Wenn Arbeit Kunst wird...,“ Vortrag zum 2. Forum Wirtschaft meets Kunst, Freiburg, February 3, 2014.

● Accepting crises; allowing the solution to emerge from the process
● Finding (again) the new and individual by following an original, unrepeatable and experiential path.
Recognizing the major challenges that confront organizations, including the high degree of uncertainty and unpredictability, suggests another type of organization that must evolve: the purpose-built and value-based organization, which is likely to be more an environment that supports a working approach, as depicted by Michael Brater, than an organization in the classical, hierarchical sense. Such an environment needs to be supported by another type of leadership as well. Miha Pogacnik again: “It’s all about the question of how we identify with rules and so on. When the rules are humane, friendly and meaningful, then we love to identify with them. It’s also the question of who composes the rules. Are we self-composers of the rules or do we just get them passed on and end up in a very rigid situation where we just have to obey the rules? There are so few people in most organizations who really burn for their rules on the wall. This is their vision, their mission. Very few people can identify. What we need to create is an environment in a company. We have to invest in an environment in which connection with one’s own goals and visions and missions can be reestablished. That’s what’s missing in organizations.”22 Eric Schmidt, former CEO and now Executive Chairman at Google, once put it this way: “Let’s be clear about what we are claiming: As business becomes more dependent on knowledge to create value, work becomes more like art. In the future, managers who understand how artists work will have an advantage over those who don’t.”23 Philippe Rixhon, a leader at the junction of arts, business and technology, also comments that "many business sectors would benefit from adopting some of the theatre world's basic creation practices related to innovation leadership. By recognizing the interdependence of leadership, management and
23 Rob Austin and Lee Devin (2003), Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, p 1.

coaching in the dynamic, situational and cultural innovation context, businesses should identify, attract and retain the leaders they cannot train and accept that a nurturing innovation culture depends on an ever evolving leadership.”24 Benjamin Zander, the director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, during a TED conference, vividly illustrates his love for classical music, which he believes to be so powerful as to change people’s perception of the world. But he also states that we are witnessing a shift in leadership from a model where the leader has to “be ahead” and “dominate,” to a model based on symphony. In this panorama, the “Us” prevails on the “I”, and the leader, as the conductor, has to rely “on his ability to make other people powerful.”25
Leadership in the information age is a task of creating safe collaboration experiences in which curiosity, creativity, collaboration and open communication can flourish and where failure is not sanctioned but encouraged as part of the overall path to success. “Managers who develop an atmosphere of safety put new glasses on everyone’s emotional eyes.”26 Leadership in art- based processes requires faith in people, yet interest in what they do and letting go without being absent. Leaders become coaches and masters of ceremony for processes and people. Keeping a good balance is certainly not an easy task as ultimately a leader is also made accountable for a result, not just for creating a positive atmosphere. We call this leadership style studio leadership, relating to the working environments, for instance, found in design, architecture and engineering. The realm of design, architecture and engineering has tackled the problem of solving multivalent problems by the use of iteration and critique in collaborative groups. As two of the oldest “knowledge work” professions, practical techniques for innovation have been developed and passed down. Elders teach young people not only
24 P. Rixhon (2008). “Innovation leadership: Best practices from theatre creators” in Führung, Innovation und Wandel (Becker L. et al., eds.), pp. 197-215, Symposion.
25 Adopted from Valeria Cantoni, “Leadership through the eyes of classical music,” Art for business group on LinkedIn, quoting Benjamin Zander at TED.
26 Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, The Innovation Paradox, 2002, Excerpt on Ralph Keyes Website.

the skills of drafting (hand), but also of problem solving, using systems devised to meet the thousands of often conflicting design requirements that go into a mid-sized building (head). They also (heart) feel a compassion for humans and humanity that is inherent in the act of making shelter beyond the joy of form-making and problem solving that most architects experience. There is a very strong ideological paradigm within the architectural community--a desire to Make Things Better (heart). We have noticed in our early interviews that this trait is commonly paired with an artistic mind, in contrast to the pure business mind of making money.
Over the centuries, architects have created a set of conventions around the “Design Studio” that promote and support the solving of large, complex problems where a large number of different approaches need to be considered on the way to developing a final solution. This requires testing multiple approaches, where most will “fail” or be discarded—so the tendency to become attached to a particular solution is quickly unlearned. These design environments are the most productive when the exploration of different possibilities is encouraged. Not only are there no negative consequences for the failure of an idea, but it is understood that going forward with the first idea almost always means that one hasn’t taken the time to find the best solution. These environments and the leadership that creates them tend be encouraging, supportive, kind, collaborative, and responsive. In fact, such environments are where innovation lives.
At the same time, what is produced is examined minutely through group or manager critiques. The group critique method employed in the design studio allows individuals to leverage the experience and opinions of their colleagues, and to expand and deepen one another’s proposals. To do this well, group members cannot be in overt competition for resources, but instead they must be highly engaged, motivated and believe that they can actualize what they propose. This mindset leads to high innovation and productivity, which generates revenue and visibility. Although not usually

framed in this way, the overwhelming business need of the architectural design studio is the output of creative and innovative design solutions, so most management styles are modeled to encourage those behaviors by creating safe and at the same time challenging places where people trust one another and can think, breathe, test, explore, create, erase, ideate, critique, and collaborate.
Artful living
Skills for the future
One art genre does not prevail over another. While some individuals are more attached to the visual arts, others have an affinity for music, dance, theatre, literature or another art category. What all art genres have in common is they support the emergence of a skill set that is desperately needed in the Information Age. But what are those skills? It is European educational policy to emphasize the development of transversal skills. Examples of transversal skills are the ability to think critically, take initiative, problem solve and work collaboratively-- all needed to equip individuals for today's varied and unpredictable career paths. Transversal skills can also be called cross competencies or generic skills. In North America, “traditional academic disciplines still matter, but as content knowledge evolves at lightning speed, educators are talking more and more about process skills, strategies to reframe challenges and extrapolate and transform information, and to accept and deal with

ambiguity.”27 Various schools and colleges have started to put more emphasis on teaching not only creativity, innovation and change, but also the importance of failure.
Individuals in professional organizations both profit and not-for- profit, can learn important skills and competencies from art-based processes and methods. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, made this comment a decade ago: “I believe that human values ultimately win out over mechanistic values or technology for its own sake in an increasingly technological world. Companies, especially high-techs, are not machines. They are collections of tremendously motivated and creative people, and it is their intrinsic motivation and their creativity that makes all the difference.”28 Tim Leberecht, when he was still chief marketing officer of the global design and innovation firm Frog, also commented, “Indeed, the ’art’ of business has become more important as the ‘science’ grows ubiquitous. As Big Data and sophisticated analytical tools allow us to make our processes more efficient, intuition and creativity are fast becoming the only differentiating factors among competitors. Like any ‘soft asset,’ these qualities cannot be exploited, only explored. And like artists, innovators must cultivate creative habits to see the world afresh and create something new. Like art, true innovation has the potential to make our lives better. It connects and reconnects us with deeply held truths and fundamental human desires; meets complexity with simple, elegant solutions; and rewards risk-taking and vulnerability.”29 What all those sources implicitly have in common is they suggest an enhanced competence profile that is necessary and that focuses more on the creative and social aspects, as these are the areas where people will continue to be superior to machines in the foreseeable future.
27 Laura Pappano, “Learning to think outside the box: Creativity becomes an academic discipline,” in The New York Times Online, February 5, 2014.
28 Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google, in Rob Austin and Lee Devin, Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work, Prentice Hall, 2003, p. xix.
29 Tim Leberecht, “What entrepreneurs can learn from artists,” CNN Money, December 21, 2012.

Balanced Life
People who spend more time with art--creating or enjoying-- establish multiple focuses, perspectives and viewpoints. The German word allgemeinwissen, or the French culture générale that already carry the idea of culture within and that both mean “broad knowledge,” are good synonyms for this. It is good to broaden one's skill set and expertise towards what is demanded today, but it also offers an alternative to the dominant idea of a linear career and restricted life that comes with it. In the future, it is more likely that people will have multiple careers or occupations; therefore personally exploring one or many art genres, as a secondary yet equally relevant as the traditional career, is good for a fulfilled life and might as well lead to a more significant perception change when it comes to beliefs and attitudes towards what really matters. At the same time, engaging with individuals from various disciplines helps to create a more diverse and thus robust people network similar to what is known as the “artistic community” that supports, feeds, and nourishes but also questions, critiques, and challenges the person.
The broader ones experiences and connections in life are, the more open one is to new situations, change, and perceived risks. For individuals dealing with art can help to reduce fears and thus lower the barriers to developing an artistic attitude that is required in many disciplines today and going forward, not just business and science. Miha Pogacnik expands that thought and connects individual attitude with organizational context: “You need an environment and you need inner discipline with which you strive for that kind of state of mind. The environment supports your state of mind and your state of mind supports the environment.”30
From individual to organization and from organization to society, the right attitude and actions can make a difference. We are convinced that artistic thinking and action can provide answers.

Skills, competencies, methods, ways of thinking and emotional perceptions, as we know from how artists work, will help to deal with and shape the far-reaching changes of our time--for people, organizations and the global society. In all walks of life, the artistic individual will become the counterpart and balance to artificial intelligence.

The Age of Artists Model
What is interesting about art versus many business disciplines is that “artists are craftspeople.” They “think by making” and unite the “hand and the head,” as sociologist Richard Sennett describes in his book The Craftsman. “It has both a physical dimension (exhibiting mastery in craftsmanship) and a metaphysical dimension (connecting a new product, service, or business model with the broader zeitgeist and cultural climate).”31 Based on this thought and by conducting interviews with artists and leading thinkers in a variety of countries as well as through secondary research, we have been able to compile a first version of our Age of Artists Model that contains the major patterns we were able to identify until now. It consists of four key elements:
Head - summarizes our findings when it comes to developing an attitude as a basis or a foundation for the artistic practice. It includes five components: Transcendence, Awareness, Position, Passion and Resilience.
Hand - combines a series of actions that artists do and that we were able to identify across various art genres. They might be
31 P. Rixhon (2008). “Innovation leadership: Best practices from theatre creators” in Führung, Innovation und Wandel (Becker L. et al. eds.), pp. 197-215, Symposion.

relevant for other disciplines as well; in fact some of them are already common practice in other areas. We structured this section into three modules that contain further sub modules: Search, Reflect and Produce. All three modules in this section contain another set of sub sections.
Heart - represents an attempt to capture the sphere of beliefs, feelings, and emotions. We include four areas in this section. Motivation. Empathy, Faith and Evocation.
Time - acknowledges that every artist has to be in the “now,” where head, hand and heart need to be in sync but also develop over time where previous insights and experiences support the direction of a next step. This is the sphere of iteration, learning, evolution--in short: advancement over time.
Illustration 4: Head, Hand and Heart of great art and the aspect of time

Altogether, Head, Hand & Heart deliberately kept in sync over time lead to great art, meaningful science and sustainable business outcomes. Miha Pogacnik described an episode which vividly illustrates the triad of art: “My great master was Henryk Szeryng, who died in ‘85. To me, he always was the most balanced violinist and I experienced him very closely in some master classes and my feeling was that when he played […] his way of movement of his hands, the way he connected with his instrument, I felt as if life would be squirting out of his hand (Hand). Life, so full of living. He was so organic. It is the transition from technique to life.[…] So instead of playing on the violin, which most people do, you start playing out of the violin, so the violin becomes an extended organ (Heart). You start speaking. The next level is the aesthetics. It is what you play, the content. That’s where I have all these years of research and practical experience. I quite definitely know that one must try to break through the aesthetics because very often the musicians stay within a certain style: New York, Russian, Israeli, Belgian. You know they follow a certain style and they do it very well, you know it. But you notice it immediately which school they come from. But to overcome that, you have to go through aesthetics. (Head) [...] I just want to say you have the physical reality which is the violin instrument. Then you have living reality which is the next which means playing in itself which must go from mechanics into the life organic process which in itself gives a special quality, which means you start to speak. And then, the third one is going from aesthetic--through aesthetic into a general experience. So suddenly you realize this is once and never again and we call it “Sternstunde” or something like that.[...] and of course those moments people will never forget.”32
As we outlined, there are very good reasons to refer to the arts in order to address some to the major challenges for individuals, organizations and the global society. An artistic mindset and practices have the potential to make a unique contribution to many
32 Interview with Miha Pogacnik, violinist. Hamburg/Dresden, June 14, 2014.

fields and disciplines. Yet before we look into the mandatory parts of an artistic attitude which we call elements and the optional pieces of the artistic practice that we termed modules and that we’ve been able to identify, it is worthwhile to share some upfront considerations. They might also be interpreted as foundational principles.
Some upfront considerations
Creativity is not a prisoner of art
Art-based thinking and actions have always and do today exist outside of the arts. Artist and art professor Ursula Bertram states that “creativity is not a prisoner of art” and continues to emphasize in her work that art based mindsets and practical approaches can be found in science, business and other disciplines already today, for example, in innovation departments of large corporations, start-ups, scientific laboratories and elsewhere. The reason why the Age of Artists movement looks particularly into the arts to find patterns and best practices is because we expect to find a higher percentage of individuals with important contributions to make in the area of artistic skills, competencies, methods, ways of thinking and emotional perceptions.
Art is seen as nice to have, but it really is a need to have
While an artistic mindset and practices can be found successfully applied in other disciplines, there is also a broad range of examples where art is seen as a non-mandatory attachment to business.

Designer, computer scientist and academic John Maeda stated repeatedly that “Art is seen as nice to have, but it really is a need to have.” This quote illustrates the need to put art on par with science and business to create sustainable solutions for (business) problems. There is evidence that John’s remark is not just a nice idea but also economically feasible:
The Design Council research looked at 1,500 organizations throughout the UK and defined 250 of them as design-led companies, where the use of design had made a direct impact on such key measures as competitiveness, market share, sales, and employment. One important component of this effort was “a sustained track record in design and innovation awards” by these organizations. Other indicators of design leadership included senior-level or executive-level design management and broad design training across the organization. The Council’s study pointed out that these companies outperformed their peers in the FTSE 100 over a 10-year period by a startling 231 percent.33
While those data points cover the United Kingdom, the Design Management Institute (DMI) has done similar research in North America and reports similar data points on their website where they comment: “Results show that over the last 10 years design-led companies have maintained significant stock market advantage, outperforming the S&P by an extraordinary 228%.”34 It is worthwhile noting that both study results speak about design-led companies, not art-led companies. However, while art and design are not the same design is an applied variant of art and thus in particular relevant as an already established bridge between art and business or science.
33 Michael Westcott, Steve Sato et al. "The DMI Design Value Scorecard: A New Design Measurement and Management Model" DMI, Winter 2013, p. 10.
34 This data point is conveyed in multiple locations on the Design Management Institute website, for instance: http://www.dmi.org/?DesignValue

Art is not for everything
While there is a common sense amongst leading thinkers from all walks of life that art-based thinking and action is an answer to many challenges in a globalized, technology-driven economy and society, it is also critical to state that “art is not for everything.” We don’t want the people who check our airplane before take-off according to predefined standards and procedures to start getting creative while they perform this critical task. It is critical not to establish yet another dogma or dictate of the arts over other disciplines. Yet, as outlined previously, there are more and more challenges present where art-based thinking and action can help, in particular where solutions to often undefined problems are required that are not to be resolved in one vertical domain but in cross-disciplinary networks.
Art is reliable
But if art is not for everything, is it just a mere ideal, or is it a real alternative to the way we live and work going forward? Rob Austin and Lee Devin confirmed that “art is reliable”:
There’s often a disparaging implication that art-like processes are immature, that they have not yet evolved to incorporate the obviously superior methods of science. The premise that underlies this point of view equates progress with the development of reliable, rules-based procedures to replace flaky, unreliable, art-based processes. […] Our close examination of art-based processes shows that they’re understandable and reliable, capable of sophisticated innovation at levels many “scientific” business processes can’t achieve. A theatre company, for instance, consistently delivers a valuable, innovative product under the pressure of a very firm deadline (opening night, eight o’clock curtain). The

product, a play, executes again and again with great precision incorporating significant innovations every time, but finishing within 30 seconds of the same length every time.35
Art is no magic, it is hard work
A key theme in art and beyond is the notion of talent, and even genius is used frequently to illustrate a border that common people cannot cross, hence separating them from the gifted ones. Compared to some of the great women and men of the past, it is hard for many to believe they are creative and innovative or that they have talent. But everyone has talent, is curious and creative from birth. Sir Isaac Newton famously said, “If I can see further than anyone else, it is only because I am standing on the shoulders of giants,” and Tim Leberecht adds, “Artists are conduits and not ’masters of the universe.’” Most artists—painters, sculptors, writers, filmmakers, or musicians—will admit that they derive their inspiration from a inspirational sphere that goes beyond their individual creativity and skills. This applies to innovators, too. Whether they are spiritual or not, humility suits them well, as the social web and its wave of crowd-based collaborations have rendered the myth of the lone genius obsolete.”36 Also Rob Austin and Lee Devin confirm that “although art-based processes realize the full capabilities of talented workers and can benefit from great worker talent, by no means do they require exceptional or especially creative individuals. Nor does great individual talent ensure a valuable outcome. A (theatre) company of exceptionally talented big stars can (and often will) create a less effective play than one made up of ordinarily talented artists who have, through hard work, learned how to collaborate.”37 Anthony Lowe disclosed
35 Rob Austin and Lee Devin (2003). Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, p. xxiii.
36 Tim Leberecht, “What entrepreneurs can learn from artists,” on CNN Money; December 21, 2012.
37 Rob Austin and Lee Devin (2003). Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall, pp. xxiii, xxiv.

to Age of Artists how he became a painter: “[The first thing was a really bad A level result in art. I think I got a C or a D which is bad. I drew around the question. I missed the question that was set by the exam board. […] That convinced me a career in the art business was not a bad thing.”38 Aris Kalaizis similarly told us he started to draw relatively late when he was sixteen and before and at that time conveyed to us “I was bad in drawing. Really bad.”39 So if we look beyond talent and genius—which might be a special gift that some possess, we realize that art is no magic; it is hard work.
Art is free, science and business are characterized by restrictions
Many people outside art see it as an area without boundaries and constraints, an independent place of liberty and freedom. And many artists likewise insist on the freedom of art. And it is their duty to do so, as many examples display where artists have been and are instrumentalized, threatened or worse. On the other side, science or business are always referred to as a place of restrictions and limitations. People, resources, budgets and even customers are in limited supply. This is why many people in science and business likewise are skeptical when it comes to learning from art. Yet, is art really this limitless sphere of unlimited freedom? Of course not. There is the “history of art or the art market that are already restrictions.”40 There is the audience that follows the trends and tastes of their time. There is, like in other disciplines, ever- shrinking budgets and resources. There are areas in the world where artists still have to be very careful or alternatively leave their country in order to follow their desire to express themselves. What is limitless though is the creative spirit in people and the ability of mankind to constantly invent new things--and this proclivity is certainly not limited to the arts.
38 Interview with Anthony Lowe, visual artist, painter, Altenburg, August 18, 2014.
39 Interview with Aris Kalaizis, visual artist, painter, Leipzig, July 24, 2014.
40 Interview with Aris Kalaizis, visual artist, painter, Leipzig, July 24, 2014.

Great art thrives under scarcity
A Russian colleague once told us about a Russian proverb which suggests that for great art to be created, the artist must starve. And there are plenty of examples of great artists who endured hardship for a long time--for instance, Friedrich Schiller or the perennial example, Vincent Van Gogh who was sustained by his brother because his work was only acknowledged by a few people towards the end of his life. So, is it true that great art only emerges when artists are poor? Certainly not, as many other examples of established artists show. But there is something more interesting to learn about this common myth, as alluded to by Miha Pogacnik when asked by Age of Artists about whether artists need to be poor:
Well, one could say the other way around. When artists are covered with money, that certainly can very quickly divert certain inspirational flow. So if we look at it from the other side, I am sure it's probably true, but it's not like you have to make them hungry in order to be artist. So that would not be right thinking. I would say when you as an artist take on a vision and decide to go for it, then this question becomes real. You cannot expect people coming to you and giving you money, feeding you and so on. You have to fight. So that’s true in that sense. If you really have a burning issue, a burning vision as an artist, and you say “This is what has to happen,” and this is out of the traditional circuit of the arts where there is money--at least some money and some budgets--then you are really in a situation where you may get hungry. You have to fight for it.41
The lesson we learnt from investigating this question is that an overabundance of resources might reduce an individual’s willingness to get creative and that lesson is highly relevant to both business and society.

Substance over semantics
Our research so far clearly shows us that meaning--true substance- -is more important than semantics. The words we use to describe our findings are used by many people for various purposes. In some contexts, a word might mean something totally different or might even have a negative connotation than what was intended. Something as simple as a translation between languages might drastically change the meaning. As hard as we may try to get to the etymological bottom of a word or phrase, we will never succeed in offering a series of words that provide final clarity or that are accepted by everyone--nor do we want to. As with a piece of art, it is the recipient to be perceived one way or another. Aris Kalaizis, to whom we spoke, does not comment on his art at all, because he would like the observers of his paintings to experience them for themselves. This is why we suggest and encourage not judging or criticizing words but instead try to go to the meaning, the substance, and interpret what you hear and read with your own words and thoughts. We are curious to hear what you come up with!
Beyond boxes
Every conversation and all research so far has shown us that art is a domain beyond boxes. As soon as we try to box elements of the artistic head, hand and heart, we are already setting up limitations on what is possible. We are setting up limitations to creativity and putting a frame around what needs to be frameless. Until now, we have not found a better way to talk about our insights than to structure them into what we found were reasonable buckets. However, it is fundamental to confirm that every bucket is open, not closed; constantly connected, not separated; overlapping not mutually exclusive; and, of course--very individual.

Head: Attitude matters
Illustration 5: Five components of an artistic attitude
A lot has been written on creativity and innovation in professional organizations, and by now some excellent methodologies, such as Design Thinking, Strategic Visioning and Lean Startup, have emerged as general frameworks for leading innovation processes in business contexts.42 Many organizations have begun to train their members to use such methods--of which there are plenty more--to support collaborative strategy development and innovation processes in their organizations. Some organizations have even started to invite artists to join them in order to unlock the existing creative potential of their members through music, theatre, sculpture and painting. Methods like Design Thinking, Strategic Visioning and Lean Startup can help to set certain, yet quite flexible, boundaries. They provide a framework that helps to avoid such pitfalls as putting personal preferences before customer needs. Experience however shows that organizations still struggle
42 “Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success,” Tim Brown, president and CEO of IDEO, states on the company web page. As a method, it is structured into three “spaces” to keep in mind: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Inspiration is the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions. Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas. Implementation is the path that leads from the project stage into people’s lives. The Grove’s Strategic Visioning™ process engages an entire organization in combining its best hindsight and foresight in aligned action. It uses large, graphic templates to step groups through the development of traditional strategic analysis, creative visioning work, focused action planning, and organization-communications design. The model illustrates an optimal path through these activities and invites variations and improvisation.

to achieve what they envision by training their members in using such methods. We suspect the missing piece is what is best described as attitude. Ursula Bertram, artist and art professor in Dortmund, Germany, who also leads the ID Factory, a think tank where art, science and business meet, articulates the core question that defines the biggest challenge: “Are we able to transfer what we envision into daily business and to instantiate it as an attitude?”43 Suffice it to say, attitude becomes even more important if we think beyond organizations and their challenges into the sphere of wicked problems. Like it is for artists in their practice, so it is for knowledge workers: their methods are means to an end, yet the hand and the head need to be in sync. And the head is where what we call “an attitude” is formed. So far, we’ve been able to identify five components of an artistic attitude:
● Transcendence: Ability to surpass limitations in order to accomplish inner freedom
● Awareness: A general readiness to perceive, receive and to learn
● Position: Holding a personal belief that is articulated with integrity
● Passion: Pursuing what matters with initiative, determination, courage and persistence
● Resilience: Appreciating chaos and ambiguity, flexible towards change, robust through conflict and crisis.
43 Ursula Bertram, “The missing link” in Ursula Bertram, Kunst fördert Wirtschaft, 2010, p. 22.

Transcendence
Philippe Rixhon, leader at the intersection of Art, Business and Technology, connected many years ago to the works of the late Abraham Maslow while researching the connection between art, technology and business. At the end of his life in 1970, Maslow placed transcendence at the top of his famous hierarchy of needs as a new ideal, which he described in his paper titled “Theory Z.”44 Transcendence is the striving for something that goes beyond oneself and the observable world. In his work, Rixhon selected some of Maslow’s descriptors to explain the characteristics of such individuals who reach this stage, whom he refers to as “creative leaders.”45 They
● are consciously and deliberately self-motivated
● recognize each other instantly
● transcend the ego
● have transcendent experiences and illuminations
● correlate between increasing knowledge and increasing mystery
● fuse work and play, and
● express cosmic sadness
44 Abraham Maslow, “Theory Z,” 1969, http://www.maslow.org/sub/TheoryZ.php
45 Philippe Rixhon, “Creative Leadership,” Presentation, June 2014.

Based on Maslow’s research, Rixhon states that “innovators transcend all types of restrictions, especially their ego, the unknown, the complexity in order to create something new.” When one transcends both internal and external limitations, a new level of freedom, liberty and independence is reached that can be a basis for great innovation.
Awareness
Being generally aware, constantly perceiving and always ready to receive with all senses is a requirement for deliberate practice, lifelong learning and continuous redefinition--all topics that are often quoted as becoming increasingly more important in daily life. An open mind (and heart) leads to superior forms of cognition, and only then can the “contextual forces” (as Philippe Rixhon calls them) that are required in the creative process--serendipity, fortuity and necessity46--unfold and work in favor of the artist and innovator. After all, an attitude of constant awareness is what leads to sagacity or even wisdom. Individuals who are truly aware know that they don’t know. Visual artist Maureen Drdak described a belief system based on her observations and awareness around her as “being a sensitive reflector of things.”47 And Aris Kalaizis recommends: “Sometimes it is quite good you go to this or that sphere of life that you do not see binding for the future and to
46 Philippe Rixhon, Creative Leadership, Presentation, Sent to Age of Artists by the Author, June 2014
47 Interview with Maureen Drdak, Visual Artist, Philadelphia, June 5 2014

work in areas where experiences are made that otherwise would not happen in everyday life.”48 To display general awareness requires one not to judge every context and every encounter with others by the immediate value it provides to the core task at hand. Instead, finding the time to swerve, to look around for things that intuition suggests are worth pursuing, or even to look for great input in negative experiences is what many might suggest as useful sources of content. Daniel Prandl, jazz composer and musician, told us: “I can learn more from a concert I dislike than from a concert I love.”49
Position
Not many people outside the art world know that art education is to a very large extent about helping artists to find their own position. As in many disciplines, the craft itself is something that students learn by practicing and learning from teachers, masters and fellow students. But in order to make one’s art truly unique, truly individual, a position is required. Many young artists report that finding their personal, unique position is the most painful part of becoming an artist. Maureen Drdak commented accordingly: “It is more to do with the amount of personal emphasis I put on it, the degree to which one is privileged over another, in terms of the process of the work, and the degree to which my particular voice or inclination becomes apparent, that it starts to become more and more apparent and apprehendable through these behaviors”,50
48 Interview with Aris Kalaizis, Visual Artist, Painter, Leipzig, July 24th 2014
49 Interview with Daniel Prandl, Jazz Musician and Composer, Mannheim, May 30 2014
50 Interview with Maureen Drdak, visual artist, Philadelphia, June 5, 2014.

Certainly, a position can develop over time, but finding it initially is essential. One’s position is where head, hand and heart merge and become one. And without a position, there is no true passion.
Passion
Certainly, one can be passionate about something, but without a position, passion is arbitrary. It is misguided, while at the same time an essential element of an artistic mind set. Passion, according to our definition, includes components such as initiative, self-direction, accountability, dedication, determination, persistence and tenacity. Good companions of passion are audaciousness, risk-taking and courage. As such, passion is a source of confidence. Artists are not gamblers, but their passion leads them to new heights. When talking to artists, it becomes clear they have fears (not to be confused with anxiety or angst) like many people have, but it is not that much of an issue because their passion is directing them to go beyond their fears.
Taking initiative requires an entrepreneurial spirit. Starting instead of waiting, acting and not hesitating, questioning instead of accepting the status quo—everything that relates to the idea of entrepreneurialism is about taking risk—real or perceived. Being proactive and acting independently (but not selfishly) comes, of course, with the risk of being exposed, but it is the first movers who innovate, and rarely the laggards. So, taking the initiative and building on creative ideas in order to make a tangible and useful

contribution to the field in which the innovation will occur is crucial. And it is not a lonely task necessarily; sometimes for magic to happen, it might be a team effort. Taking risk and making unorthodox decisions can lead to irritation and even isolation—but it is a necessary if true innovation is the target. In their book Trading Fours, Gold and Villa write about a concert Miles Davis and his band gave in the late 1960s. Davis, already known by then for his technique known as “creative destruction,” turned his back to the audience while playing jazz music—a move never seen before. After thirty minutes, the band left the stage, leaving the audience totally confused and in despair. Only one critic understood the historical significance51 of what Miles had done. He ran to a phone in the lobby and called a jazz publication to describe what had happened. People standing close by listened to what he said and passed on his positive comments, which spread like wildfire. When Davis and his band came back to play more, the audience appreciated the innovation, and when the set was finished, „they went crazy.”52 This is what Friedrich Goethe once described: “The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.” In order to reach success as an artist, taking initiative and risk is required. This is true for individuals and ambition in other disciplines, too.
On top of everything, passion is ultimately where work and life become one. For artists, there is no such thing as work-life balance, even though there is everyday life. As painter Aris Kalaizis told us: “I am also doing mundane things. I do not sit in a library and wait [for inspiration to come]. That would be foolish. But ultimately, it's a kind of waiting. Just like with ordinary, mundane things I do. Within me, there is not only this aspiration to paint a
51 “Miles was once again changing the organizational structure of Jazz; evolving the concept of the traditional soloist and the traditional rhythm section; merging the roles of leading and support; democratizing responsibility and the subsequent gratification of each of the artists within the ensemble.” From: Michael Gold and David Villa, Trading Fours: Jazz and the Learning Organization, Milan, Art for Business Edizioni, (2012). p. 61.
52 Michael Gold and David Villa (2012), Trading Fours - Jazz and the Learning Organization, Milan, Art for Business Edizioni, pp. 58-62.

picture that survives in me; there is also a tendency to knock a nail into a wall or something similar.”53
Resilience
Resilience has become a core theme in education and business. It is also worth discussing ego strength and self-efficacy when it comes to the arts. Miha Pogacnik told us that “when you are an innovator and you are sort of dancing on the cutting edge, you don’t really have the possibility of [receiving] feedback very often. You are right there and things are just happening and they are just emerging. Something is emerging that has never been there before, so you have no way to check it and you don’t get much guidance.” Obviously, if an artist is really creating something new, the process it is about accepting ambiguity and even chaos. It is about being flexible and willing to adapt while things emerge. It is about managing at once outer conflict and inner crisis. Dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty is a constant theme for artists as they question themselves and their work. Experiencing inner conflict, managing through crisis, and accepting and appreciating failure are necessary steps towards accomplishment and cannot, and should not, be avoided. Adaptability to change and dealing with ambiguity are core themes in art-based processes, and many artists are masters of agility and flexibility: “Artists are comfortable with ambiguity. By design, they often deal with things that are not
53 Interview with Aris Kalaizis, visual artist, painter, Leipzig, July 24. 2014.

measurable and can't be easily quantified. Innovators, too, should value what may not be easily captured in quantitative terms. In stark contrast to more mechanistic models of management, they must be able to tolerate uncertainty and open-ended questions.”54
Gold and Villa also comment on maintaining agility in the process of creating jazz. The same fundamental constructs are at work that underlie the creation of all of classical music. But because jazz musicians are challenged with creating the music in real time, with each other, rather than interpreting what has already been created and transcribed, these processes and structures are simplified to allow for experimentation, ambiguity and, most significantly, the latitude to make and learn from mistakes. Appreciating the “unexpected nature of change” is central to the evolution of jazz. There would have been no learning without a fundamentally different view of the nature of mistakes. To eliminate the risk of uncertainty from the process of jazz would eliminate the entire horizon of potential possibilities out of which jazz continues to evolve. [...] This is precisely one of the conditions of business cultures today.”55 This is why resilience is in high demand in organizations today.
Psychologists describe a person with a well-developed ego- strength as resilient. Such a person with such a strong sense of self is capable of handling challenges. They more often:56
● Take a learning approach to life that increasingly grows their strength and confidence in handling triggering situations
● Have an ability to tolerate discomfort, enough to regulate their emotions as opposed to feeling overwhelmed by them
● Approach life overall with a curiosity and readiness to explore and to master what strengthens them, thus increasing their
54 Tim Leberecht, “What entrepreneurs can learn from artists”, on Money; December 21, 2012.
55 Michael Gold and David Villa (2012), Trading Fours: Jazz and the Learning Organization, Milan, Art for Business Edizioni, p .35-37.
56 Athena Staik„ Ego versus Ego-Strength: The Characteristics of a Healthy Ego and Why It’s Essential to Your Happiness,” no date.

chances of finding new ways of coping with challenges (see also awareness)
● Treat self and others as having inner resources to deal with challenges
● Do not personalize what others say or do, and regard self and other as human beings, thus, fallible”57 (see also transcendence)
With such a definition, it becomes apparent that resilience is somewhat a required foundation for an artistic attitude that combines aspects that we discussed in all five areas. Today, it is not entirely clear what makes some people more resilient than others, but it is important to know about it as an important element in developing an artistic attitude and to research further how it can be acquired and improved over time.
From attitude to action
We put attitude (“head”) at the beginning of the suggested model, realizing it is a very difficult thing to accomplish. Richard Branson, for instance, states “the first thing that has to be recognized is that one cannot train someone to be passionate--it's either in their DNA or it's not. Believe me, I have tried and failed on more than one occasion, and it cannot be done, so don't waste your time and energy trying to light a fire under flame-resistant people. If that basic, smoldering fire is not innate, then no amount of stoking is ever going to ignite it. The exact same principle applies to positive attitudes in people--you don't train attitudes, you have to hire them.”58
During our initial conversations with thought leaders and artists, however, we came to believe that an artistic attitude can be and is
57Athena Staik„ Ego versus Ego-Strength: The Characteristics of a Healthy Ego and Why It’s Essential to Your Happiness,” no date.
58 Sir Richard Branson, “Richard Branson on Passionate Leadership,” 2014.

developed over time. No artist was born with it. It is not a question of genetics but breeding ground and practice. Author Daniel H. Pink once said, “Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.” To produce great art, the autonomy of the artist and freedom of art is mandatory. Autonomy and freedom are words with a very positive connotation, yet what sounds great at first actually includes a series of things that are very difficult to accomplish in the first place--not yet actions but purely related to what we described as an artistic attitude. As Age of Artists, we believe--as a next step--we need to find out how an attitude that contains all five components--transcendence, awareness, position, passion and resilience--can be developed individually. One person at a time in order to support the emergence of a new idea of man.

Hand: Attitude in action
Illustration 6: Three action modules
With action (Hand), we relate to a series of processes or tasks that artists do and that we were able to identify across various art genres. This section is structured in three modules that contain further sub modules:
● Searching
● Reflecting
● Producing
All three modules contain another set of sub sections. When looking at the three words Searching, Reflecting and Producing,

one might notice a possible sort order or flow where search comes before reflection which comes before the production of art. While this is somewhat intended, it is more important to acknowledge that for most artists, such actions are applied whenever required as they do not follow a rigid plan or structure when it comes to those actions. There are choices, decisions, loops, iterations, oscillations, etc. that make it impossible to identify a clear path or method that one can simply apply correctly, like a recipe, to achieve great things. The actions presented here should be interpreted more like a toolbox59 that artists flexibly apply than a rigid prescription of steps. And flexible application means that some artists chose not to apply some tools from the toolbox. And if they do apply them, they do not apply them all the time the same way. They mix, match, blend and shift as they feel it is required. This is not to say artists are undisciplined. In fact, the ones we talked to were driven and followed a clear inner plan that is rooted in their personal attitude. Attitude is mandatory; actions are optional.
Searching
“Only the curious have something to find.” Unknown
Curiosity, in children as well as adults, is the appetite for knowledge or “the lust of the mind,” as the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes once said. This urge to know is a necessary ingredient and perhaps the secret ingredient for any artist. Curiosity fuels imagination and is a foundation for any creative act, any piece of art. “Artists are neophiles. They are in love with
59 The German word “Instrumentarium” that translates into “equipment” was suggested to us as an alternative instead of toolbox which sounds too mechanistic for many people we spoke to.

novelty and have an insatiable appetite for finding and creating new connections.”60 To understand customer or user needs, to be enabled for breakthrough innovation (and not just piecemeal improvement), to position a challenge in the right context—for all of these critical activities, curiosity is elementary. The challenge however is to sidestep obstacles. “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education,” Albert Einstein once said.
Life, for artists, is a constant quest for purpose and meaning, and artists as analysts of the human condition have developed some core skills and sensors where awareness--as we described in the previous chapter--is a prerequisite that is enhanced by the good practice of searching as an act to satisfy curiosity. The search module in this paper and its sub modules represent those practices as seen in art and with artists. Search can take place in various forms, for example by
● Researching
● Engaging with other people through listening and conversation
● Exploiting what other people did
● Asking significant and challenging questions (which some might perceive as impoliteness or provocation--both key concepts in art as well)
Researching
Reading, Watching, Observing, Researching--beyond our main profession and main occupations. John Coleman writes in his Harvard Business Review blog with the wonderful title “For Those Who Want to Lead, Read”:
Deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation,
60 Tim Leberecht, “What entrepreneurs can learn from artists”, CNN Money; December 21, 2012.

empathy, and personal effectiveness. The leadership benefits of reading are wide-ranging. Evidence suggests reading can improve intelligence and lead to innovation and insight. Some studies have shown, for example, that reading makes you smarter through a larger vocabulary and more world knowledge in addition to the abstract reasoning skills.61
And artist Maureen Drdak confirms,
The most important thing is for me is the quality of priming the pump in the first stage, of accessing and ingesting as much information as possible. Priming the pump. There has to be a quality priming. Because if it's only a cursory, it seems like the quality of the output is almost proportionate to the quality of the input.62
Painter Aris Kalaizis takes the idea of search even a step further where every new beginning, which for him is the preparation for a new painting, needs to start from a place of emptiness. Once he has completed a painting
…everything is still so present. And I'd be lying if I were to continue seamlessly towards a new image and would negate the impressions I had. […] I don’t want to see the previous painting any more. Not because I don’t like it but because the goal of emptiness is to receive as much as possible without influence from what was before in order to not get into a flow of replication.
This phase he considers not productive but necessary or even essential.63
61 John Coleman, “For Those Who Want to Lead Read,” HBR Blog Network, August 15, 2012.
62 Interview with Maureen Drdak, Visual Artist, Philadelphia, June 5, 2014.
63 Interview with Aris Kalaizis, Painter, Leipzig, July 24, 2014.

Observation, Conversation and Dialogue
Observing and having meaningful conversations by asking, listening and, most importantly, by expressing empathy and respect toward our counterparts and dialogue partners, is a theme that we will find again in the chapter on Heart:
Those who see what's obvious aren't necessarily brighter than others. They're just more likely to observe that the emperor is naked. Like children, they see what's actually there. Their perceptions are less clouded by belief systems, taboos, habits of thought.64
When Salvador Dalí, the famous painter of the surrealist era, was six years old, his family spent the summer in their house in Cadaques near Barcelona. According to reports, he watched Juan Salleras, a local member of the community who painted for fun, for hours and hours. At this age, the young Dalí realized his first painting. Observation made him try out something new.
For Jazz composer and musician Daniel Prandl, researching, observation and conversation can be become one combined attempt to find new things:
Transcribing or just studying music of others and then understanding the rules in it and trying to make songs with those rules can spark new ideas. There is this famous Stravinsky quote that says: Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal. It's all about checking out what other people did, see what you like, see what you don't like, abstract from it, understand the rules. Don't steal a melody, that's stupid, but you can deduct rules off formal aspects, from how a song is constructed.65
64 Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, The Innovation Paradox, 2002, p. 76.
65 Interview with Daniel Prandl, Jazz Musician and Composer, Mannheim, May 30, 2014.

The head, hand and heart of great art - extended version

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