The Happy Burro

originally published January 23, 2007

As part of my 2007 goals, I signed up for a beginner’s art class at a local art academy.  I don’t see myself especially gifted as an artist, so I figured this would be a great way to find out how right I am.

Guess what?  There is a process to drawing!  It isn’t just trance-like inspiration.  The master artists, Cezanne, Picasso, Calder; they all started with drawing.  It is the beginning, the genesis of all great paintings and sculpture.  I learned more in that two hours than in the past two decades about lines, angles, apathy (danger!), and perfection.

1.  Relax

2.  Concentrate

3.  Draw lightly

4.  Big shapes first

5.  Compare back & forth

6.  Turn it upside down

7.  Find mistakes

8.  Put arrows down (next to mistakes)

9.  Turn it right side up

10. Correct mistakes

11. Erase arrows

12. Check positive & negative shapes

13.  Correct mistakes

14. Stop & rest

15. Check it again

16. Correct mistakes

17. Raise your hand & ask for help

18. Ghost your line

19.  Add details

20.  Ask for help one last time

Perfection, as defined in art, is ‘done right’.  Perfection in business tends to go down the road of ‘analysis paralysis’ or delays to a product launch while everyone worries about getting everything “perfect”.  This isn’t what we’re focused on.

As our instructor mentioned, “Everything you draw or paint, it should be able to be displayed.  Work on it until you’ve perfected it.  Apathy is your enemy.  There are a lot of crummy painters out there.  You don’t have to be one of them.”

There is a fine line between being ‘perfect’ and ‘doing it right’  – and  I am 20 steps closer to that line.

Joe Raasch :: Jul.12.2010 :: Innovation, Life, Personal :: No Comments »

(first published May 12, 2008)

Innovation as a business initiative seems to rear its head every six years or so. We’re on the tail end of another “let’s innovate!” run. What came of all those resources spent trying to come up with the next big idea? Did your company find a revolutionary change, new product, or client base that was worth all the effort? Or did the innovation teams post a slew of new ideas, declare victory and melt back to their old jobs?

True innovation is about creating a sustainable (product/idea/change/client). The last thing it is about is creating teams of people to brainstorm ideas. Ever hear a senior leader say, “I want five new ideas from each division by next month!”? VPs scramble, teams are formed, consultants are consulted. This in itself isn’t bad. The CEO usually gets ideas. How many get implemented?

The Shift – Light, not Heat

“Light, At Thirty-Two” by Michael Blumenthal from Days We Would Rather Know.

It is the first thing God speaks of
when we meet Him, in the good book
of Genesis. And now, I think
I see it all in terms of light:

How, the other day at dusk
on Ossabaw Island, the marsh grass
was the color of the most beautiful hair
I had ever seen, or how—years ago
in the early-dawn light of Montrose Park—
I saw the most ravishing woman
in the world, only to find, hours later
over drinks in a dark bar, that it
wasn’t she who was ravishing,
but the light: how it filtered
through the leaves of the magnolia
onto her cheeks, how it turned
her cotton dress to silk, her walk
to a tour-jeté.

And I understood, finally,
what my friend John meant,
twenty years ago, when he said:
Love is keeping the lights on. And I understood
why Matisse and Bonnard and Gauguin
and Cézanne all followed the light:
Because they knew all lovers are equal
in the dark, that light defines beauty
the way longing defines desire,
that everything depends on how light falls
on a seashell, a mouth … a broken bottle.

And now, I’d like to learn
to follow light wherever it leads me,
never again to say to a woman, YOU
are beautiful, but rather to whisper:
Darling, the way light fell on your hair
this morning when we woke—God,
it was beautiful. Because, if the light is right,
then the day and the body and the faint pleasures
waiting at the window … they too are right.
All things lovely there. As that first poet wrote,
in his first book of poems: Let there be light.

###

Jas de Buffan, The Pool, 1876, Paul Cezanne

When asked for ideas, focus on the vital few that would create a sustainable future in your organization. Pulling people from their jobs to create a list of going nowhere ideas isn’t insightful and won’t light the way to the future. You’re just creating heat (i.e. friction).

Follow the light.

Joe Raasch :: May.23.2010 :: Change Management, Innovation, Leadership :: No Comments »

(originally published July 6, 2008)

How significant are you at work?

In his monthly Fortune magazine column titled, While You Were Out, the ubiquitous Stanley Bing writes about his addiction to the digital world while on a vacation. It all started with a phantom buzz of the BlackBerry in his coat pocket. He wasn’t wearing a coat. Why the urge to check in?

Stay Connected

The place cannot run without me. I have such an important job/project/title/image that when I’m out, nothing moves forward. Is that your job? What about the ‘hit by a bus’ theory, where if you were hit by a bus, what would actually happen at work? With few exceptions, most businesses would survive the loss of the newest employee, the CFO or CEO, even the entrepreneurial founder. So why do you have to keep thumbs to the BlackBerry or a Bluetooth glued to your ear while your family hits the beach without you?

Let It All Go

What if I took off a week, or two, and no one really noticed? Meetings are held, decisions made and key projects moved forward. Uh oh. Is my work that insignificant to the organization’s goals? Am I that insignificant at work?

Balance the Flow

Certain positions require you to provide input, even when you’re supposed to be away. Find the top three issues/challenges/project decisions that could arise while you’re planning to be away, figure out reasonable scenarios with your minion to determine a course of action, assign responsibility and vacate. Then, should these plagues rear their ugly heads, your organization/team/support staff have a pre-determined course of action from which to work on a solution.

____________

In the end, if you’re able to stabilize your work, delegate the decision-making process and disappear for a few days, you’ve succeeded where many have failed. Being able to disconnect isn’t easy. You are the first one that has to let go.

Find some time to spend away from work, completely away, and reconnect with family, friends, your dog. Then bring back your renewed self to your organization.  That is significant.

Joe Raasch :: Mar.06.2010 :: Employee Engagement, Innovation, Personal :: No Comments »