I am often confronted with the question “How do you bring poetry into organisations?” People seem curious in figuring out a method, a process, they can maybe rationalise and feel safe around.
The real question is another in my view: “Why not"?” Business exists to solve problems, to realise dreams and it has a unique and indispensable role to play in driving progress which, cannot be limited to technological progress. It must become the progress that advances all of humankind, while respecting the planet, holistically.
To do so we cannot continue teaching tools and the "XYZ steps if you want to achieve W". We have instead the responsibility to transform not just what people learn, but how they learn, and the business model that powers it.
When we practice art and evoke the artist within we access the space of dialogue and co-creation of practices, processes and tools that support our progress - evolution - while shifting the current business model designed on the premises of an assembly line.
What we do depends on who we are and on the “quality” of our being.
Joseph Beuys said: “ Only art is capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system that continues to totter along the death-line: to dismantle in order to build A SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART. This most modern art discipline – Social Sculpture/Social Architecture – will only reach fruition when every living person becomes a creator, a sculptor, or architect of the social organism.’
My preferred form of art is poetry (you know this already!) Practicing poetry is my way of forming, shaping and holding in front of the eyes something invisible, something that might seem a paradox or a contradiction. It is the language of seeing beneath the surface - to understand we are not fragmented or divided , but fully creative human beings. It is a practice that takes time, space, and the willingness to commit to the being rather than only the doing.
Beuys believed “Every man is an artist”. I believe that too and, when we evoke the artist in each and everyone of us we develop a narrative of our lives and relate to our own experience in a new way. This changes the relationship we have with the world.
Art, or as I call it heart, is not a paradigm, a process or, a tool for entertainment. It is the very essence at the centre of our being that when evoked and practiced helps us create new paradigms, processes and tools.
If you’re interested to learn more about our knowledge and experience and discuss how we could help through our consultancy, workshops, and talks, drop us a line at fateme@rnewb.com.
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