Send to KindleJohn Cimino of Creative Leaps has devised a quiz based on two lists of competencies.
The first is a list that Eliot Eisner from Stanford University developed on how the mind processes art
- Qualitative relationships in the absence of rules
- Acting flexibly with purpose to approach a goal
- Learning to explore possibilities within a medium
- Using imagination to see multiple perspectives
- Learning to pay attention to nuance
- Surrendering to processes rather than leading
- Learning to use language figuratively
- Creating emotionally what cannot be expressed literally
- The qualitative features of the arts and the world
The second is a list created by The Center for Creative Leadership on the Creative Competencies of Leadership
- Noticing slowing down, taking in more
- Subtle representation — eye for detail & relationship
- Fluid perspective – attuned to multiple points of view
- Using R-mode — non-verbal, intuitive processing
- Personalizing work —arts interests spill into work
- Skeptical inquiry — preserving the questions
- Serious play —learning and exploring without rules
- Portraying paradoxes, conflicts, unknown ? mystery
- Facility with metaphor — generative thinking
- Making shared meanings — engaging creative tension
How many, if any, from each list are a mirror image of the other? How many, if any, match? Ok? Think you have it figured out? Here are the answers:
The Mind’s Processing of Art….
1. Qualitative relationships in the absence of rules
2. Acting flexibly with purpose to approach a goal
….matches Creative Competencies
7. Serious play — learning and exploring without rules
The Mind’s Processing of Art….
4.Using imagination to see multiple perspectives
…..Matches Creative Competencies
3. Fluid perspective – attuned to multiple points of view
The Mind’s Processing of Art….
5. Learning to pay attention to nuance
…matches Creative Competencies
1. Noticing — slowing down, taking in more
The Minds Processing of Art…
7. Learning to use language figuratively
….matches Creative Competencies
9. Facility with metaphor — generative thinking
The Minds Processing of Art...
8. Creating emotionally what cannot be expressed literally
…. matches Creative Competencies
4.Using R-mode — non-verbal, intuitive processing
Regardless of how many of these you figured out, we, as artists, need to learn how to develop and use our natural skills to lead. Leaders build their visions, unit people and thrive. It’s time we as natural leaders, and as artists, do too.
It’s worth noting that Otto Scharmer’s Theory U also incorporates attributes of the artist with leadership: Downloading, seeing, sensing, presencing, crystallising, prototyping, and embodying, modeled after the Zen practice of spending time observing and reflecting, being present, allowing inner knowing to emerge, then acting in an instant.
