Growth: could Grayson have the answer?

“Any creative activity - we have to be open and be prepared to fail, and put our heart on our sleeve. These are difficult things for us to do sometimes.”

- Grayson Perry

One thought that has struck me more than once during this period of lockdown is that believing the future to be in any way certain has only ever been an illusion. But an illusion on which much of the business world is built. For sure, this has been shown to be the case in the most seismic of ways, but sometimes it takes a shock to the system to realise that the system itself was predicated on shaky foundations. 

As human beings our natural instinct is to want to ease the discomfort of uncertainty by seeking and practicing continuity. This is equally true in organisations, where predictability brings security and confidence. And as technology and data has advanced to dominate many of our lives, we’ve been lulled into believing this was more possible.  Or even desirable.  Most annual business planning and budgeting processes conspire to have us assume it’s both.

So what happens if, like now, we’re forced to accept that the future is not as knowable and therefore as controllable as we’d like?  What if we start with a clean sheet of paper where nothing is predetermined? What becomes important is how we choose to feel about that.  Does it paralyse us? Or can it energise us? 

I was reminded of this while watching the first episode of Grayson's Art Club on Channel 4, a life-affirming hour of television which sought to explore the benefits art could offer during our current predicament.  Asked what time during lockdown had meant for her so far, portrait artist Chantal Joffe reflected: “It makes you ask what it is you’re doing, and that’s a really good thing. Ask yourself ‘Why am I doing this?’ rather than somehow taking it for granted you’re right to do it.”

Completing his own portrait on ceramic of his wife Philippa Perry during the course of the programme - a material and subject matter he is not unfamiliar with - Grayson confided “I did feel quite vulnerable making that actually.  It’s not my comfort zone. This is something we need to learn about making art: making ourselves vulnerable. Any creative activity - we have to be open and be prepared to fail, and put our heart on our sleeve. These are difficult things for us to do sometimes.”

Difficult maybe. But almost always worthwhile. Joffe and Perry’s reflections show us that as individuals it is often surprise and risk, together with the vulnerability that underpins them and the willingness to face into that, that bring knowledge, action, growth and wellbeing; that put us in a position to thrive. I’d suggest this is no less the case for organisations too.  Recognising and even embracing this is key to how we can emerge from the Covid crisis and shape ourselves once more for success. In this sense, having a creative mindset is intrinsically linked to driving business growth. 

 “There’s no safe way to be great”, says Bob Anderson, CEO of The Leadership Circle, in an explanation of its proprietary leadership model.  In order for businesses to put themselves into a growth loop, the model holds that organisations must start with a clear purpose, knowing that fear and risk are an inherent part of striving to succeed. “When we orient towards creating what matters most, we’re in a creative structure of mind”. What does Anderson mean by that? Well, to my way of thinking it means we’re displaying traits which stem from a place of positivity and possibility; traits which among others The Leadership Circle identifies as collaboration, connectedness, focus, composure, decisiveness and authenticity. Traits as valuable in producing business plans as they are in producing a portrait. In other words, a creative mindset is one where the future is up for grabs and ours to articulate. 

The ability for a creative mind to see uncertainty or ambiguity as an enabler not a dis-abler is something Margaret Heffernan makes a convincing case for in her new book ‘Uncharted - How to Map the Future Together’.  If ever a book was written for our time it is this one.  Artists, Heffernan maintains, have heightened their capacity to sense, notice and absorb what’s around them; deliberately seeking out the unexpected; allowing clarity and new ideas to emerge from what may seem unimportant or even random sources. Doing this requires a curiosity to actively explore and experiment, and an acceptance of failure as a natural part of the road to uncovering success. It also necessitates huge discipline and determination.

Here too the worlds of art and business are not so far apart. Perhaps most obviously when it comes to start-ups. The chaos, passion, intensity and pace present at the outset of many an entrepreneurial endeavour mean they have much in common with the creative structure of mind present in artists. As Heffernan points out,  “Investors look to start-ups to find in them the benefits that thinking like an artist bestows: a greater sense of zeitgeist, a willingness to probe, the freedom to change and to experiment.”

We are living through a period where resilience and capacity for change is essential, both as people and as organisations. It’s in our ongoing flexibility and adaptability that future stability lies, as counter-intuitive as this may seem. And so it’s more important than ever that we hone our creative ability to explore, imagine, see possibility and experiment - even though, or precisely because, we’re not sure of the destination.

Beth Pope is a Founder and Brand Partner at Firehaus. Our Catalyst diagnostic tool helps businesses assess how they can improve the conditions for people to do their best thinking and drive sustainable growth.