# Management Art By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-06-14 There are art exhibits where people actively contribute to the art. It could be a series of individually placed dots on a piece of paper, a video recording about an experience such as love, or an impromptu dance performance. These are hardly spontaneous actions. Even if the outcome will be largely unknown, there is often some intentionality. For these collaborative or participative works of art, a primary artist has conceived the idea, contemplated how to execute it, and empowered the participants to help it come to life. Sometimes the primary artist will have an exacting vision, but most of the time, they want to create a situation where "good" art emerges in unpredictable ways. This makes the art exciting and insightful. What if managers view their job as this artist does? What if the work product was the art? The parallels are strong, if not precisely the same. One can easily argue that everything is art. But, today, management is obsessed mainly with viewing management as a science. It is a series of exacting experiments where humans are machines with buttons to push and levers to pull. The key is figuring out how to push the buttons and pull the levers in just the proper sequence to deliver the bliss of optimal human efficiency. Indeed, some people advocate that the manager's role is to create the right conditions for success. One can see how close this is to participatory art and how far away it is. Words matter. Instead, what if we said the manager's role is to be an artist that empowers people to develop works of art in the name of progress and solidarity? Can a piece of code built by a team be a work of art? Yes. Can an analysis of market conditions be a work of art? Yes. Can the flawless execution of an assembly line be a work of art? Again, yes. Using different words can snap us out of tired paradigms of thought. How might a manager act if they thought of themselves this way? How many people would run away from being a manager? Would we all be better off as a result? There are many questions to consider, but it is worth noting that artists have an above-average understanding of the human condition. They challenge the status quo and see humans as humans. Artists are ridiculed and viewed as outcasts. If this is too much for you, you should return to the status quo. #### Related Items [[Management]] [[Art]] [[Process]] [[The Human Condition]] [[Outsider]] [[Science]] [[Organization]] [[Work]]