Art is a way to find meaning in work (no seriously)
Seth Godin introduced me to the idea of art in the workplace.
Art is a gift, you give it for free
The components of your work that aren’t required to complete a task is art. It’s something that you give as a gift without expecting any return. In many ways it’s the most valuable thing you have, as there’s no price for it. It’s giving something that stirs something almost romantic and peaceful when you do it. You feel safe because you’re the only judge of it, it’s yours.
- It’s being polite and friendly on the phone because you know it makes the world just that little bit better
- It’s taking pride in the simplicity of your documentation
- It’s making sure the test data is “John’s Fish & Chip Shop” and not ‘test123’
- It’s obsessing over a horizontal bar graph vs a vertical one on a dashboard
- It’s knowing the hobbies and names of the children of all your colleagues
- It’s telling your customers about a better way of doing something even though you won’t get paid for it
- It’s being precise about the help text in your new UI
- It’s making sure the music for your passengers
- It’s practicing your internal presentation to make sure it’s entertaining and to the point
Don’t confuse this with perfectionism. It isn’t. Your goal is still to ‘ship’, to complete it, to get it out the door today. But this is what gives the work meaning to you. It’s the mysterious thing that isn’t asked for, but that you find flow in doing.
Sometimes it won’t be noticed. However, I think this is an exception. Art it recognised, and artists are consistent with their art. I’ve found that art is a paradox, something you do only for yourself, that wasn’t asked for, but ends up being noticed by several, and being the most important part of a task… even though it wasn’t requested.
Art is your refuge
If you’re given a shit task, which will happen, maybe it’s even all shit, find your art in the work. Make that excel spreadsheet beautiful. Have that difficult conversation confidently but with compassion.
Look for art to give you meaning.
“medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” — John Keating, Dead Poets Society (played by Robin Williams)
I saw some art today
I gave a junior developer a task to create a form that allowed someone to report a missing dog. He delivered it as per spec, but for one critical addition. On the front of the form next to ‘Report your missing pet’, was a beautiful picture of a Golden Retriever.
A colleague and I both immediately commented on it, and spoke about it for 5 minutes. “this is someone who gets it”, “this is someone who cares”, “this is someone I can trust”.
This developer’s whole spectrum of opportunity has just changed exponentially because of this. He’ll be recommended by us, be thrown into opportunities. Who know’s where this could lead?
Because of a simple picture…
