Employee Development: Through the Lens of Matisse’s Cut-Outs

Every time I view an art exhibit I go through with dual perspectives—the first an appreciation for the form, function and technique of the artist within a historical context. The second, to see what metaphors and analogies I can draw from the form, function, and technique to my personal and professional lives.

Late in his life, Henri Matisse’s health declined, and he found himself sanctioned to a chair or bed for the majority of his day. Instead of giving up on creativity, he found a new outlet, what he called “drawing with scissors” that enabled him to transcend his physical limitations and resulted in a new art form that is now on a glorious display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

What’s interesting about this art is the technique of overlay, non-waste, and maneuverability—a fantastic metaphor for employee development.

Overlay—Matisse took considerable time deeming any aspect of a cut-out complete. Since each piece cut was done from free-form, no two were alike. When he wasn’t completely satisfied with the performance from a piece, he would add subtle changes by pinning tiny cuts of paper to make the form just right. He didn’t discard the imperfect piece.

In corporations we often subjugate the imperfect—when all that is needed is a subtle shift or minor addition. We look at the short-term picture instead of the long-term masterpiece. Investing in correcting imperfections with minor additions instead of removing them all together and starting from scratch is a long-term strategy with unlimited potential.

Non-waste—Matisse used both the positive and the negative space with his cut-outs. When a piece of paper fell to the ground after the original form was cut, he evaluated the leftover and found a way to organically work it into his composition—or into future compositions.

With employee development, we often see only the final goal—the final product—without giving appreciation to the steps that were taken to reach that end state. The efforts that your employees exert to deliver the final result need to be recognized. Who knows—the steps that were taken along the way could result in a product of their own.

Maneuverability—Matisse used his walls as a living canvas. He would direct cut-outs to be pinned in one location, only to move them around multiple times after until he found just the right fit. Often, the right move of one piece would lead to the creation of an entire new work, or the placement of a piece into a new landscape.

With employees, finding the right fit is important. To be immovable is detrimental to organizational progress. A good leader will know how to figure out where to best place each employee, realizing that the initial intention—perhaps the initial job someone was hired for—may not be the right fit.

Inject overlay, non-waste, and maneuverability techniques into your employee development approach and see what masterpieces develop.

Innovation and Participation Killers: Three Phrases Leaders Should Never Use

Creating a culture that breeds and nurtures innovation is important in today’s global economy. Employees are increasingly mobile, and Generation Y and Z employees, in particular, aren’t afraid to leave and find new jobs if they don’t feel valued.

If you want to retain good employees, attract talent, and cultivate an environment of participation, creativity and innovation, DO NOT use these three phrases.

Stick to your job. That’s not in your job description.

Want to make an employee feel that they have no use beyond their immediate job description? These phrases kill any organizational buy-in and stop any incentive the employee had to think of ideas outside of their immediate scope. This tells employees that their thoughts have no value to the organization as a whole, and that the only thing that is important is their singular function.

Instead, ask questions.

  • How do you see this idea fitting in with your current charge?
  • How do you see this idea expanding your responsibilities?
  • How do you see this idea benefiting the organization as a whole?

Asking questions gets employees to make the connections on their own, that you might want to make for them. It also can give you enhanced understanding of the employee’s vision and how it can contribute to the greater goal.

We don’t have the resources.

This phrase is commonly used by managers without regard to the consequences. When you tell an employee this, you’re also communicating that his idea isn’t worth exploring or that her contribution isn’t good enough to warrant consideration. Managers that want to increase innovation find a way to provide resources for promising and invested employees, or encourage the employee to find the resources for him or herself. They also know that creativity thrives in the face of constraint.

Instead, issue a challenge.

I don’t have the resources immediately at my disposal to approve this today; however, why don’t we think of a couple of ways we could rearrange our priorities to make your idea a possibility.

or

I like this idea and want to think about how it fits into our overall strategy a bit more. Come up with a few solutions for how we could integrate this idea within our current operational plan and let’s meet tomorrow to discuss.

This lets the employee know that you do value the idea, and that you want to consider how the idea could come to fruition. It also encourages the employee to invest more time in his or her idea, which will increase buy-in to the organization and to your leadership.

That’s not the way we do things here.

Want to make an employee feel like she’s on an island and not a part of the team? Use this phrase. Telling an employee that he doesn’t know the way things are done communicates two negative things: (1) that he doesn’t know the organization well and that he should, and (2) that outside ideas, perspectives and innovations are not welcome.

Although organizations have rules and policies, it doesn’t mean that they should never be re-examined. Maybe this is the time and place to do that introspection.

Instead, encourage integration.

In the past we’ve approached this idea from a XYZ perspective. However, I think this new idea has promise. Let’s see how we can integrate your solution with our existing operations to improve the organization as a whole.

You can also challenge the employee to think of those means of integration and bring them to you for a conversation.

Remember, as a leader your team’s success is your success. Foster an environment where creativity and innovation can thrive and watch your team succeed.

Repurposing: Using Established Processes for Creativity and Results

For the second year, renowned evolutionary theorists met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the now-annual Festival of Bad Ah-Hoc Hypotheses (BAH-Fest). Here, researchers use traditional scientific methods and processes to develop satirical theories. The winner of the 2014 BAH-Fest presented a theory of how belly fat in middle-aged men evolved for floatation purposes to save his family from drowning.

I read an article by Angela Chin in the December 1, 2014 Wall Street Journal about this event and, aside from being amused, realized that there is a deeper lesson in this event—the repurposing of traditional methods for creativity and refinement.

In business, we have the tendency to take ourselves too seriously and often become unilaterally focused on a single objective—or the bottom line—that we miss the bigger picture.

Researchers and scientists often fall prey to this same behavior.

BAH-Fest is a way to shake off the traditional paradigmatic approaches and go back to basics—focusing on the scientific method and presenting sound (albeit satirical) research.

This mental shift to satire, while still remaining true to methodological roots, allows researchers to break from a one-track focus and give a presentation at an event which expands a greater goal of science—to bring about understanding, and, where appropriate, societal change.

I imagine that the “real” work from participants benefits immensely from this creative mental break, and brings about a renewed focus and clarity.

This can be replicated in your organization.

  • Where have your employees lost sight of the bigger picture?
  • What processes aren’t being followed well and are causing lapses in productivity?
  • How can you repurpose a process or system in your organization to unleash creativity?

Think about how you can create an outlet for innovation. By doing so, you can get back to basics and reunite your employees around the bigger goal or vision and expedite forward progress.

Need help? Let’s communicate about it.

The Most Overlooked Mission

Whether you’re presenting an idea within an organization or you’re pitching to an organization, there’s one thing that you should be sure to look at that is often overlooked: the mission statement.

An organization’s mission statement is a statement of why that business exists–it’s purpose, it’s core, it’s focus. Mission statements often guide decision-making in organizations, serving as a compass directing action.

If you’re not looking at a company’s mission statement before you pitch your idea, you’re missing out on a valuable source of information to help you craft your messaging.

You could also be missing an opportunity to recognize shared ambitions and build a relationship.

I teach a university course on communication and entrepreneurial thinking. This doesn’t focus on teaching students to be entrepreneurs, but rather to think like entrepreneurs and communicate their ideas effectively. Before I take students through the idea generation process they have to first identify an organization and get to know its mission, vision and values. Knowing this information enables them to better cultivate ideas and craft messaging that will ultimately go into a pitch.

This process is the same whether you work for an organization and you want to pitch an idea to management, or if you are a business owner presenting a proposal to a potential client.

In short, you need to know your audience. And the mission statement is a good place to start.

Learning Through Doing: The Process Matters

Equifinality means that there are many paths to the same end—in business, that there are multiple ways to reach a final goal.

Think of navigating from Times Square to Lincoln Center. There are many different ways you can get from point A to point B, and many different methods of transportation to get you between points. Depending on traffic, subway schedules, weather and other assorted factors, one way is likely faster than the others.

But in taking that one way—say on this given day it’s a taxi—you’re missing out on many other possible discoveries and observations that walking or taking public transportation would’ve presented

If you’re focusing on cultivating a culture of innovation and developing your employees, those potential discoveries and observations are key to growth.

A fatal flaw that many managers make is assuming that their ideas or processes are always the best—the most efficient—and therefore need to be continually executed.

In organizations there are many ways to accomplish a single task. Yes, some may be more efficient than others, but often times an employee’s learning process in accomplishing a task is just as important as the task itself.

Note: In a previous blog I talked about three phrases that leaders should never use if they want to encourage innovation and participation. One of these phrases, “That’s now how we do things around here,” is also very applicable to the concepts this post.

What to Do When Someone Says “It’s Not Possible”

I live in one of the “luxury” apartment buildings in Manhattan. And for 90%+ of the people who live in this building, they get to enjoy the full luxury experience. For me, however, it’s a little different.

I live on the side of the building that touches a major retailer’s loading dock and storage facility. Each day and night I’m accosted by noises that transfer, making it sound like pallets are being dragged and dropped literally above my head. The physics of sound transfer are astonishing. This happens all hours of the day and night, making a full-night’s rest a wishful thought.

For four months I’ve put in complaints, made suggestions for change, offered potential solutions, and all have fallen on deaf ears. After realizing that the building management has no capacity to implement change, I went directly to the property manager. I wrote to him, offering suggestions, including a rent reduction or credit until I could be moved into the same-size unit in a different building location.

After not receiving a response for eight days, I re-sent a message asking him to give me the courtesy of a response. His first line: “Hi Jill–a rent reduction is not possible.”

Not possible? That combination of words is not readily in my vocabulary.

The grammatically-literal me wanted to write back, “I urge you to consult a dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘possible’.” Or, “What you mean to say is that it is possible, but that you’re not willing to consider it.” But I held my tongue (or fingers in this case).

Telling someone that something is “not possible” is a dangerous action.

Unfortunately, business managers do it all too often.

When you tell someone that something is “not possible” you will typically get one of two reactions:

  1. The person will be even more determined to prove you wrong. –or–
  2. The person’s spirit will be broken.

Both of these positions take away from workplace productivity.

In the first, you have an employee focused on the wrong things–restoring equity, looking for a new job, or focusing so hard on what is “not possible” that other tasks fall by the wayside.

With the second, you get an employee who feels under-valued, under-appreciated, or, worse, under-utilized. By saying something is “not possible” you’re telling someone that his or her thoughts aren’t  worth merit, that the innovation isn’t worth consideration, and that he or she shouldn’t bring new ideas to the table.

If you’re going to use the words “not possible” or if you catch them slipping out, here is a simple fix.

Add “unless…” to your sentence.

“It’s not possible unless you/I/we can find a way to [reduce the budget by X amount].”

This phrase shows the employee some cause and effect, and also challenges the employee to be creative about a way to reduce the budget. Many new ideas could come to the surface from this simple addition.

Don’t discourage innovation by using limiting language. Instead, let your employees help you rethink what is possible.

For those curious on where my story goes, I did respond back, inviting him, or whoever makes the decisions on what is “possible”, to stay in my unit (or the now-vacant-because-of-the-noise unit next to me). We will see what happens. To be continued…