Poetry & Business?!

By Pascal Dennis

Who says there's no poetry in business?

President Akio Toyoda recently greeted 1,179 new Toyota hires, urging them to find

“the strength seen in cherry blossoms that persevere in winter..."

(Hard to imagine Bill Ford welcoming new UAW hires in this way!)

Nonetheless, a recent HBR piece suggests business and poetry are complementary.

Both entail wresting with & simplifying complex realities. Both require comfort with ambiguity.

Poetry also helps develop empathy, which is in greater demand than ever.

According the NY Times, Harman Industries founder Sidney Harman once told his staff, "Get me poets as managers. Poets are our original systems thinkers. They look at our most complex environments and reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand."

You'll get no argument from your faithful business nomad.

Best,

Pascal

Poetry for Professionals?

By Pascal Dennis

Splendid piece in HBR - thanks to Holly Simmons for sharing it.

Let me declare my bias in advance.

I was trained in business and engineering - and have been a reader all my life.

(And my latest book comprises stories & poems from the road, www.reflections-of-a-business-nomad.com)

Poetry & literature:

• open the mind,
• help us wrestle with & make sense of complexity,
• help unlock latent creativity, and
• teach empathy.

Not a bad ROI!

In some cultures, it's understood that "professional" means you have a deep understanding & appreciation of Art, as well as, Science.

Professionals, in such cultures, are expected to read & reflect, and this makes them better leaders.

(They are better able to wrestle with complexity, and are more empathetic & creative.)

Is this the norm in our culture?

I'd love to hear YOUR thoughts.

The best leaders I've encountered are tough, reflective, creative READERS - many the product of Military schools.

The Military teaches important virtues, reading & reflection among them.

Best,