Last updated 3/4/99
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Excerpts from

EXECUTION AS AN ARTFORM
Maintaining Ambition and Creativity within Postmodern Organizations
by Michael Dequin
A Senior Essay [Project]
Submitted to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
BACHELOR OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
June 1998

I was on the faculty committee for Mike's oral presentation of his essay, and I was impressed with the way he writes about the value of passion and creativity on the job. The business does benefit, but the internal benefits to the individual are at least as valuable. (In the title, "Execution" refers to executing or carrying out a task or process, not to killing a person!) Mike has kindly given me permission to use parts of his Senior Essay in this course on Creativity.

Excerpt from Preface
My purpose in this essay is to use the writing process for a personal catharsis, bringing together learning from past experiences as well as from the research of important contemporary organizational theorists, and articulating a direction toward which I wish to continue. The subject matter provides an opportunity to examine organizational structure, current trends for successful business strategies, and a fundamental vital ingredient--productive and motivated individuals, encouraged to explore and express their own creativity, fueled by passion to contribute. It is only through creative organizational relationships that commitment can emerge, inspired by the soul of the participant, the worker. Commitment delivers results that are aligned with corporate goals, business objectives, and enables personal fulfillment.

Excerpt from Introduction
Within most individuals, and perhaps born into each of us, is a desire to do things well. We attempt to satisfy this desire in a variety of ways, as we channel energies into personal pursuits, career ambitions, and routine duties contributing toward our livelihood. Internal desires underline all of our activities, and are ever-present in both personal or occupational endeavors. These may include physical fitness and competitive athletics, participation in organized groups, development of artistic skills, enjoyment that we seek from our hobbies and special interests. Especially important is the capacity to balance attention to duties while caring for a household and our careers. As we plant gardens, prepare meals, mow lawns, develop proposals and presentations; or plan functions, projects, schedules, and manage the tasks that accumulate on "to do" lists; we are compelled to execute our movements with excellence, feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride that identifies our performance and abilities. Even during instances when we just want to get something done and over with, we sometimes struggle to accept a lower standard, and reluctantly "lower the bar". Internal desire, a passion, pushes the bar upward, maintaining a sense of personal gratification and self-satisfaction. As humans we take pride in our accomplishments, and also crave a sense of belonging-ness. This craving too touches each aspect of our life, our friendships and both personal and professional relationships. Fulfillment of these needs provides strength that sustains us throughout our lifetime. We cherish such strength. This internal choir of natural desires provides a voice for our needs, singing music of our soul, halting motion to a pause; as we reflect upon our efforts, and pose the question, "has it been worthwhile"?

Typically, employers are focused more toward productivity and profits than they are an internal choir singing refrains of natural desires. The sweetest music in the world of business is connected to a cash register. Modern organizations demand optimization, and strive toward highest forms of excellence. Organizational excellence is partially dependent upon individual performance, and without participation and contributions of motivated individuals most business ventures would be unsuccessful. Although we associate business ventures with the terminology of organization, we are reminded that "everyone in this society lives and works in some kind of organization, group, or system" (Schaef, Fassel 1). And all of us include elements of organization in every aspect of our life. Whether it is the sock drawer of our dresser, or the furniture in our home; food in refrigerators, or table settings for meals; tools, toys, and knick-knacks--all are all arranged according to our preferences. We plan our activities to fit within time-managed days and weeks, according to organized months of years. Elements of organization, in one form or another, are virtually connected with everything that we do. Everything has a place, and most often we prefer to have our things in their place.

With everything in place, the elements of our life fit comfortable together. We can awake each day content that everything is arranged and organized to our satisfaction. Each workday too must fit comfortably into our scheme of things. It is important that work efforts contribute toward goals and expectations of our employer, and also satisfy our sense for order. It isn’t enjoyable to face each day with dread. There can be little enjoyment or pleasure derived from avoiding responsibilities and challenges. If we must force ourselves to crawl out of bed each day, dragging our heels as we travel to our daily destinations, we arrive at our responsibilities devoid of human spirit and our soul. It is my contention that to prevent deterioration of human spirit, we must apply creative methods for rejuvenating our passions. As workers, we must continually engage ourselves with activities in such a way that we create an energy that sparks self-renewal. Revitalization of a workplace will not be effective unless workers actively engage themselves in the process. Erosive conditions that destroy our souls will ultimately attack effectiveness and functionality of any organization.

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For organizations, operating on automatic pilot mode can enable benefits of a robot-like labor force to complete jobs and tasks. In a "business as usual" environment, workers are rewarded with paychecks, and a benefit package that affords a moderately comfortable lifestyle. Although these conditions minimize requirements for daily decision making, which may appeal to both employer and employee, this mode of operation is outdated. Postmodern organizations understand that their lifeline to survival is the enthusiasm of the workforce. If we view organizations along a time-line that depicts their evolution, we would see that a distinction appears toward the final fifteen years of this century. During the industrial era, a period spanning the latter 1800’s and entire twentieth century, organizational theory "flourished" with various structures applied to operating businesses. As technology advanced, the term "modern" was attached to connote a sense of timeliness. The postmodern era in organizational development marks a revival of traditional elements and techniques. Even though evolving technology is a life-blood of a flourishing business, it is the workforce that defines organizational culture and the spirit of an enterprise.

Competitive business environments today depend upon flexibility and are sustained only by creativity that can be unleashed by an atmosphere of spontaneity. A vibrant cultural spirit is constantly renewed by enthusiasm. Authentic enthusiasm cannot be forced; rather, it is a natural but precious resource, a healthy dynamic that can become contagious, and therefore self-perpetuating. Some of the elements that comprise current business and process improvement trends can be cultivated. Individuals can be educated, increasing the knowledge base of an organization. They can be persuaded to adapt, opening doors that lead to change. It is also possible to convincingly argue a case, enlisting support and commitment to new programs and their principles. However, it is extremely difficult to force enthusiasm, which stems from sincere beliefs or inspiration and from the organizational stakeholders’ understanding that they are doing meaningful work and contributing to the world. Enthusiasm requires that those directing the organization enroll the stakeholders’ in a vision that goes beyond money-making and the sweet song of profit--both important as means rather than ends of organizational life. Enthusiasm arises rather from a commitment to noble possibilities. It may even be the primary role of leaders to create this vision of the nobility of work.

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Postmodern organizations can only flourish if they are structured and staffed to operate on state of the art frontiers. Organizations are potentially works of art. Works of art are entities of surprise. They open up a new way of looking at the world, make us aware of life’s possibilities, and they do this by creating structures of beauty and grace that appeal to our minds, our senses, and our hearts. To stand in the presence of great art is to be moved by the possibilities in the ordinary, taken-for-granted things of life. A simple table, by Van Gogh, a water lily by Monet, the human face by Rembrandt--art uncovers the beauty and power in ordinary things and increases the pulse of life. The challenge for postmodern organizations is to create artistic entities--spaces in the workplace where possibilities in the ordinary, taken-for-granted routine tasks are surprisingly uncovered and brought forth in powerful ways, in ways that grab the minds and hearts of organizational stakeholders.

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Passion expresses the content of our soul. It allows us to live deeply and uncover meaning in everyday life. Without passion, we go through the motions of living and working. Without passion, life is dry and over time withers easily. Without passion, art is not possible.

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The creation of spaces of alignment is management’s role in the postmodern era. That alignment, then, frees people to be creative, to find the surprise in ordinary tasks. Step one requires accepting responsibility for our actions, in owning our experiences we create opportunities for renewal of everyday life.

In order to meet this challenge of organizational transformation we need some basic tools. [Author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to the flow experience as a creative state.] Creativity arises in this flow state when we are completely immersed in our activities. Attaining a state of flow becomes a benchmark, a target to aim for when seeking engagement with everyday life. By combining this principle, along with author David Whyte’s guidelines for arousing hearts and retaining passions, we have widened a foundation to support the human spirit. A strong argument emerges that defends the value for encouraging an energized existence, enabling human excellence.

There are a number of responsibilities that commonly prevent us from engagement with our daily life. Working for an income is a requirement that few of us can avoid. Our workplace demands commitment and involvement, daily routines that lead to a conditioning of our actions. Too easily our days can become a series of habits, enacted within a repeating timetable, slowly disengaging the human spirit. ... Various blockades and ruts in the road ... can derail us. These traps are described within a context of addictions, or as referred to by organizational theory, escalating commitment. It often becomes easier to continue on a path that leads to failure, than it is to stop ourselves and change course. Postmodern organizations too must cope with necessities for changing course. Unfortunately, in our present post-capitalist society, many of the roles and responsibilities of the working life must be adjusted. The time that we are living in, the post-capitalist era has evolved from an economy that flourished amidst capitalism. Productivity within business communities, along with a standard of living within households, prospered and grew to record levels. Two important distinctions must be made regarding a transition into post-capitalism. First, methods that have previously attributed to widespread well being in the form of prosperity may no longer be effective. Secondly, addictive modes of operation may provide a high standard of living in the sense of financial wealth; however, our human spirit requires much more than a job, a routine, and a paycheck. Allowing life to become mere habits and routines will seldom lead to personal fulfillment.

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As an illustration of power that can be derived from immersion into creative experiences, I have chosen to examine characteristics of Diego Rivera’s artistic style. The processes that Rivera incorporated into his daily life enabled him to deliver finished works that represented a profound dignity to his artistic vision. He challenged processes, pushed beyond limitations, and remained loyal to his creative passions. His commitment to follow his own inner voice becomes an example for those who wish to live with hearts aroused.

Excerpt from Section 1
The importance of emotional involvement with our work-life is articulated in David Whyte’s book The Heart Aroused / Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. This work centers on themes that identify crisis in today’s postmodern businesses. Humanizing the workplace, giving voice to workers, encouraging creativity and "out of the box" thinking, creating a learning environment where everyone benefits as stakeholders and shareholders of processes, an atmosphere of voluntary participation, instead of mandatory involvement. Whyte’s placement of preservation of a worker’s soul at the forefront of his argument is in perfect harmony with current business trends. Without soul, without passion zeal and enthusiasm, no movement in business realms will ever be able to sustain itself and provide lasting value.

Whyte suggests the propelling emotional ingredient that lures us to our jobs each day as being a "soul [that] loves the journey itself" (89). Arousal of the heart is what springs us out of bed with ambition for returning to our work place. Arousal of our hearts becomes a drive that transcends boundaries of potential limitations. With hearts aroused we find ourselves alive, alert, engaged with every breath; we have courage to push ourselves, every move, every thought, every statement becomes focused, each moment finds in itself empowered by ambition to push beyond opposed resistance. Creative people in the workplace are enthusiastic about their jobs because they know that the simplest, most ordinary, most routine job has within it a potential for creative action.

The human spirit is confronted by an organization that professes through its mission statement to value lofty goals. These statements promote value systems that advocate the advancement of human resource development. Many companies boast of their commitment to training programs that center on trends and current movements. Herein rests the paradox of business process improvements, or transformation and renewal efforts. Organizations, in an effort to remain on frontiers of these spawning movements, typically swim crowded business waters amidst schools of other trendy fish.

Overpopulation is a malady common among all ecosystems. Ecologically, business populations also face both overcrowding and toxic waste. There is a difference between professing to strive towards excellence and actual execution. Total Quality Management, Reengineering, Learning Organizations, and Organizational Transformation are all buzz-words for trendy programs, and each can be driven into the ground by over-use, non-commitment and insincerity. Workers want to believe that their company is committed to principles of change and innovation, but all too often feel bombarded with fads that reek, just as toxic waste. Somewhere amidst these waters of change, the worker struggles to hear his or her own voice, to get a bearing on which direction these improvement efforts are taking themselves and the company. And yet, too often the human spirit simply surrenders. Enough is enough. Although it wants to believe that a better workplace, conducive to both corporate needs and desires of individuals is possible, the spirit itself is no longer up for the journey. It doesn’t believe that the company is willing to do what is necessary to get there.

This is the critical juncture, and we can either reconcile our work lives to become drudgery and boredom, or we can push ourselves to battle forward with determination toward a distinction. This is precisely where our passions, where the soul and essence of our human spirit must be enlisted by corporations to authenticate improvement efforts. There is safety, and for some, perceived security when swimming with the other fish. It takes remarkable courage to turn and swim away from, or turn and swim against a group. But being courageous enough to accept this challenge is exactly what our human spirit cries out for. That is the voice inside us. If we choose to listen we can tune that voice into moments of clarity, guiding us as a beacon toward a career well spent. David Whyte describes rewards that benefit an organization when it supports the courage of impassioned human spirit, unafraid to challenge a process, intent on developing effective and lasting improvements with the organization. He states that "ironically, we bring more vitality into our organization when we refuse to make their goals the measure of our success" (280).

This voice that we each have inside of us is continually seeking recognition. Too often, it becomes worn down and chooses a road of resignation. Also, often it cries out to say that we are lost, we no longer know our way. Admitting that we are lost is not an announcement of failure, rather only a declaration that we are unsure. It becomes a wake-up call that brings us to our senses for our next decision. It is only a point on the map for our adventure when we choose a new road, or bridge, to connect us with the next experience. We are fueled by our ambition, and motivated by a creative force that compels us toward new roads and bridges. We, in each organizational capacity from which we make our contribution toward individual tasks and business objectives, must be courageous enough to choose new routes, and unafraid of making mistakes and wrong choices.

There are few people who claim to have traveled and never made a wrong turn. Recovery from mistaken turns, and deciphering direction while we are lost, these are ways we learn to navigate unfamiliar territory. Whyte encourages us to "understand the necessity of failure," because as a result of failures we "begin to understand the magnificence of even the humblest human path" (288). He cites Thomas Edison as an example of a highly creative, innovative, and imaginative individual who not only was unafraid of failure, but an inventor who learned to "embrace failure as an essential part of the path of creation" (95). We try, we fail, we try again, and if fortunate, through persistence and ambition, we eventually taste the sweet reward of success. Perhaps the human spirit owes organizations some recognition for their persistence as well. With each trend, the energy from a new wave of potential discovery is released. Like Thomas Edison, their intention is to eventually succeed and light the world.

If we analyze motivational factors for individuals and organizations, we recognize a shared desire for success. The organization continues ever forward to amass more of the market, which is measured in financial wealth. The individual also marks and measures success in financial standards; however, at the core of the worker beats a heart that cries out for arousal. This is clearly David Whyte’s contention. He states that we work because we are driven by our passion and desires to do so. In his words, "at that center we work because we love our work" (241). Peter Senge also speaks of this type of commitment that individuals have for their work, he refers to it as having "a high level of personal mastery . . . [that] they approach their life as an artist would a work of art . . . by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning" (7).

Just as the learning organization that continually reinvents new ways to improve, we too return each morning to our jobs, pushing ourselves to try again and grasp a measure of self-satisfaction and success. There is a significant connection between the passions of our heart and our physical being. Dick Dauch, a renowned automotive executive, equates this driving force with the title of his book, A Passion for Manufacturing. Passion becomes a thirst that awakens you each morning, demanding that it be quenched. Passion is more than just an urge; it is desire that borders on being uncontrolled, becoming a force that pulls us, an exciting force that we cannot resist.

Few of us can hope to enjoy success on the magnitude of Dick Dauch; however, each of us is motivated by desires that are in parallel with his desire to do things well. Organizations that focus on strategies that develop and enable opportunities for individuals to become excited are on the right road. Through excitement we revitalize passions which fuel us for a journey into re-enchantment of everyday life. We discover through worlds of imagination and creativity ways to make it all seem new again. We have an opportunity to creatively reinvent our lives each day, to set our own goals for new learning, to gradually "raise the bar". We can plan our time away from work so that we benefit from timelessly meandering in the liminal zones, to dream the ways we choose to re-create ourselves, and to restore our energies that fuel our passions. When we accept responsibility, as keepers of our souls, and wake each day committed to renewal, we arrive at our jobs with courage, and can join forces with an organization to destroy those former gates of hell. By doing so, we preserve our soul; we retain our human dignity, and creatively contribute toward our organization's benefit as well. Although preservation of the human spirit does not appear within strategic plans, only a fulfilled workforce can make the types of contributions that best accomplish business objectives.

Passion, fulfillment, ambition, motivation, inspiration, innovation and creativity, all of these are tools that guide us as a compass and fuel us on our travels throughout our working life. Together, these tools allow an opportunity for active engagement with what would otherwise become an ordinary life. The intent is not just to crawl out of bed, to routinely execute each motion and activity. The objective is to attain that personal mastery, to seize each moment with intensity, and to execute our actions as if they were an artform. David Whyte refers to this type of engagement as "the great art of working in order to live" (298). "This simple ability to pay attention to the world as we find it may be at the heart of a soulful life worth living, inside or outside the office" (Whyte, 262).