Matters.

Ari Weinzweig continues his thoughts on the potential of a poetic approach to leadership ...

Writing a poem when your stress level is high might seem a silly way to spend your time. But like the work of reflection that I wrote about last week, it is anything but. The Poetic Approach to Leadership, I believe, is one more way to stay centered anytime we feel stress levels rising.

Irina Ratushinskaya’s story serves as a reminder, too, about how, even when we may feel helpless, the little things that we can all do really can make a difference. As support gathered from around the world to save her from the Soviet prison system, a campaign was organized to send her Christmas cards. As she tells it, the KGB kept the cards from going through, but she was convinced that the enormous volume of cards had them believing that she was very important and that that belief contributed to their decision to release her. I don't know what the metaphorical equivalent of those Christmas cards is right now but I’m confident that there is one we will collectively come up with.

On the day she was finally freed from prison, October 10, 1986, Ratushinskaya composed a poem in thanks to those who had kept her name alive:

We probably would not have passed

Through everything—from end to end,

Our heads held high, unbowed—

Without your valiant hearts

to light our path.

When I reflect on Irina Ratushinskaya’s life and work, I’m reminded how much what we do each day really matters. Small actions add up. Line breaks break patterns. A well-placed period—metaphorically and/or on paper—can have power far greater than a casual observer can see. When I want to withdraw and hide, Ratushinkaya reminds me to reground, to try harder to write, to stay true to my values even when (or especially when) things around me aren’t going the way I’d like.

In the July 2017 obituary in the New York Times, Sam Roberts wrote,

Ms. Ratushinskaya described the unending conflict in the prison camps between two factions, the inmates and the K.G.B. She also identified a third force: the people who refused to forget the prisoners and fought to free them.

We may feel like our efforts are insignificant, but poetry and learning to lead more poetically have practical and important impacts. And as per Seth Godin’s quote up top, “We are all poets now.” Irina Ratushinksaya would remind anyone who was willing to listen that their words mattered much more than they might imagine.

Work.

The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can.

The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it's a job.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done.  An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.  The artists in your life are gift-focused, and their tenacity has nothing at all to do with income or job security. Instead, it’s about finding a way to change you in a positive way, and to do it with a gift. There’s a strong streak of intellectual integrity involved in being a passionate artist. You don’t sell out, because selling out involves destroying the best of what you are.  I think art is the ability to change people with your work, to see things as they are and then create stories, images, and interactions that change the marketplace.  Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.  Art is unique, new, and challenging to the status quo. It’s not decoration, it’s something that causes change.  Most of all, art involves labor. Not the labor of lifting a brush or typing a sentence, but the emotional labor of doing something difficult, taking a risk and extending yourself.

I call the process of doing your art, your "work."

Seth Godin

Life.