God's Work of Art

We are God's work of art... Ephesians 2:10

A second fruit of the night of spirit is freedom from the domination of any emotion...This takes place not by repressing or unduly suppressing unwanted emotions by sheer willpower, but by accepting and integrating them into the rational and intuitive parts of our nature. The emotions will then serve and support the decisions of reason and will, which is their natural purpose. The integration of our emotional life with reason and faith and the subjection of our whole being to God constitute Saint Thomas Aquinas's definition of human happiness.

In his view, human beings were meant to act in harmony with their nature and to enjoy doing so. This harmonious state is substantially restored in the night of spirit by extinguishing the last traces of our subjection to the emotional programs for happiness in the spiritual part of our nature. As for the emotional and sense levels, they were laid to rest in the night of sense.

Ephesians 2:10

We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.

What is Art?

However poetical, realistic, effectful, or interesting a work may be, it is not a work of art if it does not evoke the feeling (quite distinct from all other feelings) of joy and of spiritual union with another (the author) and with others (those who are also infected by it)...

To evoke in oneself a feeling one has experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling--this is the activity of art.

Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.

Leo Tolstoy, What is Art.

ACTION POINT: Look for the art that is all around you.

What Should I Contribute II

What results have to be achieved to make a difference?  

What should my contribution be?  To answer it, they must address three distinct elements: What does the situation require?  Given my strengths, my way of performing, and my values, how can I make the greatest contribution to what needs to be done?  And finally, What results have to be achieved to make a difference?  

Consider the experience of a newly appointed hospital administrator.  The hospital was big and prestigious, but it had been coasting on its reputation for 30 years.  The new administrator decided that his contribution should be to establish a standard of excellence in one important area within two years.  He chose to focus on the emergency room, which was big, visible, and sloppy.  He decided that every patient who came into the ER had to be seen by a qualified nurse within 60 seconds.  Within 12 months, the hospital's emergency room had become a model for all hospitals in the United States, and within another two years, the whole hospital had been transformed.

As this example suggests, it is rarely possible--or even particularly fruitful--to look too far ahead.  A plan can usually cover no more than 18 months and still be reasonably clear and specific.  So the question in most cases should be, Where and how can I achieve results that will make a difference within the next year and a half?  The answer must balance several things. First the results should be hard to achieve--they should require "stretching," to use the current buzzword.  But also, they should be within reach. To aim at results that cannot be achieved--or that can be only under the most unlikely circumstance--is not being ambitious;  it is being foolish.  Second, the results should be meaningful.  They should make a difference.  Finally, results should be visible and, if at all possible, measurable.  From this will come a course of action:  what to do, where and how to start, and what goals and deadlines to set.

ACTION POINT:  Ask where and how can you achieve results that will make a difference in the next year and a half.

 

What Should I Contribute

Knowledge workers in particular have to learn to ask a question that has not been asked before.

Throughout history, the great majority of people never had to ask the question, What should I contribute?  They were told what to contribute, and their tasks were dictated either by the work itself--as it was for the peasant or artisan--or by a master or mistress--as it was for domestic servants.  And until very recently, it was taken for granted that most people were subordinates who did as they were told.  Even in the 1950s and 1960s, the new knowledge workers (the so called organization men) looked to their company's personnel department to plan their careers.

Then in the late 1960s, no one wanted to be told what to do any longer.  Young men and women began to ask, What do I want to do?  And what they heard was that the way to contribute was to "do your own thing."  But this solution was as wrong as the organization men's had been. Very few of the people who believed that doing one's own thing would lead to contribution, self-fulfillment, and success achieved any of the three.

But still, there is not return to the old answer of doing what you are told or assigned to do. Knowledge workers in particular have to learn to ask a question that has not been asked before.  What should my contribution be?

ACTION POINT:   Consider the question of contribution.  Encourage your team to ask that question of themselves.

Where Do I Belong?

...most people, especially highly gifted people, do not really know where they belong until they are well past their mid-twenties.

A small number of people know very early where they belong.  Mathematicians, musicians, and cooks, for instance, are usually mathematicians, musicians, and cooks by the time they are four or five years old.  Physicians usually decide on their careers in their teens, if not earlier.  But most people, especially highly gifted people, do not really know where they belong until they are well past their mid-twenties.  By that time, however, they should know the answers to the three questions: What are my strengths?  How do I perform? and, What are my values?  And then they can and should decide where they belong.

Or rather, they should be able to decide where they do not belong.  The person who has learned that he or she does not perform well in a big organization should have learned to say to to a position in one.  The person who has learned that he or she is not a decision maker should have learned to say no to a decision making assignment.

Equally important, knowing the answer to these questions enables a person to say to an opportunity, an offer, or an assignment, "Yes, I will do that.  But this is the way I should be doing it.  This is the way it should be structured.  This is the way the relationships should be.  These are the kind of results you should expect from me and in this time frame, because this is who I am."

Successful careers are not planned.  They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values.  Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person--hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre--into an outstanding performer.

ACTION POINT:  Understand your strengths, how you perform and your values to know where you belong.