A full year has passed since the software company closed its doors. It was a great adventure, a kayak ride atop the raging river of information in the whirling world of knowledge management.
As I have entered every organizational “job” in my life, I entered the wild kingdom of software development through an art door. I created a simple cartoon series for the founder – clickbait – each cartoon ending on the phrase, “There must be a better way”. It was a riot of fun. The cartoons would have been used had we reached the point of marketing our creation.
As has always been the case, once in the door, my work morphs into something systemic. I have an eye for “the big picture.” I see how things move, I see pattern, and easily grok the morass of human dynamics. Mostly, I see the lies organizations tell themselves and either help them sort it out or, of necessity, they must sort me out. Sometimes the lie is the glue that holds the rickety ship together.
It creates an interesting paradox to enter as an artist and then be invited to speak to the “serious” machinations of the organization. As an artist, although initially valued for my (in)sight, what I see is most often discounted because…I’m an artist. Until later. Much later. Too late. I’ve had superintendents and CEOs chase me out the door and a year later offer me the key-to-the-kingdom if only I would come back. The rule is to never go back. I did that once, so puffed up and proud with “I told you so.” Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Organizational lies grow like monsters in the swamp and no Cassandra story every ends well.
And so, my cartoon series remains. It lives in a folder with the many others I’ve developed. I’m fond of this series because Kerri joined in the fun. She took my old-school pen and ink work and added some whacky photoshop elements. She digitized my good work and made the visual story better. “Go away,” she’d insist when I brought her the drawing. I’d return a few hours later and laugh heartily at the transformation. “Do you like it?” she’d ask, surprised. “Really?”
Yes. Really.
The work is not wasted. Though the software company is gone, the good humor, the great collaboration and laughter live on and on.
Read Kerri’s blogpost about SPACESHIPS
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Filed under: DR Thursday, Pattern, Play, Seeing | Tagged: a better way, artistry, business cartoons, cartoon, cartooning, cassandra, click bait, clickbait, collaboration, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fantasy, fun, human dynamics, humor, illusion, image link, imagelink, information, information superhighway, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, knowledge management, knowledge worker, laughter, link bait, linkbait, marketing, organizational health, pattern, site traffic, social media, social sharing image, software development, story, studio melange, systems, the melange, transformation, visual story | 3 Comments »
The Direction of Intention 