If what got us into a predicament cannot be what gets us out of it, then we need different thinking, different perspectives, and different priorities. That is the cleanest way I know to make the case for diversity without getting tangled in the vocabulary that tends to derail the conversation before it begins.
Here is the problem.
Most business people today are educated with the same books, the same methodologies, and the same frameworks that have been in circulation for decades. Surrounded by people who learned the same things the same way, they will reliably see things the same way. This is not a character flaw. It is just what insularity does. And it applies equally to finance people, marketers, consultants, changemakers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and tradespeople. We are all, for the most part, prisoners of our own expertise.
Which is what made Steve Jobs so unusual. A few weeks ago, I shared that the Apple/Macintosh team wasn’t just engineers and programmers. Jobs deliberately hired “musicians, poets, artists, zoologists, and historians who happened to be computer scientists.” Not despite their diverse backgrounds. Because of them.
He understood that breakthrough thinking requires different minds colliding. He called it the “Rock Tumbler Theory.” You throw in ugly, sharp rocks, add grit, turn on the motor, and they smash against each other. The friction is the point. The next day, they come out polished and beautiful.
In my entire career, I have never met a business leader of any stripe who has ever announced, ‘I want to hire a team of people who aren’t from our industry but are genuinely passionate about what we do.’ Truly, I have never heard of an educational, medical, or trades organization making those kinds of demands either. Jobs stands nearly alone in figuring out that integrating an artistic sensibility into the mechanics of business could produce something remarkable.
Which is why the story I am about to share matters.
Yesterday, the second episode in a series of six landed in my podcast spaces. Because more than a month ago, my guest, Josh Harrison, had presented me with a fascinating interview proposal. Josh is a creative, someone we would file under “artistic.” He is also the son of two artists whose unconventional thinking had a measurable global impact on how the world began to understand the relationship between Planet Earth, industrial capitalism, and human wellbeing.
Josh has built his own track record. First as a filmmaker, then as a founder across several ventures, and now as the managing director of the legacy his parents left behind. What struck me in our conversation was the artist’s real history as a change agent: first, from a historical perspective; then, how his parents developed and perfected a methodology for rallying global communities behind a vision; and finally, the lasting reach of what that work produced.
Business measures its wins in profit, accumulation, status, and dominance. Artists don’t think that way. They think in terms of creation, collaboration, beauty, and sharing. Those are not soft values. As the Harrisons demonstrated, they are extraordinarily effective ones.
Our silos have caused enough damage. The Harrisons — and what Josh is building through Force Majeure — may be exactly what we have been looking for.
Do take a listen to this new series. And if you dare, bring in the artists!