Can The Arts Improve Business Performance?
Did you know that students who study art outperform students who don’t on the SAT? Or, that Nobel Laureates are 22 times more likely to be performing artists? Did you know that 400 CEO’s of major U.S. corporations rank creativity, collaboration and communication among the most critical skills for success in the 21st century?
New research from Germany finds that making art, versus analyzing and appreciating art, has significantly more positive effects on the brain. After 10 weeks of hands-on art making, researchers found “a significant improvement in psychological resilience in the visual art production group,” in addition to “increased levels of functional connectivity among those who participated in the hands-on art class.”
Art, the class most often cut from a school’s curriculum when budgets are tight may be the most likely to reappear in your workplace. Art’s close companions—innovation, collaboration and communication—are becoming the focus of high performance teamwork, change management and intercultural relationship-building. Business leaders are also turning to art to develop key skills such as effective listening, motivating others, and critical thinking.
When The Curci Group began to brainstorm the number of ways in which our knowledge of the arts can benefit our clients, we added resilience, focused observation, giving and receiving feedback, lateral thinking, and decision-making. Our list continues to grow. Beginning in 2018 art-making processes will be “baked in to every leadership development and team performance program we offer” said Paul Curci, principal of The Curci Group.
What can we learn from making art that can help us in business? You may have to get your hands messy to find out.