Work as Art :: Collaging Compassion
A sample of collage work designed by participants of Compassion 2.0, sourced from the C2 LinkedIn Group, April 2023
Part 7 of a series exploring the use of art at work and seeing work as art.
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It has been some time (too long?) since I’ve posted to this series. In the in-between time I have moved across the globe from San Francisco to London, and then to Portugal. Our time in London was as a joyful catalyst for making art. Moving during the pandemic, we faced a 10-day quarantine when we arrived in the UK. To kill time, my partner and I created a daily ritual of artmaking. One day we made use of a stack of old magazines to try some collaging. I had not done collage before, and it was an instant love affair for me. I have not stopped since! Collage is a fascinating medium with its juxtapositions of shapes, colors, textures, and images, creating endless possibilities. The resulting composition, usually full of metaphor and symbolism, communicates something beyond what words alone can capture. While learning and playing with the craft, it was easy for me to see how the process of collage could be a useful practice within organizations.
Collage as a way “in”
Sometimes it can be hard to find the right words to express yourself. Words come, and come again, but they sometimes still fail. There can be more to express at a feelings or gut level, but accessing that fuller experience can be hard.
This is where art can help. The process of making art can support authentic expression. There have been countless times when I have sat with a complex question or feeling while collaging. If I allow my intuition to guide my choices, the process takes me to a composition that captures so much more than initial words could have ever conveyed. The metaphors, symbols and other elements of the collage lead me to new and better ways of expressing what it is I am truly thinking or feeling. It is amazing. And this greater self-awareness allows me to take meaningful action forward.
Collaging Compassion
Collage came to mind when I was invited to collaborate on a bespoke workshop for Compassion 2.0, a conference focused on compassion in business. This was a small gathering in 2023 and the organizers wanted to kick off the time with a unique experience for participants. They hoped for an engaged and connected activity that would deepen reflection about the role of compassion in organizations.
My colleague, Monica Worline, and I proposed using collage at the front end of the two-day gathering, as a creative, intuitive and embodied way into the conversation about compassion. For an intellectual group of participants, we saw collage as an opportunity to move beyond words and build a more “real” conference culture where participants communicate deeper thoughts, feelings, and assumptions with greater trust. We would use collage to invite individual reflection about experience and impact of extending compassion to others in the context of work. Then, in pairs, participants would share their insights with a partner, who would listen deeply and compassionately. We hoped that this kind of generative (and likely vulnerable) experience would meaningfully meet the expectations of the conference organizers: to engage and connect participants, expose the diversity of experiences and perspectives amongst them, and prime the group for inspired action-oriented conversation at the end of the two days.
The collage activity was designed in four stages, based on the work of Andréa Watts and her Coaching with Collage methodology.
1. Gathering images from magazines that intuitively had some relation to the experience of compassion and business.
2. Selecting specific images and creatively composing them to build a collage.
3. Reflecting on what was created and the story it might reveal about your experience of compassion.
4. Then sharing insights with others, supporting a collective discovery process about the topic.
In the process, we took advantage of our limited time to introduce some creative constraints – short sprints for each of the four stages, magazines curated and provided by us, and a pre-determined size of paper to collage on. Rather than introducing frustration, we hoped the constraints would encourage spontaneity and allow intuition to lead.
Our Observations
"The workshop was amazing. It far exceeded my expectations and was a critical element in creating the safety and creative exploration that ultimately led to a special experience for everyone."
Results of such activities manifest in ripples of meaning-making, engagement, and enriched conversation. We observed markers of these results in indicators such as:
A palpable engagement – an eagerness to start, heads down, fully engaged, and quiet.
Occasional sighs and upwards glances, signs of intentional focus and access of internal thoughts and emotions.
The creation of provocative pieces of collage art accompanied by stirring insights.
Impassioned sharing between participants about the collaging process, filled with a-ha moments and surprising insights.
The gain of perspective and deepened inquiry from hearing other’s stories.
Enlivened connection over the following days of the conference.
Generative follow-on conference conversations, seemingly inspired by this initial creative engagement.
Positive verbal and written feedback about the collage experience.
Participants left the conference with newfound connections and ideas, but also took with them a tangible artifact from the conference, a physical reminder of their relationship to compassion and the work this group did together.
Looking back at this artifact as time passes, created opportunity to reveal more meaningful associations and insights related to the conference theme, long after the conference itself has faded in memory, as one participant noted in the quote here. The enduring nature of the art itself added value to the experience in ways that extend the value of these kinds of human gatherings.
“The collage I made with your guidance… has stayed on my desk since its creation, providing me with inspiration for both my purpose and my challenges. My collage is a powerful, communal expression of that moment.”
Our Learning
By using art in this conference setting, we invited participants (who did not define themselves as artists) to explore the profound capacity artmaking has to enhance individual and collective reflection and generativity. Barbara Holmes (theologian, activist, and writer) writes about the relevance of the arts used in community:
Art is an expression of spirit… The reason art is so powerful is that when you have expressions of art coming through a group of people, a village, a community, you have a great deal of creative and strategic power that’s available to everyone for their use. Making art together is an act of creation...
For a group that had explicitly defined itself as humanizing work through compassion, we found that collage as community artmaking made new forms of power and collaboration available. Conference participants used this energy to imagine new ways to bring compassionate practices to organizations that would amplify resilience and wellbeing.
We find it exciting to imagine this kind of activity in work settings, where people can sit together to build deeper connections, creatively explore a topic, uncover and discuss challenging dynamics, build mutual respect, and so much more.
Expanding Possibility
Artmaking in community, strikes me as a crucial way to get under the waterline of organization life. Making collage together with work colleagues invites a particular conversation that teaches us what it truly looks like to live, work, and be in an organization. At this depth, a group can ask and explore questions inspired by their collages - with curiosity, respect, and humility – and allow the imagery to reveal what may be implicit in the culture. In this way, art creates a profound possibility for an organization to become more visible and expressive, opening possibilities and helping to lay a foundation for deep change and transformation.