Artistry Unleashed by Hilary Austen - Book review

Artistry Unleashed

A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life

By: Hilary Austen

Published: October 27, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 232 pages
ISBN-10: 1442641304
ISBN-13: 978-1442641303
Publisher: University of Toronto Press (Rotman/UTP)





"Even as we develop ever more powerful analytical tools, even as our deductive capacities increase, still the smartest among us crash headlong into new and recurring problems that we haven't yet learned to solve", writes adjunct professor and member of the dean�s advisory board of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Hilary Austen, in her revolutionary and landmark book Artistry Unleashed: A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life. The author describes how discovering solutions to the most pressing business and societal problems doesn't lie in using new analytical tools, but in a profoundly different approach to problem solving.

Hilary Austen challenges people to step outside of their established realms to seek guides and solutions in other fields and endeavors. The author presents the alternative concept, that the best guides to solving a problem in any given area, are often found in a seemingly unrelated field. This counter-intuitive line of thinking compels the individual to move well beyond the safety of what is known, and into the world of the unknown. This movement beyond the boundary of comfort and familiarity forces a fresh understanding of the problem at hand. With this transition from examining a problem through the familiar lens, and toward a outside view, new ideas can appear as a result of thid disruption of conventional thought.



Hilary Austen (photo left) suggests the radical approach of looking to artists as guides for solution seeking business executives. This bold reasoning is based on pushing the business person beyond the edge of the comfort zone. The concept is also logical in that the conventional problem solving tools and techniques have failed the executive. Traditional tools may even be able to solve part of the problem. They are limited in their ability to find solutions to the entire problem. This is the gray area where the need to make the transformation from conventional tools and strategies becomes clear. Instead of a proposed solution being exclusively this or that option, the moving past the edge of comfort approach provides for fusion of ideas. It also allows for surprise and fresh insights through deliberate ambiguity. The artistry method breaks down the societal and internal human barriers that prevent creative thinking, even if unconsciously. The removal of these barriers frees the individual to consider what may have been considered unthinkable in the past.

For me, the power of the book is how Hilary Austen presents both a theoretical basis for achieving excellence and solving problems without sacrificing creativity. At the same time, the author shares actionable techniques and strategies for utilizing the arts as a guide for creative thinking. The concept of moving well past a person's own self imposed barriers, and entering into the often frightening but always enlightening area of the unknown, is offered as a key to opening the mind. Free from the artificial walls created by society, or one's own brain wiring, the power of the inner artist can be brought to the surface. Combined with guides from the artistic community, the scope for dynamic new thought is enlarged exponentially.

Hilary Austen employs the example of standardized testing, and the false trail of finding the one right answer, as being stifling to creative thinking. The conventional wisdom, often seen in workplaces as low wages and enforced best practices, is failing in innovation and creative thought. Attempts to simplify major problems doesn't make them easier to solve. Indeed, this false trail makes the solution more elusive than ever. The executive, enclosed in the conventional box, is faced with limited and ineffective options. Hilary Austen recognizes that the conventional approach is a dead end, and offers the radical artistic idea as a superior and more fruitful alternative. She makes her case well, and bolsters it with real world examples of success rooted in a wide range of unexpected and often unlikely fields. The very critical elements of surprise, removal of barriers, and open thinking are the key to solving the most intractable of problems.

I highly recommend the brilliant and seminal book Artistry Unleashed: A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life by Hilary Austen, to anyone serious about solving problems in new and exciting ways. The author shares a very different, and highly effective process for going beyond the edges of the known world, and discovering real solutions to overcoming even the most difficult obstacles.

Read the destined to become classic book Artistry Unleashed: A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life by Hilary Austen, and change your mode of thinking from the mainstream to the arts dream. The book is highly original, and the concepts presented are very unorthodox. That unfamiliarity is why the ideas work so well.

Tags: Artistry Unleashed: A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life, Hilary Austen, creative problem solving, business book reviews.