The Solution is Within Art

“Working through problems,” writes Amy Herman, “is critical for productivity, profit, and peace. Our problem-solving skills, however, have been short-circuited by our complicated, technology-reliant world.”

In a world where “solutions” are only as far away as a Google query, or a Siri/Alexa request, we have let ourselves get intellectually lazy. We have couched our curiosity and our reasoning and logic skills are getting duller. The rise of “alternative fact”-based “news” preys on our weakness and exacerbates the problem still further, leading to conflicts and frictions that our diminished problem-solving skills make harder to resolve.

“Increasingly in our modern, perilous world,” Herman writes, “the issues that emerge are subtle, laced in subtext, or teeter on the tip of a slippery slope – all attributes that require a human touch to solve. As said humans, we must not only be able to address the problems that arise across all professions and walks of life, we must be able to solve them. Before they drown, damn, or destroy us.”

Thankfully, Herman continues, problem-solving is a skill. It can be learned.

Herman, an art curator turned leadership consultant, suggests that art is the answer. She has traveled the globe for two decades, teaching problem-solving to everyone from Navy SEALS to tech professionals, from FBI homicide detectives to physicians.

Amy Herman's Books

Now there are plenty of speakers and consultants out there teaching problem solving and  conflict management, but Herman stands alone in using art as the tool to improving these essential skills.

“As I explored the creative ways artistic minds sort and solve problems –” she wrote, “from conceptualization to actualization, while facing obstacles from deadlines to a dearth of resources including money, materials, and motivation – an easy-to-follow primer emerged, a paint-by-numbers for problem-solving, if you will.”

The particular beauty of Herman’s approach lies in a simple truth: “Art can help anyone anywhere fix things because it is a universal language. Two people from completely different backgrounds with opposing viewpoints on everything can stand in front of the same image and discuss what they see. Art provides a safe space outside of ourselves to analyze our observations and convert those observable details into actionable knowledge. Doing so can help us understand how and why things go wrong and, more importantly, how to fix them.”

In her books and lectures, Herman walks readers through multiple examples, everything from paintings of disasters to portraits, from documentary photography to abstract art.

And one key reason looking at, thinking about, puzzling about art can help us solve problems and deal with conflict, Herman says, is because it often exposes us to our own hidden biases and perceptual blinders, things that may be standing in the way of problem solving and conflict resolution.

Amy Herman is an engaging, provocative speaker, and she will bring her multimedia talk on art, problem solving, and conflict resolution to Festival Boca on March 6, as part of our annual Authors & Ideas series.  It’s one you can’t afford to miss. Unless, of course you have no problems or conflicts in your life.