Finding Beauty in a Fractured World: Art Inspires Leaders—Leaders Change the World

When faced with the uncertainty, calamity and crises that define 21st century society, how can we have the audacity to even consider seeking beauty, let alone actually find it? Not by avoiding or denying reality but, rather, by seeing reality accurately, yet differently, and then transforming it. Art offers a unique perspective with which to confront the chaos and unpredictability that surround us. Inherent in the artist's craft are distinctive approaches for transforming seeming disasters back into beauty. Research has documented that companies that markedly outperform their peers are particularly good at transforming bad luck into beauty , even though in management such beauty often disguises itself under the label of opportunity. Art challenges each of us, whether as thought leaders or as societal leaders, whether as individuals or CEOs, to invoke beauty, not by blinding ourselves to reality but by rediscovering how we see reality.