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| Anna Maria Maiolino, from her exhibit at LACMA |
Anna Maria Maiolino is an Italian born Brazilian
artist. As a “modern” artist her works
tend to concentrate on minimalism.
Currently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art is running an
exhibit on her work. One of her
performance art pieces involves the game of solitaire.
Her twist is to randomly remove two cards before
beginning. Of course, without two cards
you can neither finish nor win the game.
As she quietly sits and plays the game, you can’t help but think that it
is pointless. Playing a game you can
never win, nor properly finish seems pointless.
But, if you reflect a little deeper, solitaire is inherently pointless;
win, lose or missing two cards.
Having used card playing in general and poker specifically
as a metaphor to examine leadership in our book Leadership: Texas Hold ‘em Style, I thought about
leadership and the pointless tasks we ask people to do. Not just those tasks that have no deeper
meaning. Lots of stuff we have to do
must be done. It has no deep meaning. It
is just necessary work to do. I thought
about the “busy work” we give people.
The busy work we do.
The next time you assign a task (or undertake a task), think
about leaving out a step that makes doing the task unfinishable. Does it matter if it can be finished? If not, maybe we shouldn’t do it at all.
By the way, I enjoy solitaire, as a Zen like activity that
clears my mind and focuses my subconscious.
That’s not pointless.
About the Author
Raymond E Foster is the author of nine books, including Police
Technology (Prentice Hall, 2004) and Leadership: Texas Hold ‘em Style. You can read more about Raymond at www.police-lieutenant.com
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