Is your business beautiful?

Last week I had the opportunity to join the World Beautiful Business Forum in Athens. It was hosted by the House of Beautiful Business which has been founded by Tim Leberecht and Till Grosche 10 years ago. This anniversary conference which some participants consider a festival brought together 850 participants, 200 faculty in a series of inspiring venues in Athens like the Olympia Theatre, the Maria Callas Museum, the Old Stock Exchange and the National Gardens to name just a few.

(Plato and Sokrates at the entrance of Akademia)

Beauty in business

Business and beauty - for some these might sound like two unrelated areas, separate from each other.  Some might believe that business contributes to beauty through sponsoring of the arts and acquiring pieces of arts for their offices. 

Beauty can show up in business in different ways:

• through a beautiful purpose of why the company exists and what it brings to the world
• through thoughtfully and beautifully designed products and services
• through beautiful spaces that the company operates in
• through beautiful and kind interactions with customers and colleagues

The House of Beautiful Business is ‘the global network for a life-centered economy’. Its mission is to create a new kind of business that is more purposeful, inclusive and sustainable. The annual gathering is a celebration of beauty and connection and at this year’s 10th anniversary it came with 100 different workshops organized in 10 tracks each curated by professionals and experts in the area. You can already sense the creativity and care when you read the track titles:

• Agentic Agora
• AI Democracy Marathon
• Beauty Salon
• Bureau of Care
• Community
• Department of Depth
• Home of Belonging
• Longevity Lab
• Ministry of Regeneration
• Temple of Reenchantment

Interestingly enough, there is also a growing activity in academia to explore beauty in business. Professor Brandon Vaidyanathan is the founder of ‘Beauty at Work’ and shared recent surveys about the impact of various manifestations of beauty at work. Gianpiero Petriglieri, leadership professor at INSEAD, speaks about the Art of Leadership. 

The arts and beauty in the spaces where we meet

The orchestrators of the House of Beautiful Business integrate the arts and beauty in the plenary sessions as well as in the individual workshops. The spaces are carefully curated, the materials are beautifully crafted, and performing or visual arts are integral part of the orchestration. The conference consisted of 5 acts in the Olympia Theatre. The stage of Act 1 consisted of a big taverna table with 30 empty chairs where Tim and Till were waiting for the guests to celebrate the 10th anniversary of ’The House’. Tim and Till were performing as did the guests that one by one dropped in to share their gift and wisdom. Between speeches were masterfully curated musical intermezzi; composer and musician Mark Aanderud created these spaces so that our minds could calm down, process the impulses and prepare for the next session. The musical experiences included a Samoan greeting performed by a Māori and a Sanskrit chant that the whole theatre was invited to chime in.

Author and philosopher Kenneth Mikkelsen had created a play about Human Essentials in 5 acts and was accompanied by musicians and a dancer. At the end of the play the workshop participants gently swayed and moved softly between actors and musicians.

All visuals of the gathering were colorful and beautiful.

We felt inspired and uplifted by all the art and beauty we could experience during the gatherings.  And without any doubt it had an impact on the interactions with other participants:  they were calmer, more present, kinder. 

Philosophical questions

A special moment for me during the opening session was when 10 philosophers stood in a row on stage and were thinking; some just stood there in silence, others were pondering, others had their hand follow their thoughts. The silence felt a bit awkward, and yet the absence of action became a celebration of thinking.

Next day, 16 philosophers in a row were debating ‘What makes a good life?’. They shared interesting thoughts from different philosophical schools, with the ancient Greeks being quoted several times. Know thyself, live moderately was mentioned, and also be open and curious, relate to others, have quiet time to contemplate etc. The Japanese philosopher, Shoukei Matsumoto, offered to modify the question: ‘What makes us better ancestors?’ And a Chinese Malay participant in the audience shared how her upbringing emphasized the contribution to the collective as the relevant dimension of a good life.

Being accompanied by philosophers throughout the conference provided us with depth and frames to ponder on existential questions that radical changes bring to our lives, both personal and professional.

AI and human essentials

AI ran through most of the 10 different tracks, and I particularly liked the AI assembly. The organizers had fed an AI tool with material on Kleopatra, Plato, Dostoevsky, an Octopus to name just a few and were calling on these voices to comment on specific topics during the conference.

A speech from AI strategist Zoe Scaman touched a chord with me. She shared that when AI is prompted to offer a random number between 1 and 10 in 80% it suggests 7 which is based on the human bias to not pick an extreme number nor the middle number. She then expanded that in the not so far future when all AI applications will have been fed with all existing knowledge they will all produce very similar answers and limited space for differentiation. She fears that at such time the ‘hardwood' of an organization, the soul, the memory, identity of how we do and think around here will be replaced by interchangeable outputs.

Which bears the question of ‘what are the human essentials in times of AI?’ What will not be done by AI and only humans can do or contribute? Existential questions on identity, purpose, grief, fear of death, and the way how we connect with others came up. And we also heard that some people get emotionally involved with their bot for the positive and encouraging comments and suggestions.

The art of gifting

Allow me to share one very specific experience I had at a workshop facilitated by Chris Everett at the Maria Callas Museum. Chris had us come together in pairs and provided us with 12 questions each that we asked our buddy. This is how I met Tanja, and we found ourselves getting to know each other on a terrace overlooking the Parthenon. Then we were sent off to the museum floors (one with objects, one with videos and sound bites) to find and prepare a gift for our buddy. Chris had prepared a map of the museum and a gift card as well as a separate envelope with a card where we could explain why we had chosen this gift to the buddy. Armed with a couple of insights into the buddy created during the initial inquiry we went off to explore the museum to find a gift. I found the gift for Tanja in the video section of the museum, a recording of ‘L’amour est un oiseau rebelle’. I prepared the gift card, marked the map with the place where the recording could be found and downloaded the song to be shared with Tanja. Back at the plenary I did receive my gift card and then was sent off to the museum to find the gift that my buddy had prepared for me. When I stood in front of the object I was deeply touched as 

• I felt that half an hour earlier Tanja was standing here in front of this object thinking about me and a gift that would speak to me
• I pondered what she might have thought and what she had learned about me in the short interview that allowed her to pick that gift
• I was grateful to Chris who had orchestrated such a subtle yet deep personal experience of connection through gifting

When we came back to the plenary you could sense that I was not only one who had been deeply touched by this experience. People spoke softly about their emotions, memories and even though we had spent most of the time on our own, and some time with the buddy, we all felt connected with the other people in the room.

It was magic and beautiful.

Carolina and I left inspired and nurtured by the beautiful impulses and heart felt connections with other participants. 

Where are you on beauty and business?

• do you and your company pursue a beautiful purpose?
• do you allow yourself and encourage others to bring beauty into your company?
• would you describe the relationships within the company as beautiful?
• do you bring your best (beautiful) self to work and do you encourage others to do so?
• are you exploring with art as an inspiration for your business?
• do you allow yourselves to be playful at work?

Let’s make it beautiful

cheers

ekki