It was such a pleasure to have globally renowned artist Gavin Rain in the audience recently to witness how I have incorporated his magnificent work into my newest How to Thrive at the Edge of Chaos keynote. 

We had not met previously, but I tracked down his number as I stood, mesmerised, in front of one of his paintings in a gallery in February. I expressed the desire to include elements of one of his works in a keynote, which helps leaders make better decisions in what has become an age of deep ambiguity. 

After listening to my thinking, he graciously agreed and recently accepted an invitation to witness how it all came together as an audience member and his feedback was phenomenal. 

Gavin is a pointillist. He creates beautiful portraits from hundreds of small, multi-layered coloured dots, carefully applied on canvas, which, when observed up close, are a messy muddle of confusing colour and data points.

It is only when you step back that patterns begin to emerge, and you get a fuller picture. The same is true when confronting the wall of information that confronts us daily.  

Pointillism was developed in the 1880s by artists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac as a branch of impressionism, and Gavin Rain’s work is among the finest in the world.

In the same way as you watch what you eat, you need to be selective about your information diet. 

Information has never moved as fast or in such volume as it does today, and decision-makers across the world are subjected to a deluge of data – most of which is little more than a distraction. 

Some, however, have a more nefarious purpose, and your role is learning how to discern between what does and does not matter in today’s attention economy.

I touch on this idea in my TEDx Talk, which you can see below. 

If you are curious about how I incorporate Gavin’s work in my new keynote and want to explore ideas for managing uncertainty and making better decisions, click on the BOOK button!