Laura Johnson of Carlson’s Class of 2018 is a former member of the Peace Corps and an accomplished painter
When we hear business schools use phrases like “Business as a force for good,” we often think of buzzword banter — lip service along the lines of “corporate social responsibility.” But that’s not always the case. Sometimes B-schools embrace the artistic.
At Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, art is appreciated as a way help promote the importance of good business practices. To help advance the theme of its $150 million 2017 donor campaign, “Business as a Force for Good,” the school has enlisted the talents of Laura Johnson, a second-year MBA and — unbeknownst to the school at the time — accomplished mural artist and painter.
Johnson this month unveiled an undercover art project she’s been working on just steps from the B-school in a rented theater room on the University of Minnesota campus. It’s a 15-feet-by-18-feet canvas Johnson constructed between classes — and while running an Arts & Business student club she co-founded with a Carlson classmate. Her interpretation of “Business as a Force for Good” was unveiled inside the school’s atrium, which will serve as the mural’s home for students, faculty, and alumni to admire for years to come.
“I’m hoping every time people look at it they notice something new, but that they see a flow of what starts within business community and with the decisions that business leaders make,” Johnson tells Poets&Quants. “It doesn’t stop there. It always goes beyond Carlson, beyond the boardroom, and impacts people on so many levels. I hope to remind students that the decisions we make have an impact on so many people beyond us. There is always a social, environmental, and economic impact.”
Laura Johnson’s “Business as a Force for Good” mural was unveiled at the Carlson School on December 11
REMINDING MBAs: HOW BUSINESS ‘CONNECTS TO THE LARGER COMMUNITY’
At first glance, you immediately see bright colors and many faces in the painting. You may notice the moonlit scene on the left that appears juxtaposed with a sun-filled city and high-rise business buildings on the right. And you can’t miss the Gold Medal Flour script which represents the iconic symbol seen in downtown Minneapolis today.
But as you look deeper into Johnson’s work, you begin to appreciate small nuances that reflect the ecosystem of business. You see farmers, doctors, children, businesswomen. Agriculture becomes evident, as does teamwork, performing arts, diverse faiths, the environment, and much more.
“People often think of business as black and white, happening in boardrooms. They rarely think about how it connects to the larger community,” she says.
INTERPRETING BUSINESS AS, TRULY, A FORCE FOR GOOD
Johnson — who is an accomplished painter, former member of the Peace Corps, and member of the Poets&Quants Minnesota Carlson’s MBA Class of 2018 series — has several other paintings displayed in other parts of the world including Lesotho, Africa. There, she did multiple large-scale public murals for HIV/AIDS awareness. In the current project for Carlson, she says she didn’t want the painting to just be a reflection of her own musings on business. So, before putting paint to brush, she spent a significant amount of time talking to others. With the Carlson community at her disposal, she interviewed faculty and students to hear what Business as a Force for Good meant to them.
“With students, I asked what the theme meant to them and what impact they hoped to have through their careers. I asked whether they’re thinking about their roles as making a positive impact in community and how it drives the decisions they make. For faculty, I asked if this was a trend, this notion of business a source for doing good. Is there an expressed need from incoming students to use business to make a positive impact? Their answer was yes, they’re seeing more of it. They also said business as a force for good has to do with the needs of consumers wanting to support businesses that align with personal values and are willing to pay a premium for businesses that are doing good.”
The results of these interviews have yielded a captivating aesthetic that awakens a new feeling and new revelations every time it’s viewed. Johnson says her goals for the piece were all of the above.
Laura Johnson
CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN ORGANIZATIONS: AN ARTIST’S PERSPECTIVE
But there are other effects to her painting that are at play here. Namely, creativity and innovation. All businesses are screaming about it, yet can’t seem to break free from the proverbial box where — outside of it — is supposedly where all the magic happens.
Johnson says as businesses continually ask themselves ‘How do we cultivate creativity in our employees?’ there’s almost always a disconnect. And she’s seen the disconnect play out first-hand.
In a recent commentary she penned for Minnesota’s Star Tribune newspaper titled “We Must All Make Time for Creativity,” Johnson shares an uncanny account of the differences she saw when teaching a painting class to a group of business execs versus a group of girl scouts. When given the freedom to be creative, the professionals were surprisingly outperformed by the young girls.
MAKING SPACE FOR CREATIVITY
“A team of corporate executives stares up at me,” Johnson writes. “I tell them again, kindly but firmly, to pick up their paintbrushes and begin painting the blank canvases. Hesitantly, they obey. They insist that I explain exactly how to recreate the example painting — a colorful tree with flowers.
“These men and women make important business decisions every day. If I asked them to negotiate a multimillion-dollar deal, they wouldn’t blink. Paint a tree? They balk,” Johnson quips in the commentary.
“A week earlier, I had taught the same painting to members of a Girl Scout troop, ages 9 to 11. I needed to race through my introduction, because they were so eager to start. Their eyes gazed longingly at their blank canvases, fingers twitched to grab brushes. Once they began, the girls asked me only for more paint colors.”
Reflecting on this experience, Johnson says making space for creativity is the answer to the lack of it we often complain about in business. “When you’re first starting your career, you think you need to follow this straight and narrow path. Always being available for meetings, checking emails, being hyper-organized. What that doesn’t allow room for is the fact that sometimes you just need blank space to get lost in thought and being creative. Making the space for it is where it happens. It’s part of the way you energize yourself and, to do that, you have to make space to either be creative or or to experience creativity in action.”
In other words, Johnson says that for employees and organizations thirsting for more creativity, maybe all that’s needed is to take in a good show, make some art, or go see the opera to revitalize creative juices and quench the thirst.
“The solution might just be waiting for you there and you just need to go to a place that makes you feel more open — and emotional too. Arts help you feel more open to the human condition and we know that business leaders who are more in touch with humanity can relate better to consumers.”
Laura Johnson completing the 15′ x 18′ “Business as a Force for Good” mural
‘GOING INTO BUSINESS SCHOOL, I WASN’T SURE HOW I WOULD FIT IN’
As artistry has been a part of this Carlson MBA’s life for as long as she can remember, she says it was an important identifier for her when she came into B-school. Last year she started the Arts & Business club that she says came out of conversations with people in the arts community saying the biggest challenge they face is trying to find art enthusiasts and future patrons.
“I’m saying to myself, they’re in the MBA program! Many of my classmates had heard of the rich arts community in Minneapolis, but didn’t know how to get involved. Since launching the Arts & Business club, we’ve been immersed into the community, gone to the opera, museums, and more. The arts community has been really receptive to 20-30 MBA students who could potentially sit on boards, become ticket holders, help with marketing, etc. Then for us as business school students, we get to tap into the arts world and do something so different than what business people are doing on a regular basis.”
Johnson says the Arts Club, combined with the soon-to-be unveiled mural, is more than she could have ever imagined about attending business school.
“I think that I wasn’t sure, going into business school, how well I would fit in. What I’ve found in my time at Carlson is that the administration, my fellow students, everyone is so receptive to making the arts a greater part of their lives. And the idea that this painting will live on long past when I’m there, it’s an accomplishment that I couldn’t have imagined. But I’m honored to be able to create a bridge between the art world and business world. It makes me really excited about the direction business is heading and that the subject matter of business being a force for good is a commitment that businesses are making; and that it starts in business schools.”
DON’T MISS: MEET MINNESOTA CARLSON’S MBA CLASS OF 2018 and MEET MINNESOTA CARLSON’S MBA CLASS OF 2019
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