Corporate Work

CORPORArTE takes place during a full-day team workshop. It involves translating a team’s discussion of team vision, values, behavioural norms and/or goals into “corporate art” - a corporate painting.

The CORPORArTE facilitator sets up a canvas at the back of the seminar room and observes the ‘ideas’ process during the initial stages of the workshop. After gathering ideas and sketching for an hour or two Robina then takes the recurring themes and begins to build the corporate painting.

If the employees present have been ‘handpicked’ to work together, it can be particularly useful to represent them symbolically as individuals in the work. For example, a recent painting was completed for a new mine development team consisting of employees from two companies working together on a project. The painting featured a baobab tree and underground seeds housing a series of individual cogs. The idea for the baobab tree was developed after gaining an understanding of the physical environment in which the team would be working; the seeds emphasised the team’s desire to focus on the development of individuals and the cogs were included after comments that ”we are only as strong as our weakest link”.

The corporate painting is finished by the end of a day-long workshop and the CORPORArTE facilitator presents the painting and its symbolism to the team members. Alternatively, the painting can be completed out-of-hours and presented to the team back in the workplace. This serves as a way to remind team members of the day and can be used in conjunction with further facilitation work to transfer some of the off-site learning back to site.

A useful addition to the process is an initial hands-on session for team members using Art facilitation tools and techniques. This initial session utilises our CORPORArTE facilitator’s expertise as an Art Therapist to provide a creative icebreaker and a non-confrontational way to communicate one’s individual worldview to team members. Through ‘trying their hand’ at painting, participants also gain added appreciation for the expertise involved in developing the finished corporate painting.

A recommended process includes: