What do high art, The Last of Us and VUCA have in common?
In the art world, works are frequently categorized as either high or lowbrow. This delineation, according to an article on Medium, can be traced back to the “18th century when critics were beginning to distinguish between aesthetic expression (fine art) and art that was utilitarian in nature (craft).” Works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Shakespeare and Beethoven typically belong in the high art category whereas Andy Warhol, Top 40 pop songs and genre fiction like romance and fantasy are often thought of as lowbrow. In sum:
“High art is appreciated by those with the most cultivated taste. Low art is for the masses, accessible and easily comprehended.” – Matt Plescher, 2013
Over the years, the distinction between high and low has gotten fuzzier thanks in part, to the accessibility of the Internet. There have also been serious criticisms about how elitist the high/low dichotomy is. In her article, Pop Art and Accessibility: A challenge to Elitism, Sally Lao writes, “the very challenge of Pop Art to the established values within elite art circles is the accessibility and sharing of any kind of art form, and to have it incite emotion within a larger community.” Is low art really so low when the breadth of its impact is so grand?
It is precisely because of its reach that popular media serves as an excellent avenue into more complex ideas and discussions. The family dynamics in an intergenerational family business succession for example, are deceptively complex and difficult to manage when we are experiencing them up close, in real time. But through our consumption and enjoyment of hit television shows like Yellowstone and Succession, we internalize compelling examples of how these (highly dramatized) relationships can play out and negatively impact the ones dearest to us. Sometimes, we learn best by seeing what not to do. And while having fun.
Ours is a VUCA world – ruled by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity – and to survive it, we require the tools to tackle unknown unknowns. This is certainly easier said than done since our cognitive wiring towards safety and predictability hinders our ability to think creatively and act with agility.
Whether or not you have ever encountered the acronym, you have experienced its forces at work (e.g., the pandemic). You have also witnessed many different iterations of VUCA at work on the big and little screen. Can you think of a timely piece of popular media that drives home the importance of thinking with creative agility in order to survive?
The Last of Us springs to mind as an obvious, wildly successful contender. Featuring beloved characters whose unofficial mantra is “endure and survive,” the first season left millions of people enraptured and more than a little terrified at the prospect of a cordyceps zombie outbreak. But that hype was months ago (a long time in our pop-culture zeitgeist), and maybe it’s a bit too predictable a choice for an article about managing risk by avoiding predictability.
In the open-minded, flexible spirit of good VUCA leadership everywhere, humor us when we say that combatting volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity successfully, requires flipping the script, a feat deftly portrayed in Greta Gerwig’s, Barbie. The movie is a fun and poignant blend of high and low art: depth and superficiality, serious critique and satire. The perfect medium for an unseriously serious look at VUCA risk-management in action.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Barbieland is a veritable utopia filled with various Barbies and Kens living their perfect lives. It is an alternate reality of sorts, seemingly fueled by the idealistic whims of Barbie owners in the Real World. Conversely, the Barbies all seem to believe their creation and what they have come to represent – that woman can be anything and do anything – solved gender inequity in the Real World.
But things quickly begin to go wrong for Stereotypical Barbie (Margo Robbie). Unexpectedly, she finds herself overcome with various human anxieties: thoughts of death, insecurity and imposter syndrome, to name a few. Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) tells us a portal has somehow opened between the universes. Only by travelling to the Real World can Stereotypical Barbie quell the misgivings her owner is having about her Barbie doll, put an end to her own existential malfunctioning, and close the portal.
Stereotypical Barbie does and is utterly out of her depth almost the entire time. She witnesses the beauty and terror of being a human woman in the complicated Real World, evades capture by her Mattel creators and loses everything important to her when the misguided Kens takeover Barbieland and brainwash the other Barbies into serving them. At every turn, VUCA is there to disrupt her heretofore perfect existence. She almost gives up.
At Ready for Next, we believe a VUCA informed approach to risk-management begins by learning to subvert our cognitive biases towards predictability. This is done through the cultivation of self-awareness and resiliency; the ability to absorb the shock of change and return quickly to an original (or enhanced) condition.
Next, we must learn to embrace the inevitability of unknown unknowns. We do this by proactively planning for them according to the following principles:
V – vision (define it and provide context)
U – understanding (provide direction)
C – clarity (set priorities, define acceptable outcomes)
A – agility (plan and execute incrementally)
If we cut to the quick of Barbie, we see a character who employs each of these principles, even if sometimes unwillingly. Blindsided by one VUCA event after another, Stereotypical Barbie endures, survives and shows us what it means to enthusiastically lean into the unknown. She cultivates self-awareness by transforming from a stereotypical imaginary figure into a flawed, finite human being who has learned to value a life in the motley Real World over the perfect infinitude of Barbieland. She also demonstrates resilience by persevering through complete social and cultural upheaval and restoring her universe to a better version of itself.
So, what do high art, The Last of Us and VUCA have in common? Barbie, of course.