In the corporate offices of The Boston Consulting Group a painting of a turkey, the firm’s visualized mission statement, hangs proudly. The turkey is not the company’s logo, but rather a representation of the company’s mission developed by executives at a corporate outing that is as atypical as having a turkey be representative of a global consulting firm.
Executives gathered in July to develop the turkey under the guidance of PeaceLove Studios. That month, PeaceLove, an offshoot of the nonprofit PeaceLove Foundation, launched two workshop programs aimed at executives looking to paint, draw and sketch outside the lines while strengthening their employee bonds.
The programs gather executives, typically between 15 and 20, at the company’s suite in the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Led by Program Director Amy Kinney, the workshops throw out all the typical trappings of a corporate conference or training.
Gone are the “Hello My Name Is” tags accompanied by boring black Sharpie markers. Instead, participants find a business card-size paper with instructions to create nametags that expresses fun factoids about them. At their disposal are colored markers, pencils and other supplies more often found in a kindergarten classroom than a corporate suite. Office pens are banned here.
Kinney then puts executives through a series of exercises that ask executives to imagine – and later paint – their company’s mission. Kinney, a bubbly former high school math teacher, eases participants into the painting, giving them big T-shirts to protect their business attire, telling them not to worry about the lines and offering wide brushes that convey little pressure to paint refined details.
“We’re really giving them the chance to go back and color outside the lines and realize how empowering that is,” Kinney said.
Through it all, participants find themselves mulling their company’s mission. And they start talking – about art, their lives and topics rarely discussed in cubicles and corner offices. Teamwork strengthens organically as co-workers tackle painting together. And regardless of official title, they all leave artists, complete with a graduation certificate to boot.
PeaceLove never set out to teach CEOs the power of art. In 2009, Jeffrey Sparr bought some paint. He realized painting freely relieved stress and helped put his obsessive-compulsive disorder in check. Together with Kaplan, he opened a studio in Pawtucket and started organizing classes for community groups, schools and the like. The program took off.
In 2010, PeaceLove piloted expanding its programs to corporations. It recruited GTECH Corp. executives to run through a test class and later hired Kinney to refine the curriculum. PeaceLove ultimately designed two workshops that range from two to four hours and cost $150 to $300 a person.
One workshop, Paint4Peace, lets employees from the CEO on down imagine their mission as a painting. Another, Peace of Mind Art Jam, pairs up employees to paint in an attempt to build camaraderie and foster better communication.
Kaplan said the satellite studio at the Dunk in downtown Providence is perfect for hosting corporate workshops and serving as a drop-in location for those attending events at the arena.
The roughly 1,300-square-foot former hospitality suite features walls of artwork by community and professional artists. Two folding tables pushed together on a wooden stage and surrounded by Plexiglas allow an area for free-form painting with no risk to the carpet. Kaplan likes to call the corner space the “YMCA for mental health.”
Stress is not welcome at PeaceLove. The company is founded on the premise of “create peace of mind,” a slogan the company trademarked.
Kaplan likes to cite a statistic by the National Alliance for Mental Illness that says 26 percent of U.S. adults have symptoms that would qualify as a mental illness. But the topic is typically shunned in public and rarely discussed at work. Creating the workshops was partly a way to bring the topic of mental health into the corporate suite in a low-key way.
“It’s a way to expand our mission and expand it to people who really have the power to do something very profound about it,” Kinney said.
They did, starting with The Boston Consulting Group and then conducting workshops for CVS Caremark Corp. and the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau. Staff recently were preparing for the arrival of a group from Bank Rhode Island.
Each corporate workshop generates money that is sent to the foundation, which uses the money to host free community workshops. Kaplan said it’s a way for the for-profit wing to support community work and a way for the corporations to help in the community. PeaceLove later sends a video of the community workshop to the sponsoring corporation.
Corporate participants also receive their paintings, a goodie bag of art supplies and a short video of the day. And just maybe peace of mind, too.
“Honestly the people who are in corporate America are some of the people that need peace of mind the most,” Kinney said. •
