Thinking About Diversity: Reflections on the Night After Enjoying the Banksy Exhibition (Art and Human Resources)

To do something typical of summer vacation, I went to enjoy the first-ever exhibition in the Tohoku region,

WHO IS BANKSY?

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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To summarize my impressions of the exhibition in one phrase,

it was content that even someone like me, who had the artistic sense to get a 3 out of 10 on my report card back in school, could fully enjoy.

In particular, I think one reason I was able to enjoy it was that, in addition to standard paintings, many works featuring animal motifs such as rats, monkeys, elephants, and cats were on display.

It was an exhibition that I felt was worth paying the nearly 2,000 yen admission fee and spending about an hour to go see.

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Inside the exhibition venue,

people taking as many photos as possible,
people using lights that project rats to make shadow puppets with their hands and taking photos of them,
people carefully listening to the audio guide by Tomoya Nakamura,
couples where the man is showing off his knowledge to his female companion?

and so on; everyone was behaving in diverse ways.

This is not at all a matter of who is good or bad, or who is right or wrong.

It was an exhibition where you could see that everyone was acting as they pleased and enjoying themselves.

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Naturally, the behavior of each visitor changes depending on the stance they take when attending the Banksy exhibition.

As mentioned earlier, I have absolutely no artistic sense, but I am the type who quite enjoys experiencing extraordinary spaces and their atmosphere, so I attend many exhibitions and the like.

However, (at least in the exhibitions I have seen),

there has never been an atmosphere where there was absolutely no conversation, the entire venue was silent, and there were only gentlemen and ladies savoring the paintings carefully.

Therefore, I believe that art exhibitions held in Japan, like this Banksy exhibition, are places where various people enjoy themselves in various ways, and that is fully accepted.

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However, I find it very strange why such diversity and flexibility are not demonstrated or accepted in the field of human resources.

Although it is different from human resources, when I worked at a cram school as a school manager, there were many parents who wanted their children to grow up in a certain way and become a certain type of adult.

Due to changes in social conditions, it has been a long time since graduating from a high-deviation-score high school or university and joining a company listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange to work until retirement was the only way to lead a wonderful life.

Even today, the fact that many parents think as described above is, I believe, one of the reasons why society tends to have less diversity and flexibility.

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Due to unavoidable circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, labor shortages, and childcare or nursing care, more flexible working styles have become quite widespread in the human resources department compared to before.

However, on the other hand, there is an atmosphere that suggests an increasing number of companies might stop these flexible working styles once the COVID-19 pandemic settles down.

This is by no means saying that the way of working before the COVID-19 pandemic was wrong.

I am also somewhat of an old-fashioned person, so

I believe that reporting, communicating, and consulting are important, and that it is easier to manage when all employees come to the workplace, and that a sense of unity in the workplace often leads to better performance!

There are parts of such opinions, which are often shunned by the younger generation today, that I find myself nodding along to.

The current situation, where many companies prefer to continue with traditional ways of working,

is likely because there is a deeply rooted belief that 'things must be done this way (this is the correct way to be)'

is it not?

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Since every company is different in terms of industry and the nature of its employees, no two companies are exactly the same; therefore, in human resources, it can be said that there is no single correct answer (a universal solution that applies everywhere).

Therefore, by taking various factors into account, each company must create its own desirable management method.

Regarding the current COVID-19 pandemic, I want to build a future where we can look back and say, 'It was a very difficult time, but looking back now, it is because of that period that we have these positive outcomes today,' and I will do my best to help achieve that!

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