Forward movement is one of the most important qualities of thinking and acting in innovative ways.
Beyond seeking the future for future’s sake, innovation requires a willingness to balance maintaining those legacies that provide the foundation for new solutions while sidelining the traditions that might prevent opportunistic change and evolution. A great idea, this concept of pushing forward while balancing what’s behind does not exactly roll off the tongue in a pithy phrase. Finding short and sweet ways to communicate important innovation behaviors is essential to helping organizations expand innovation across their teams, so what might be a single word to capture this?
Toward.
Toward suggests motion but not in a vacuum. When we head toward something we instinctively know that we are departing from some prior place on a journey to something new. We understand that somewhere ahead is a destination that has not yet arrived but is definitely in the making. We know that what stays behind is not disappeared but also no longer central. Toward offers literal proximity as when we hike from a trail head to a mountain summit or figurative impact as when we attempt to understand the perspectives of people who think differently than ourselves. Toward carries a quiet optimism in its forward slant, but the movement it implies may not necessarily be voluntary.
Experience Toward.
Right now, at the Brooklyn Museum, the meaning and innovative potential of the word is on bright display. On the fifth floor is Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art, the recently re-installed American wing representing over 400 American art and objects from the BM’s permanent collection. Organized by Stephanie Sparling Williams, the museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Curator go American Art, Toward Joy attempts a fervently progressive interpretation of American art through the lenses of gender, indigeneity, blackness, privilege, power and more. Just as it breaks new ceilings by mixing decorative arts with prints, sculpture and painting, it makes provenance pathways more transparent and highlights the role of the canon in establishing cultural, political and social values. Despite all this progression, Toward Joy purposely retains significant references to that very canon. The past and old ways of imagining art are not forgotten, ignored or replaced, but instead are put into a forward-moving conversation with the new ways, daring visitors to push towards their own expanded understanding of American art. This collection will change multiple times a year, offering adjusting and evolving perspectives over time, meaning the exhibition itself has not reached its full toward-ness but is merely on the path.
What does a spirit of toward look like?
Toward:
- inspires perpetual improvement and continuous evolution, rather than hard codes a specific endpoint;
- implies iteration and nimbleness to respond as change meets us on our way;
- recommends open-mindedness to equip us to engage and interpret as we go;
- retains a subtle foot in the past and one in the present, grounding us as we track ahead without miring us in place.
