What If You Led Like an Artist?
Creativity, Courage, and the Making of a Life That Matters
What would change in your leadership if you approached each day as a canvas—and your choices as brushstrokes?
That’s the question my brother Ken Hubbell has been living with for fifty years—as a practicing oil painter, a visual strategist, and someone who has spent four decades helping organizations find their footing in uncertain times.
Ken draws on a phrase from Zen pioneer D.T. Suzuki: “We cannot all be expected to be scientists, but we are so constituted by nature that we can all be artists—artists of life.”
The Artist of Life doesn’t wait for certainty before moving. Releases the grip on predetermined outcomes. Looks at what’s already in hand—and trusts that the materials have been there all along.
In this Roundtable, Ken and I will think together about what that disposition looks like in the actual work of nonprofit leadership—where the canvas is your team, your mission, and the community you serve.
This isn’t a workshop on creativity. It’s a conversation about how leaders see, sense, and respond—and what becomes possible when you stop waiting for the right conditions and start working with what you have.
“We cannot all be expected to be scientists, but we are so constituted by nature that we can all be artists—artists of life.”
— D.T. Suzuki (via Ken Hubbell)
A different kind of conversation.
I’ve been watching Ken think for a long time.
He told me that in the 1970s a good friend posed a question to him that he’s carried for fifty years: “What if you reframed your inner definition from being an Artist to one who utilizes your creative nature in everything you do?” He’s been working out the answer ever since.
So I invited him to work it out a little further so we could all join in!
Ken landed in the same zone from a different direction—through oil painting, visual storytelling, and consulting with organizations navigating real change. He keeps returning to the Balinese saying he found in Marshall McLuhan: “We have no art—we do everything the best we can.”
What if that’s the whole practice?
The Flourishing Framework I work with every day is, at its core, a set of practices for cultivating the conditions where people and organizations can do their best work. I’ve come to believe that the Artist of Life orientation Ken describes—curious, adaptive, present to what’s actually here—is one of the most important of those conditions. It’s what keeps hope from hardening into habit.
This will also be a different kind of roundtable for us. Ken is my brother. The conversation will no doubt reflect that vibe.
— In gratitude, Gary
You'll recognize yourself here.
- You carry leadership responsibility in a nonprofit, foundation, or social sector organization—and you’ve been feeling the gap between the complexity of the moment and your current toolkit.
- You’ve noticed that your most effective leadership moves tend to look more like improvisation than execution—and you want language for why that works.
- You’re drawn to the idea that creativity isn’t a personality type but a practice—and you’re ready to take that seriously.
- You want to think alongside a small group of people asking real questions, not sitting through a presentation.
Session Format
A 75-minute facilitated conversation. Ken and I will open together, the room enters at the 30-minute mark, and we close with time to integrate what came up.
Live only. Not recorded. Limited to approximately 20 participants—so everyone gets to actually speak.
