Visuals & Whimsy-A Lesson from Whistler's Mother's Son & West Point

Here's a fun bit of trivia about American painter, James McNeill Whistler, perhaps best known for his painting commonly titled, "Whistler's Mother."

As you will see, it has little to do with leadership communication, the focus of Speak to Lead.  So I invite you to read the example and then figure out how it could be worked into a presentation about leaders and communication.

Here's the question, courtesy of today's 365 Amazing Trivia Facts Calendar.

Why was Whistler kicked out of West Point Military Academy?

Answer:

For misconduct. Assigned to draw a bridge in an engineering class, he drew two little boys fishing from it. Ordered to remove them, he drew the boys fishing from the riverbank. Again ordered to remove them, he drew two little headstones near the river.

Your turn: How can you "spin" this so it relates to leadership communication?

Comments

[Kyrm Hickman]

The one sure way an enlisted soldier can confuse and confound an officer is to do 'exactly what they say', but the soldier needs to be willing to take the consequences.

Be precise in your communication.

[Lou Hampton]

Thanks, Mark, for providing the official title.
I considered including it, but decided not to for the sake of tightness, and because I assumed most people would only recognize the common reference. (Of course when I mentioned Whistler's Mother to a couple of college students, all I got was a blank stare.)
My hope is that readers unfamiliar with Whistle will click through to his bio. Despite doing the arrangement in grey and black, he was, as you probably know, a very colorful personality.
And if there are attorneys or financial advisors reading this, I hope you click on Mark's name under his comment to reach his blog on marketing your practice.

[Mark Merenda]

It may be commonly called Whistler's Mother, but the title of the painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother.