A Renaissance Way of Working
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I said to him, “It’s all about the techniques that were common in Renaissance time, when people like Leonardo da Vinci weren’t artists or scientists. They showed a great appetite for all learning and understood the way these things all connected together, or could connect as a process of discovery.”It was one of those great conversations where we articulate what we have been thinking in vague ways for a while, but through conversation it all becomes so much clearer. I had heard of Working Out Loud, this was Working in Conversation.
That led me to think some more about how I express what I mean by the Renaissance approach to the work I do in the health service and to my own work too….
It goes back to being at school – loving subjects across the great divide! I loved Maths, English and Economics – one arts, one science and one social science. I did this combination for A-Level and would have liked to continue to work in this way. But the UK system requires you to specialise at university level. It was hugely disappointing – I really wanted to study English and Maths but there was only one place in the country that did that and I didn’t want to go there. So, I opted for English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Liverpool instead. My thinking was that Philosophy had a similar rigour of thinking to Mathematics and would therefore be a close substitute.
One of the pivotal moments during my degree was when I studied Harriet Martineau and she was an influence in literature and in philosophy. Whilst doing a project in English that encompassed her work, I also found myself referring to her in Philosophy. This happened several times during my studies although that was by accident rather than by design. It was still a fascinating experience, and felt like a time where the learning was coming from me rather than from the teacher.
There are examples of this in education – where a topic is looked at from a range of academic disciplines rather than the focus being the academic discipline itself. When we do that, we get a much richer learning experience.
This has real learning for working in research. Where we are able to draw together the best of health research, together with social sciences and the arts & humanities – the result is a rich and positive experience.
In our work we have been exploring the opportunities for the creative arts to inform dissemination experiences. We can also create real synergy for researchers to use creative methods in the research itself. There are also opportunities to look at research methods in the arts and humanities and connect those to health research. Significant work has been done by the Wellcome Trust in this field. It’s an organisation that has really embraced the renaissance connectivity that I am talking about here.
At the heart of this approach is a driving curiosity that is less interested in the discipline than in the search for new knowledge. Through the bringing together of multi-disciplinary approaches that bring the thinking modes from across the spectrum, we are able to generate startling and original thinking.
A lot has been written about left and right brain thinking – that feels much too binary for what I am talking about here. It’s about a whole brain approach, that also draws on mind and heart to encompass a rich breadth of understanding of things. Perhaps this is somewhere in the space that Ken Wilber has talked about in his attempts at a Theory of Everything. It’s an exciting space to explore, one where the possibilities are only restricted by our own ability to suspend judgement, and our facility to connect with others and trust their expertise in developing a team approach to solution generating.
I have been playing with words to try to come up with something that suitably describes what I am talking about. The word Renaissance means re-birth – and refers to a connecting back of that particular movement to the best of the classical world. I am at a loss to find an appropriate word for a modern-day approach. I wonder whether a term could be drawn from Leonardo da Vinci’s name as he is such an inspiration. Any ideas?
Also published on Medium.
2 thoughts on “A Renaissance Way of Working”
Exactly. I suspect it is much easier to work across disciplines today than it was when I did my degree. But we do still think in very narrow ways and tend to pitch science against the arts rather than see ways to connect them. Thanks for your comment, Judy!
We used to offer English and Maths combined honours at Chester. Indeed, I had a student who was doing that combination in my 3rd year Linear Algebra group last year. But logistics and timetabling considerations have led to the demise of the maths combined honours programme. It’s a shame, because, as you say, this combination isn’t available in may places, and it offers students a chance to develop logical thinking alongside creativity and communication.