British Airways And Obama And Marina Abramovic

Ok, Ok, it isn't obvious what these three have in common.  Let me explain.

A while back in another blog post, I talked of British Airways and their campaign entitled "Be there face-to-face." They're determined to convince business travelers--and others as well--that to get important things done with other human beings, the best approach is to be there.  Physically.  Face to face.  So if that means getting on a plane and flying across the ocean to do it, so much the better for British Airways (of course, there's that issue of a current on-going strike by their cabin attendants, who incidentally are better paid than those of any other airline, but that's fodder for another blog). 

I agree with British Airways and by way of disclaimer should acknowledge that the airline is a sponsor of Wf360 and our executive Inner Circle series that gathers senior executives in venues around the world for face-to-face interactive conversation on important business issues.

It appears that President Obama agrees with British Airways as well, since he got himself to Afghanistan for a surprise and much needed face-to-face discussion with errant Hamid Karzai, whose tolerance of corruption is threatening to undermine America's efforts to rid his country of the Taliban.  His corrupt leadership has lots of folks concerned, and President Obama is being lauded around the world for his decision to sit down across from Karzai in the Kabul Presidential palace and have what most assume was a tough conversation.  We'll see just how valuable his in-person delivery of a dressing down was.

Then there is Marina Abramovic.  She's the performance artist who right now is sitting face-to-face with a stranger in the middle of a large brightly lighted space at MoMa in New York City.  In fact, she is sitting face-to-face with someone there for weeks, from the moment the museum opens to quitting time, five days a week through the end of May.  It's all part of her performance work of art which involves no speech at all.  Just face-to-face observation (when I was a kid we called that "staring").  I watched Abramovic do this with a series of people last Sunday at MoMa and it is fascinating.  You can see her performance streaming live on-line right here.  Apparently some young man last week tried to engage her in conversation; he got tossed out by security guards.  And on Saturday a young woman from Brooklyn named Anya Liftig sat down at the beginning of the day across from Abramovic and never left, much to the disappointment of other museum attendees who were waiting their turn to take part.  Liftig, dressed similarly to Abramovic for her stint, claimed it was all part of her own performance art.

Watching Abramovic on Sunday, I was struck by how uncommon it is these days for two people to literally look each other in the face.  Lovers, yes.  People screaming at each other in a verbal argument, yes.  People engaged in an employment interview, yes.  But most of us, most of the time, avoid looking at others directly in the face.  It's certainly true of strangers and for a perfect example check out the New York subway and see how little eye contact is made.  Indeed we are trained to avoid eye contact with strangers.  So how about friends and loved ones?  Think about it actively during your day today: how often and for how long do you actually look people in the eye?  How about your customers? 

If you go to the effort of meeting someone face to face, do you make the effort to look at them?  Perhaps that added intimacy will be valuable.  Give it a shot. 

So there you have it: a trifecta of being there.  Face-to-face.