Busy People Need Interrupting

‘An hour with the Chairman? You’re dreaming….’

Take it from me. Busy people need to be interrupted more often.

Back in 2010, I was trying to get time with the late James Strong AO, Chairman of the Australia Council for the Arts. Kathy Keele was the Council’s CEO and she wanted me to help her find a new way to introduce her Board to the famously picky arts community.

For some reason that I can’t understand now, I decided to start at the top with James. He was also Chairman of Woolworths then which made him a sort of poster boy of ‘busy’.

Kathy told me not to expect much time with him. I’d asked for an hour and she told me I was dreaming. She said if I could get his EA to find me 15 minutes, I should think myself lucky.

My 15 minutes was already ticking when I found James high in his tower in the Sydney CBD.

I asked him to tell me about the first time the arts had made a difference to his own life.

It was as if he had been sitting there behind his big, shiny desk just waiting for someone to ask him precisely that question.

Soon we were transported to a milking shed in Alstonville, in the NSW Northern Rivers where he grew up.

He was jumping from warm cow patty to warm cow patty in bare feet. James was a typical country kid with no experience of the arts at all until Duntroon, Military College where he did a course in English Lit. for the first time.

He told me that while he was reading Patrick White’s novel, The Tree of Man, he was shocked to recognize people just like his own family back home.

He said it was as if White had met his own Dad and in fact, knew him better than James did himself.

And that was the moment for James. The moment when he understood that artists can explain us to ourselves: that they can see and bring clarity to feelings and dreams we all share.

The conversation took off from there. When my 15 minutes had stretched past an hour, I reminded him of the time. He waved my concern away. ‘Don’t worry, Moya, don’t worry’ he said. ‘They’ll wait.’

And they did.

Many stories later, James walked me to the door. He was happy. The clutch of nervous men in suits, waiting outside, with briefcases on their knees, probably weren’t.

Our stolen conversation was gold. One of the busiest people on the planet had embraced the chance to share personal reflections, decades of leadership experience and ideas about the future.  And I’d been lucky enough to capture them.

See what I mean about about interrupting them? It’s almost our duty to do it!

Note: Butting in DOES need a dose of good old-fashioned purpose. And a little style and fun always helps too…

Thanks for reading, drop by again soon

Moya Sayer-Jones