OCUPE A PIEDADE

PETER BREGMAN Peter Bregman is a strategic advisor to CEOs and their leadership teams. His latest book is 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. To receive an email when he posts, click here. One Thing I've Learned from the Wall Street Protests 1:43 PM Tuesday November 1, 2011  | Comments (57) T During a bleak, cold winter in New York City, a park is occupied by thousands who stand there day and night for weeks. Nobody knows precisely what these occupiers represent, but people are mesmerized by them. Not just the city, but the country and beyond. Articles appear in papers around the world as people react with mixed emotions spanning surprise, admiration, ridicule, frustration, pride, and even fear. I am talking about The Gates: 7,500 bright orange fabric and steel sculptures erected by artists Christo and Jeanne Claude in 2005 that serpentined 23 miles of Central Park's walking paths. I loved The Gates. The exhibit was visually stunning, creating the sensation of a river flowing through the snow-covered landscape. But what I loved most about them - perhaps their greatest impact - was the conversations they sparked. I would guess that no other art exhibit ever got as much popular attention as The Gates. People who would never otherwise think much about it were pondering and discussing the question "What is art?" Sparking Conversations. That, too, is perhaps the greatest impact of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Protestors have been criticized for their lack of clarity. What, precisely, are they protesting? From what I could tell when I was at Zuccotti Park, it was everything from corporate greed to unemployment to tax loopholes to foreclosures to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to specific companies to bank ATM fees to unfair distribution of wealth, and a lot more. But, in this case, lack of clarity might be something to celebrate instead of criticize. Because, the truth is, we all have more questions than ans