"Theatre Games, Improvisation, Dialogue and Change"
Questors Theatre, Ealing
12 April 2000
Background and purpose
Maybe we need to be ready to throw away the agenda and improvise more often! Well that's what Andy Harmon and Tony Page have been talking about recently....and we've been getting round interviewing director level change sponsors in Guinness, McKinsey, Royal Armouries, BAe and Price Waterhouse Coopers to find out what they're thinking, and work out if they think we're totally mad! Either way we plan to write an article later in the year on what we are finding out.
Somewhere in the midst of these conversations Andy and Anita Harmon offered to put on a day of theatre and improvisation games - and apart from being great fun and another way of getting together, we hoped this might generate some rich seams of conversation of interest to us all and maybe some new possibilities for us all in our work.
Present
Andy Harmon, Anita Harmon, Colston Sanger, Deborah Tom, Denis Roberts, Fiona Coffey, Garth Spiers, Karen Lee, Peter Callendar, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Richard Chapman, Tony Page, Tony Williams, Yvana Reeves
Was it fun?
- "What a wonderful, extraordinary day - and great fun to boot. Thanks you so much."
- "Just a note to say thank you for a great workshop. I was looking for fun and found it. I love to learn and I did so in a most enjoyable way. Congratulations."
- "I thoroughly enjoyed the Wednesday theatre sports/games and definitely want to be included in future events."
- "Thank you for today. It was just fabulous...so much to take in and reflect on, but right now it feels really energising and fun to have spent the day playing, learning, making connections. Thanks also for bringing Roddy who was great to work with."
Was it valuable?
- "So many exercises. So rich! So many applications: yes this would be good for teambuilding, that for collaborative leadership, that's a useful set of dialogue tools...."
- "Yes, very worthwhile. I like their style. Although everything I do incorporates some theatrical element in it, I've never really focused on it. And maybe that's OK. Having kept up my Equity Card, I hope to do some professional work with Roddy - maybe I'll get discovered!"
- "I love the 'part of the whole' exercise we did today because it really connects with the stuff Tony and I are doing around engaging the whole system. It made me think about the different dynamics for those who are in at the start of the change programme and those that join later. also the issues around mergers, medling two different culture, becoming more customer led..."
- "I became even more excited about the potential of using these kinds of activities working with very senior people such as Boards and top teams. I got excited by the idea of spontaneous self-organisation after Roddy's flying coat exercise - about not needing heavy-handed control-obsessed leaders, but instead people who create the right challenge and conditions for the team to come together."
So what actually happened there?
Well each person no doubt has their own account of this, but my (Tony's) version of the day goes something like this.
We arrived at the theatre for a 10am start. Some had managed to beg a cup of tea from reception, others not. Pretty soon I think we all forgot about the poor coffee/tea arrangements as Andy, having introduced the parallels between being an actor and a consultant (both as good as our last performance etc) had us playing tag. We were rushing about, using our wits, laughing, warming up, getting used to the group and getting into the moment. Soon we were enacting scenes involving teapots, clocks, park benches. Tony W was playing a dog fighting a pigeon. Fiona was an officious bank teller. Then we were being coached as a group by Roddy to make a coat fly through the air. Then enacting a 2 minute family scene involving victims and suddenly it was time for lunch!
After fresh sandwiches, fruit and cheese board (provided by Helen Page) we were telling a story in a circle, then in pairs creating spontaneous stories about dragons, princesses, insects biting genitals (...and so on!) which sort of unfolded themsleves one word at a time. Roddy and Andy doing this was particularly fluent, entertaining and memorable. In pairs we practised the conversational skills of offering, blocking and accepting. I worked with Anita at this point and the improvised conversation we developed through the "yes but..."/"yes and.." framework was almost unstoppable. We ended the day by picking on people and attacking them (..verbally mainly, but Deborah also demonstrated some pretty convincing kick boxing!).
Most of my day was a totally absorbing experience with loads to take away to think about, and brief reflective interludes in which we inquired with Andy, Anita and Roddy about using this stuff. My trance was broken in the final session when Peter (in the spirit of the exercise) attacked me ... and I sprung to my own defence by attacking Peter's intelligence and competence (he asked for it you understand!)then felt inwardly ashamed, conflicted and frozen speechless. I was not the only person to find this conflict exercise troubling. It reminded me how much I still have to learn, but curiously, through this playful "workout", with help being provided by Andy from the sidelines, I feel that learning and real progress in my ability to operate in the moment, is not only possible but in fact quite probable with further playful practice.
Two measures that I would apply to the day are:
1.Did we each discover both some positive capacity in ourselves that we can call on in the future, and
2. Did we each discover a learning edge where there is a capacity we want to work/play on and develop?
I can answer yes to both and I suspect many others on the group can too.
Sincere thanks to Andy, Anita and Roddy,and to Helen for providing the sandwiches (- far better than Pret a Manger and much appreciated).
Do we want to come back for more?
- "I would very much like to do some more of what we did today. Whether that's one or a series of labs to try things out, I dunno."
- "I can see there is an awful lot more to learn through improvisation and look forward to participating in the set of workshops planned."
- "Oh yes put me down for the 6 sessions please."
- "I'd love to be part of a lab experiment and once a month would be fine by me. This idea has huge potential in many directions."
Where do we go from here?
Andy and Anita are offering to run a series of 6 sessions as a sort of action research lab in which they will further develop these approaches with us for use in a corporate context. Several of us have signed up already. Andy wants to keep a single group together throughout to enable continuity and pace, so if you want to get involved, contact them to find out more (innerskill@aol.com).