Years ago, in the 1970's, I started a new program at UCLA on how to manage performing arts organizations. It included all the performing arts--- opera, theater, symphonic orchestras, etc. It turned out that there were no precedents anywhere and it became the first university program anywhere---Europe, Asia, the US---devoted to arts management.
At the time, there was no literature on the subject, so as part of my research, I spent every evening watching the same play at the Los Angeles Music Center where I was working as a consultant.
I would interview the director, the actors, the audience, trying to see what was involved in producing a play.
Before the show began all the actors would go to a "green room" where they would hold hands and remain silent for few moments, getting into their role.
One night one of the actors threw his hands up and broke the silence. In a high, dramatic voice, he shouted: "If someone tries to break me up again, I will stop the show!!!"
That night the play was not performed well. I could feel it. The director could feel it. I wondered what it meant when an actor said that someone was "trying to break him up."
So, I asked.
To break up an actor means that when he (or she) is on stage in a very dramatic scene, say he is crying over his son's dead body, another actor backstage on the side lines hidden by the drawn curtains, makes faces at the performing actor in an effort to break his dramatic performance.
Whoa, I said to myself. What motivated this actor night after night to perform in spite of the distractions? It was not money. The actors were paid very little in comparison with what they earned on TV or in films.
It is certainly not fear of the director.
So, what is it that motivates them?
If I could only use this "magical" trick in the industrial world, it would increase productivity sending it sky high. In the industrial world any distraction reduces productivity. Moreover, labor is constantly demanding more money, and then more money again.
What was it about the actors and the stage?
Then I realized. It is the audience. If the curtain was down this actor would have stopped acting and probably launched an attack on whoever was distracting and teasing him.
It is the audience.
In the industrial world workers on the line never see the audience. Never get feed-back from those for whom they are producing or serving
What is it that the audience does?
Do you realize when the show is over, the actors, singers, ballerinas, musicians, get on stage and BOW to the audience and frequently clap hands TO the audience as a sign of their appreciation.
What are the actors thanking the audience for?
When you do something for someone else, and that someone else truly appreciates what you have done for them, they give you energy.
In the eastern tradition, a Buddhist will tell you: "Thank you for allowing me to serve you."
In the industrial world, we have lost that connection. The worker putting a car together not only does not see who drives it, he or she does not even see the finished product they helped produce. How could they be motivated? Only with money. And that is one reason why labor wants more and more of it.
In previous times the artisan made a product and could see who purchased it, who benefited from it. He had an audience. He was driven not only by money but by pride. By the feedback he received from those who bought and used and appreciated his work. That is not true anymore in the industrial world we live in.
How can we "bring the audience in" within the industrial world?
Let me give you an example.
I had a client that manufactured the machines and masks used in hospitals for those with breathing difficulties. There were some quality control problems. They were considering how to improve quality control, among other things, how many more people they needed to add to that department.
I thought to myself, how can I "bring the audience in?"
I took the leaders of the production line to a hospital, to the children's wing so they could see how children breath on their equipment. We took pictures of the children and placed them on every machine that was turned out. But that is difficult to do, let's say, for an auto manufacturer. How can we "bring the audience in" there?
Well who is the client of the production department? The sales people. So how about having an appreciation day for the production department orchestrated by the sales people? And who are the clients of the accounting department? The rest of the organization. So how about a company-wide appreciation of the accounting department?
If we appreciate each other more inside the company, we might find ourselves appreciated more by our clients outside the company.
Just thinking,
Ichak Kalderon Adizes