Category Archives: leadership

Theater as a Business Metaphor

“The Humble Hound” is a great editorial in the New York Times (April 8, 2010) by David Brooks on leadership styles. It ends using theater as a metaphor.
The metaphor relates to the people who work behind the scenes, whose satisfaction comes, not from the applause, but from working with others towards a shared higher purpose.

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Ideas on when and how to fail

The two most artistically interesting people I know are Liz Lerman and Adrian Danzig. Liz is the founding Artistic Director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and Adrian the Artistic Director of 500 Clown. What do a dancer and a clown have in common? They ask the most daring artistic questions and risk their take on [...]

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Business as Theater

One of my favorite theater companies, Single Carrot Theatre, has been selected as a “Startup to Watch” by the Baltimore Business Journal. I’m delighted but not surprised. Every play that Single Carrot produces is a start-up venture. For each production they assemble a unique team of leaders, designers, techies, and performers around a core concept–the [...]

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The History of Branding

The history of branding goes something like this:
This is mine:

This is better:

I am like this:

When your audience intuitively understands what “like this” means, then you have a winning, sustainable brand.

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Stand for something people feel passionate about.

As a leader, you are your organization’s principal story teller. Employees, customers and stakeholders all look to you to set the theme and develop the plot. Tell a great story and they all want to become characters in it. Every interaction and transaction becomes charged with meaning and drama. In a good story, threats and [...]

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