HR takes to the stage

HR theater

Of all business departments out there, HR is the one most likely to be open to trying something different. Celebrating the diversity of the workplace is part and parcel of how most human resources departments run, and now, in an effort to avoid the monotony of traditional leadership seminars, HR is thinking outside the box for fresh inspiration.

If new reports from the UK are anything to go by, the days of Power Point presentations and flip charts are long forgotten. In fact, in London last week, 12 men and women began a very different kind of leadership course. The group, made up of managing directors and IT and HR managers, spent the unconventional course preparing for the production of a short play.

From their rehearsal room in West London, the trainees ended the course by putting on the play they had crafted, starring real actors, in front of a real audience.

A break from the norm

According to reports from the BBC, the trainees collaborated in a "down and dirty" room in a seminar designed to challenge preconceptions about theater and leadership. The workshop, known as the Director's Cut, is run by a London-based company called Leadership Theatre.

One of the company's founders, Tony Hall, who has previously taught leadership at Cranfield Business School, told the BBC how the course "breaks down the notion that the arts aren't commercial and businesses aren't creative."

Business as usual

Like more traditional training courses, the Director's Cut gets underway with the participants sitting at desks in a U-shape, discussing their respective jobs and skills. However, explains Hall, with the sound of actors rehearsing next door - the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda), a partner in the venture, can be heard through the walls - it soon becomes obvious that Leadership Theatre is different from any run-of-the-mill conference center.

From here, the participants are told they will get their plays at the end of the day, meet their actors the day after that and put on a performance in front of 60 people on the third day of the course.

By the end of day three, all participants will have been the driving force behind a fully fledged production.

The basis for Leadership Theatre comes from revered theater director Russell Reich, who recently wrote a book with the late theatre director Frank Hauser, about directing. Hall explains that, "Everything they were saying about directing for the stage applied to leadership."

Further analysis suggested a wider relationship between theater and business development, and Hall soon established the company with actor and trainer Paul Jamieson and psychologist Clare Amos. "What's more, the plays that the HR managers are dealing with aren't easy," says Hall.

At the seminar last week, plays included Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and David Mamet's Oleana - about a university professor accused of sexual harassment.

'Human relationships'

While some doubt the course is really beneficial to businesses, others have highly praised how the company is breaking the mould of leadership courses. One of the most promising appraisals from last week came courtesy of a HR director from a small UK-based electronics company. "Acting is all about human relationships," he told the BBC. "It's helped us with our succession planning."

Even more exciting for Hall is that all evidence suggests that growth for the company could be on the cards. By working with the actors, the bosses learn techniques - like giving effective feedback - in a new setting with people that are not used to management speak.

"The whole experience is about taking people out of their everyday experience," explains Amos.

"Some people come in all a bit cynical," says Hall, but by the end they're buzzing."

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