At the Circus
The Circus came to Kenilworth this week. We went to the first performance and saw dancing horses, a man who looked like David Hasselhof running round the wheel of death and some Mongolian acrobats.
It made me think more about my ideas about the industrial revolution squashing people into roles that were created to serve machines. What if we look at non-industrial working lives that predated the industrial revolution to see how they work? And of course, the circus or at least the idea of the travelling show or carnival, has been around for a lot longer than industrialisation.
The circus comprises acts, and each act is responsible for developing its own skills, people , props etc. The circus as a whole is choreographed so that everything fits together. The clowns keep the audience's attention whilst the next act is being set up and the ringmaster's job is to warm the audience up and stage manage the whole show.
By the way, that's team-work. The structures we see in organisational 'teams' are not teams just because a bunch of people work for the same manager. When they hold 'team building' days the result is a mess with a facilitator struggling to get the group to take his barrels of radioactive waste seriously.
The Mongolian acrobats were amazing, in fact I was thinking of taking the excellerate team to the circus just to see them. At one point, there are three of them on each other's shoulders, then the top one does a back somersault and lands on the shoulders of two standing behind her. She has to know that they will be where they are supposed to be and that they are paying close attention to her, otherwise she could fall and kill herself.
Sales teams aren't teams. Most corporate teams are actually groups of individuals, which is probably why Ascent works so well within the corporate format, with its focus on developing the individual.
Anyway, the point about the circus is that when a new act is needed, they don't advertise for a juggler who can juggle 6 flaming torches whilst balancing on a basketball. What - you only balance on a can of baked beans? Well I suppose we could retrain you...
No - they advertise for an act. They then look at applicants to see which act fits with the overall theme of the circus, for example they probably don't need two lots of acrobats. They make sure that each act complements the others. Other than that, it's up to each act to develop a successful routine using their own skills and resources.
The other interesting thing I noticed is that there wasn't one 'headline act'. The Mongolian acrobats and Bobby Roberts himself with his dancing horses both seemed like 'big acts'. And the guy with the mullett who balanced on tubes whilst juggling, and then ran round the wheel of death was pretty big too. Sure, some of the acts were a bit less impactful, such as a the girl who lay on her back and juggled with her feet. The overall show combined big acts and filler acts, and all were needed to create the 'greatest show on Earth'.
So I thought this was a pretty good role model for the way that we were designed to work together, and certainly for the way that excellerate works.
It made me think more about my ideas about the industrial revolution squashing people into roles that were created to serve machines. What if we look at non-industrial working lives that predated the industrial revolution to see how they work? And of course, the circus or at least the idea of the travelling show or carnival, has been around for a lot longer than industrialisation.
The circus comprises acts, and each act is responsible for developing its own skills, people , props etc. The circus as a whole is choreographed so that everything fits together. The clowns keep the audience's attention whilst the next act is being set up and the ringmaster's job is to warm the audience up and stage manage the whole show.
By the way, that's team-work. The structures we see in organisational 'teams' are not teams just because a bunch of people work for the same manager. When they hold 'team building' days the result is a mess with a facilitator struggling to get the group to take his barrels of radioactive waste seriously.
The Mongolian acrobats were amazing, in fact I was thinking of taking the excellerate team to the circus just to see them. At one point, there are three of them on each other's shoulders, then the top one does a back somersault and lands on the shoulders of two standing behind her. She has to know that they will be where they are supposed to be and that they are paying close attention to her, otherwise she could fall and kill herself.
Sales teams aren't teams. Most corporate teams are actually groups of individuals, which is probably why Ascent works so well within the corporate format, with its focus on developing the individual.
Anyway, the point about the circus is that when a new act is needed, they don't advertise for a juggler who can juggle 6 flaming torches whilst balancing on a basketball. What - you only balance on a can of baked beans? Well I suppose we could retrain you...
No - they advertise for an act. They then look at applicants to see which act fits with the overall theme of the circus, for example they probably don't need two lots of acrobats. They make sure that each act complements the others. Other than that, it's up to each act to develop a successful routine using their own skills and resources.
The other interesting thing I noticed is that there wasn't one 'headline act'. The Mongolian acrobats and Bobby Roberts himself with his dancing horses both seemed like 'big acts'. And the guy with the mullett who balanced on tubes whilst juggling, and then ran round the wheel of death was pretty big too. Sure, some of the acts were a bit less impactful, such as a the girl who lay on her back and juggled with her feet. The overall show combined big acts and filler acts, and all were needed to create the 'greatest show on Earth'.
So I thought this was a pretty good role model for the way that we were designed to work together, and certainly for the way that excellerate works.
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