What lies Underneath?

So a quick catch-up blog which will have to cover December…

At the end of December I had two key events – Creative Team building training in Zilina (Slovakia) and visiting Limerick to see a new piece of theatre …

Zilina was the residential training event supporting Akademia Zilina.

http://bit.ly/169UbXq

Working with Peter and Suz of NaPerone Theatre Company of Kosice.

http://naperone.sk/en/show/1837-theatre-on-the-platform-

The training was for 25 secretaries from a German automotive firm. Most of them worked as PAs and all were female…It was an interesting dynamic!!!

Peter and Suz were the Actors and the task was to work with the secretaries on their communication skills. We did some fun role-plays which mostly seemed to involve the girls abusing Peter (the boss) or instructing Suz (the PA) to abuse him!! Mostly I think they used the opportunity of training to say and do all the things they wish they could in the real world.

It was fun when the girls instructed Suz to give the boss an annual review on his own management style and skills  – it was very funny and very harsh… and who knows maybe some of the fun stuff will seep through to have an impact on how they work in a challenging environment when so much is expected of them?

Our training partners Akademia Zilina provided the translation and support for me and I worked with the actors to bring the whole thing to life in a dynamic way – and they were very good.

Peter and Suz also ran exercises – which included two classic moments. Firstly we went outside  of the hotel onto a terrace (it was a Ski Resort) and did some vocal training which included projecting our voices towards the mountains. After ten minutes of throwing voices we heard a voice come back from the other side of the mountains “Help!” – maybe they were training too???

The other classic moment was also outside when Miro (one of the other trainers) was trying to do a creative thinking exercise – with eyes closed “imagine yourself doing… so and so..” but the whole time we were doing the exercise we had one of the other trainers shouting “Kubo” “Kubo” “Kubo” as her dog ran madly in between 25 bemused (and hung-over secretaries).

“KUBO!!!”

Overall less about art and creativity and more about team-building and dog handling but an interesting challenge.

And most importantly I trained up actors to deliver this type of training – this is now an income stream for them as we build up Arts and Business Connections in Slovakia as part of Creative Kosice.

As 2015 evolves I will be training more and more artists to use their skills in Arts and Business cross-over activities which we hope will expand with international projects galore – watch this space!

http://www.kosice2013.sk/en/

The end to the Zilina trip was a three hour wait on the train station  to get the train back to Kosice – very cold … but i did feel like i was in a European Art Movie … stuck in a station in the middle of nowhere…

Ireland

In December I was also in Ireland for the premiere of Underneath by Fishamble Theatre of Dublin.

http://fishamble.com/category/current-plays/

Limerick is … well… who knows I spent the entire time in bars or in the hotel spa!!

But I am sure the rest of it is very nice!

Pat Kinevane was the actor starring in Underneath a one-man show he has penned about life death and judging (or not…) the book by its cover.

I love Pat as a performer (and writer) having produced his last two solo plays Silent and Forgotten at Hotbed Festival over the past couple of years:

http://www.menagerie.uk.com/hotbedfest/hotbed-2013/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yl-RY3z7ak

One first viewing I was not totally convinced by Underneath. It appeared to be covering familiar (similar) ground in terms of both subject and particularly style,  as the previous piece Silent.

However I got sucked into it enough to care and to be challenged by the notion of how we see each other –particularly physically. And to be honest it has been a slow burner for me – watching it on opening night is always a little difficult and material needs to settle, but the material has stayed with me – now six weeks later I am still with the heroine as she battles societal ‘norms’.

Pat is a truly mesmerising performer and the material is strong and relevant. My only true criticism is the insertion of jokes which don’t come directly out of or feed into the story. They are unnecessary and really break the rhythm. This aside, Underneath is a modern parable brilliantly told that will challenge the way you view ‘beauty’ .

I hope to grab it for Hotbed – and I know it will be in Edinburgh at the fringe in 2015 – so definitely catch it before it gets its Fringe First!

OK, travels since Limerick include Czech Republic, Germany and Holland – more to follow… let’s see what lies beneath…

BLOG: Could The Dalai Lama do this workshop? RESPECT!

Traveling on WizzAir includes the stress of the 16 Euro seat…

I sit in an extra legroom seat – pay an additional 16 Euros at time of booking (well , Ok…someone pays it for me!), and enjoy the comfort of space and the responsibility of manning the Emergency Exit. Travelling with colleague Paul Bogen once, when asked by the Steward ‘’”are you comfortable and confident to use the emergency Exit?” he replied: “yes I’ve done it before many times” which got a great double take.

The only problem is that the 16 Euro seat is in a row that today is only sat in by me – two lovely extra large spare seats – and every few minutes a little old lady or mother with child, asks me in Slovak “is this seat free?” to which I grimace and say…”I think so” knowing full well than it a few moments they will be turfed out of the seat unless they pay 16 Euros.

On this particular flight I have four people try sit next to me … none survive the 16 Euro seat challenge. The looks to me as they leave are between pity and disgust as overweight men, old ladies and pregnant women are removed and forced to the back of the plane!

However, nothing will ever beat the time when flying from Chicago I unwittingly forced a passenger out of his Business Class seat into Economy so that I could sit with my upgraded family. So embarrassing when I realised a few moments later what I had done… Trudi (my daughter) offered to take him my (his) Champagne but when I saw he was now seated in the middle of three people next the toilet at the back of the plane I thought it was best to leave it…

The WizzAir seat game stress is relieved for a moment when I am sure the announcement is to:

“Please step away from the plane aisles to allow boring passengers to enter…”

Bit harsh.

I feel like offering some of these less interesting people 16 Euros to sit next to me…

News this week includes the exciting development that I failed a security check to work with an Israeli Executive working on some kind of project around drilling (or nuclear weapons – something like that..).A request came in that this guy’s leadership style “needed shaking up” and that I was the person to do it. Well not according to The Mossad who found something unacceptable in my background. Too many trips to the Middle East maybe? Or just the extremely dodgy passport photo? Either way I feel somewhat impressed that I am an official security risk and mildly relieved that I don’t have to shake up some aggressive businessman…

No aggressive businessmen this week – rather the opposite charming and very interesting Olaf Baumann – Managing Director of FPT Slovakia. Going through transition (take-over) from RWE to FPT (see blog 3^rd October).

I spend some time in a small coaching session looking at options going forward to help cement a positive workforce transition. He is doing the right things – open communication channels – and questions like “are our jobs under threat.. ?” “Yes”.

But mostly focussing on opportunities for staff including possibility of working in Vietnam, Vietnamese workers coming to Slovakia and all the cultural and work possibilities this brings. My main additional suggestion is to bring in some new faces that are not employees of FPT in any capacity. This neutral talent will be able to focus on work – not change. Getting back to tendering and supporting current contracts. In Leadership terms this tactic can prove powerful and effective – the positive catalyst of new faces…

http://sk.linkedin.com/pub/olaf-baumann/11/4b7/698

I met with all the artists in development at Tarantinos Bar – the legendary watering hole of the Creatives.

https://foursquare.com/v/bar-tarantino/4b71526ff964a52010412de3

Essentially as far as I can tell someone’s living room with a shelf with alcohol on it… I think people pay for their drinks but not always.

Anyway well worth a visit if you want to meet an artist or creative in Kosice! Many of these artists are moving forward with professionalising their products and practises and great to catch up with them…

Interesting developments with menagerie and potential partners include a joint project with new writing company NaPerone for our Festival in 2015 or 2016. Looking at cultural possibilities in making theatre in two languages and from two perspectives. Looks really interesting and I hope it comes off.

I have an image of musicians, two languages and for some reason… a ladder! Not sure why… but let’s see.

http://naperone.sk/sk

http://www.menagerie.uk.com/

In addition to this we are looking at bringing our play Bloominauschwtiz to the Mazal Tov festival in Kosice in 2015. These relationships and possibilities are the creative collisions I have been hoping for and will be looking to develop and exploit more and more for everyone’s benefit. Mirka Vargova is one of the directors of the festival and also leading on development of Arts and Business Connections…  http://mazaltov.sk/en/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyyXfzieAOg

The final event this week is working with Arts and Business Connections to deliver a workshop for T-Systems a company that is part of Deutsche Telecom. T- Mobile etc.

Today is Guiding Principles Day – celebrating organisational Values including the usual suspects:

• Customer Delight and Simplicity
• Team Together
• Best place to Perform
• Count On Me

And today’s topic to be brought to life … Respect and Recognition.

My tactic is as always to bring the dynamics behind such words to life. We play games, discuss behaviours and challenge thinking…

75 Slovaks and a very stuffy room make it challenging. But they are a great crowd and we have fun.

I am told to ‘”start” exactly at 2pm – I must respect time…

OK here we go…

Understanding authentic interactions, tactical performance in communication, instinctively understanding people and establishing facts to support suppositions…

It gets interesting as we explore self–confidence , creating confidence in others and building on personal as well as organisational values. It all gets a bit Zen and I can hear myself getting suddenly out of my comfort zone as we touch on  religion and morals (clearly getting way out of depth now)…

“Paul how can I be comfortable in my own journey…? ”

“Err.. Ok lets explore this notion through a game with juggling balls shall we??!!!”

Actually I really enjoyed the day. Exploring Tolerance vs. Respect is interesting and the answers are as always, somewhere in the room.

I stick to what I know – create a framework for a positive communication dynamic…we do improvisation, create Tableaus, we describe scenes and scenarios and act out situations. In-between we play games, jump on chairs clap , shout and run around and finally dancing out of the room to Aretha Franklin’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T…

and of course get out the Juggling Balls of Respect! see …nothing that The Dalai Lama wouldn’t enjoy…

Peace.

 

20th September: Arts and Business …The can the circle be complete?

Another week in Kosice…dynamic  and challenging.

This Eastern Slovakian town is pretty and interesting.

I am working with the guys from Kosice 2013 to set up a new company Arts and Business Connections. This new organisation of which I will be Artistic Director/Advisor/Slave, will foster relationships between the two sectors encouraging dual opportunities in creative learning, exchange of personnel, training, incubation etc.

http://www.kosice2013.sk/en/

My specific role is to up-skill artists to deliver training for companies. This week I have a dozen meetings and three key training days.

Day one includes training Na Perone Theatre in improvisation delivery as actors in role-play. The guys are really talented and actor Peter creates some of the best improvs I have seen for a while including role-play for dealing with a colleague who is consistently late. In one improvisation he offers his watch as an incentive to encourage on-time delivery and in another allows his frustrations to bubble over to the point where he doesn’t speak but just plays out his emotions by drumming on the desk – the result is a terrified employee and a hilarious scenario of a manager being tipped over the edge. Haven’t laughed so much in ages. These guys at NaPerone have what is a key quality for workshop delivery; improvisation skills, ability to listen, a connection with the audience but mostly they have energy and presence.

In all of my workshops I talk about the energy and presence as vital dynamics in leaders or entrepreneurs but as well as talking about it, it is great when participants can see and feel it.

The skills of actors in training is to play and explore. It is the facilitators’ job to guide, provoke and cajole meaning through the participation of the audience. Our training scenario in this workshop has learning around action and reaction in behaviour and some techniques in opening and closing certain situations, but its real legacy and impact is that it is… memorable.

This idea that you are entertained whilst learning gives a real depth and value to training. We will never forget the techniques used or behaviours observed that made us smile or that we recognised in ourselves and others. Delivery of scenarios and characters are in many instances in cartoon form – but therein lies the opportunity for learning, it is the facilitator picks away at the cartoon until this truth is revealed.

If I want to watch real workplace scenarios then I can go and sit in an office.

If I want to watch a real domestic drama I can sit in my own living room. Neither have the craft to engage and reveal…and entertain.

I am however not a fan of pure role-play between colleagues in the training room. Mix an actor into the scenario and validity and impact grows. There is no longer competition between colleagues, but rather the challenge of engagement with the unpredictable actor expanding or challenging the rules and skills of the participant.

When we worked a few years ago with McLaren Formula One Racing it was the work with Comedian Darren Strange that brought a leadership training event to life. The group was not so engaged with management theory or self-reflection groups – they wanted a spark and Darren gave them that. Suddenly in word-play games and improvisation they had someone who they could pit their wits against. Someone who had skills that they could try to imitate but would find hard to conquer.

DARREN:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EIPF66Io1w

http://www.mclaren.com/

In all the years of training I have realised how much leaders in particular want to engage with people of talent. Whether they are musicians, actors or visual artists, the factor which heightens impact is the challenge of being in the presence of someone of talent.

I don’t necessarily include myself in this category – I hope people are intrigued and inspired by what I do, so it is often that I will bring in colleagues who are true experts in their fields to challenge people in how they see the world.

I have done this with Conceptual Artist Chris Dobrowolski, Actors Jasmine Hyde, Helen Gould, Caroline Rippin, Daren Strange and my colleague Patrick Morris, with Writer Fraser Grace, artist Idit Nathan sound composer Andrew Lovett, Musician Tom Harding (Tom the Pom), director Rachel Aspinwall etc

Fraser Grace- Writer: http://www.frasergrace.co.uk/

Chris Dob: Artist http://chrisdobo.tumblr.com/

Tom Harding Musician: http://www.tomthepom.com/

Jasmine Hyde, Actor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmine_Hyde

Andrew Lovett, Musician: http://andrewlovett.virb.com/

Idit Nathan designer: http://www.iditnathan.org.uk/

Rachel Aspinwall: http://theenginehouse.org.uk/

More about Rachel and others later but  her Engine House Project is fabulous.

In one session for The BBC we assembled ‘all the talents’ literally getting five world-class artists to simply spend a day exploring the nature of their Creative Thinking (ok so that’s what they spend the License Fee on!!)

So stage one of my week was I think a success – I engaged also with a digital Artist Michaela Bottkova. Who I think is interesting – we have to work out how she can engage with businesses. One thing we are looking at with her is around an Artistic Residency where she can work with an organisation looking at their Products, People and Processes and articulating a response that could be of value to her as an artistic endeavour and for the business as an intervention.

http://trakt.sk/en

The value of interventions is what took up a lot of day two in Kosice which featured a very interesting Case Study from Gothenburg with the project Tilt run by Pia Areblad who I co-presented with..

http://bit.ly/1wO8RUt

More on her dynamic ideas of the cross fertilisation of arts and business to follow…but here is an introduction to a comparative study on the impact of Artistic ~Interventions

http://www.wzb.eu/sites/default/files/u30/report_managing_artistic_interventions_2011.pdf

But for me I have to ensure I can continue to feed Menagerie and myself with these experiences. I enjoy the challenge this world brings but for me as an Artist I need to ensure the circle is complete and it is not just money that is generated through these workshops and relationships.

The good news is that we are in agreement in 2015 to bring one of our shows Bloominauschwtiz to Kosice (and on to Moscow) so I guess the circle will start to seem more complete…

http://www.menagerie.uk.com/