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Despite being very aggressive, extremely dangerous animals and fierce fighters, Buffalo are very peaceful amongst themselves. Buffaloes can even outrun lions. But unable to accelerate quickly, they are comparatively easy for lions to ambush. On the other hand, Lions risk a herd mobbing attack when they catch a buffalo, are often treed, and occasionally trampled or gored. Buffaloes are not the biggest or fastest animal but definitely the most aggressive. If they see anything that they do not trust or is unknown to them, their first reaction is fight and not flight. Therefore, when an angry buffalo (usually weighing 800 Kg.) approaches you at 56 km per hour, find a tree!
Fear of the unknown or credit worthiness is all about trust. The perception that industrial theatre is not a credible intervention in the world of business or something that is unknown (and the unknown often creates fear) is the greatest obstacle facing the successful growth of this methodology. Fortunately the business world is not as aggressive as the Buffalo, but the impact or result of distrust is often the same, that is find a tree!
The intent of this article is not to further anger the "Buffalo" (it can get lonely in the tree), but to identify the underlying issues that creates this distrust, in order to effectively deal with those assumptions and perceptions. This hopefully will ensure an environment where appropriate theatre interventions provides for a win-win solution for business needs on a regular basis.
Before the assumptions and perceptions about industrial theatre that creates distrust are dealt with, let's explore what trust is all about. Definitions of the concept of trust includes:
- Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.
- Suspension of disbelief
- A condition in which one is free from doubt
- Acceptance as true or valid
- To have confidence in the truthfulness
It is certainly difficult for the industrial theatre methodology to measure up against these unconditional requirements, and probably also for a fair number of training, development, communication or marketing methodologies. Let's explore why industrial theatre is often mistrusted and determine if this negative perception is fact or fiction?
As in all parts of the world, the work available to actors is far less than the actors available to do the work. This often leads to performers having to create their own work. Actors will create plays for arts festivals, soirees and Industrial Theatre applications. Often these performers are highly talented individuals with great dramatic skills but with less than adequate business knowledge. The resultant work is then dramatically good but useless as a business application. This creates distrust and as the performer is not geared to ongoing customer service, many fine actors have been labelled as "Fly-by-nighters".
On the other hand, perceptions that some businesses have about industrial theatre, as an established and credible industry is almost unbelievable. This is mostly not due to mistrust but rather about being completely uninformed. For example, an advertising company asked for a quotation for industrial theatre on behalf of one of their clients. The response came as quite a surprise and according to the advertising company; "Our client obviously never realised that there would be costs involved in organising something of this magnitude and seems to be under the assumption that all actors work for free!" Often underlying this type of thinking is that most people only see the finished product of the drama world, the performance (E.g. TV show, live shows.) and are never exposed to the extensive preparation such as scriptwriting and rehearsals that is necessary for quality work.
Little information about industrial theatre is freely available in current journals or textbooks. Even at universities or drama schools, this specialised subject is not dealt with in depth. One possible reason for this is that the industry is still in its baby shoes, and the knowledge is viewed by Industrial Theatre Companies as a competitive edge over their competitors. One can therefore hardly blame business for being ignorant or distrustful about theatre applications in the business world. Maybe in 5 or 10 years from now, the expertise required for quality industrial theatre will be common knowledge, and industrial theatre companies will compete on quality of service provided.
The training video business serves as an example - it has been around for a number of years and is often used as part of training - and therefore it is perceived as a trusted and credible training method. In other words, the buffalo will not charge when he sees this, as it is not an unknown entity that is not trusted. Unfortunately, the fact that it has been around for years does not mean that it is effective, it should be the results achieved that creates the trust. The case study included in this newsletter clearly demonstrates that theatre can be trusted to achieve results, but because this type of information is not common knowledge yet, fear of the unknown is still the prevalent attitude.
A number of other perceptions and assumptions exist that impacts on the credit worthiness of industrial theatre and they have been dealt with in detail in our previous articles, -such as:
To conclude, it is a fact that the perception exists that industrial theatre is not a credible methodology, however there is enough proof to state that it is fiction that theatre is not able to add value in the world of business. The time has come for industrial theatre to be positioned in business just as an oxpecker, a bird who eats the ticks and fleas on the hide of the buffalo, which means that they live in harmony, creating a win-win situation.
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