When all the boardroom's a stage

Leadership sessions run by a theatre director are proving a critical success among business managers, says Stephen Hoare

Far from being a fad, creative leadership training has been going from strength to strength. This year, the best-known proponent of the genre, Richard Olivier, launched a new consultancy, Olivier Mythodrama Associates, complete with a website, a staff of experienced facilitators and a packed schedule of training courses. He has also just published a book with the Industrial Society, Inspirational Leadership – Henry V and the Muse of Fire.

It all started three years ago at the Globe Theatre on London's South Bank. At the time, Olivier, eldest son of Sir Laurence, was directing Shakespeare's Henry V Part I. As part of the rehearsals, Olivier invited actors and a group of senior public sector managers to take part in a workshop. His aim was to give his cast an appreciation of corporate strategy and to discover a way of interpreting the play for modern audiences.

Very quickly, the managers were hooked and not just on the dramatic "Once more unto the breach" monologues. How does a small and heavily outnumbered English force defeat a well-equipped French army? What are the processes Henry goes through before he is ready to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? How does he motivate his soldiers?

Olivier explains: "I break the play down into five acts. In Act One, Henry is defining the mission and selling his vision; Act Two is dealing with the traitors; Act Three is about overcoming the first blocks and motivating the troops; Act Four, the night before Agincourt, is what I call the long dark night of the soul."

Olivier's message is that what matters in an effective manager is self-belief. Is that individual the right person in the right place at the right time to perform the task? Is the fear the leader is experiencing a sign he is going the wrong way or is it a barrier he needs to overcome? The final act, is about what happens after the victory. "It's about turning the battlefield into a garden – making a lasting peace."

The Globe workshop resulted in requests for Olivier to run a series of creativity and leadership sessions. "I was very determined that the Globe was not going to become some sort of Disneyland for American tourists, which is why I was determined to make the leadership aspect as realistic as possible," he says.

Olivier has never looked back. "I'd been a professional theatre director for 15 years. Being the son of Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright, it was always going to be hard to live up to people's expectations."

As it is, Richard Olivier has undoubtedly achieved far more recognition as a management trainer than as the director of West End productions such as Shirley Valentine and Present Laughter. He has run workshops on the major Shakespearian tragedies, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Hamlet at most of the major UK and, more recently, US business schools because they have themes that business leaders can identify with.

"The tragedies revolve around an individual with huge and powerful problems of leadership," Olivier says. "He is exposed, out on a limb. Hamlet is not just talking to himself – his actions affect thousands." As students of literature will recall, Hamlet sparks a string of killings culminating in a bloodbath of epic proportions.

But the decisions of a business leader do not have to end in tragedy. Olivier believes that by acting out conflict, analysing the choices and then putting the situation into words, managers can effectively handle people and manage creativity.

So the role of the manager is not unlike the theatre director? Olivier considers carefully. "The parallels between a theatre director and the director of a company are very close. It's getting a group of disparate people on side." But managing actors is harder. "In business, people are so willing to look at new ideas. Actors are not because they are insecure. This is not surprising since they are up there on stage and it is their professional reputation that is on the line. They don't like to try something."

Managers do not have to perform before the footlights, nor do they need to act Shakespeare. They will instead articulate ideas and develop confidence by interacting with a peer group. Olivier describes the technique as mythodrama.

"People don't act Shakespeare," Olivier explains. "They act out their personal response to a dilemma. As a leader, it's how you project yourself. It's the softer human skills – how to be a leader – rather than what to do."

People attending one of his courses can spend as little as two hours or up to a day or even four days on a course engaged in tasks such as identifying and dramatising management issues, role playing, even writing and rehearsing a script designed to win over a board. The courses help managers put feelings into words and adapt them and rehearse them until the meaning is clear and they have the desired effect.

This kind of experiential technique – learning by doing – is effective. Richard Olivier sums up the impact of his training: "There's an old Chinese proverb, 'What I see, I forget; what I read, I remember; what I do, I know'."

For further information contact: info@oliviermythodrama.com