There’s a theater game that they play in classrooms all over the world, from grade school to graduate school, where actors in training become part of a big machine . The game begins with one person standing alone, miming repetitive actions with repetitive sounds. The group watches until someone has an idea, and they join the first person, connecting part of their body to the other person’s and inventing their own action and sounds. This repeats until all the spectators become participants, and the group is acting like one large robotic machine.
This is a very useful exercise for performers, because it gets actors used to focusing on each other’s rhythms, so they become keenly attuned to everyone’s actions and sounds to create something harmonious. It’s not too much of a stretch to see how this might have very useful metaphorical applications in corporate team building . In the exercise, like in any successful business operation, there is no leading player, but everyone gets to make a very useful contribution. The more well-constructed the machine, the more it is dependent on the active participation of all the spectators. One does not have time nor opportunity to watch and weigh all the choices, but has to jump into the moment and make things up as they go along.
In the game, one has the luxury of finding ways to modify their choices of action and sound in order to contribute better to the whole. It is the same with a sales team, and sales training courses can help to develop the unique contributions of the individual. But like in the game, if something isn’t working, it’s easy to take one’s cue from the rest of the team to find new ways of making things work. The human machines work together, and have the potential to help each other perform better. It’s an excellent way to help people to find ways to put their egos on hold, in order to make the most of a moment, and create something very positive together.