Living for the Intermission

I really enjoy live theater and live concerts. We have a performing arts school here in Fargo called Trollwood Performing Arts and every summer kids of all ages and from all over the world come to study and perform. The highlight of the summer program is the musical performance for 3 weekends in July.

This year's show was "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and it was absolutely breathtaking. It was really difficult to believe that every single cast member was younger than 18. I'm blown away every year by the quality of the talent and the quality of the performance. Among the productions they've done are "The Music Man," "The Wizard of Oz," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "42nd Street," "Guys and Dolls," and even "Les Miserables."

As I've been thinking more about my company, Bock's Office Transformational Consulting, which we want to compare to a production experience but not an event, and I think also about what I've experienced at Trollwood's performances, I see the parallels between theater and corporate America.

Both are well rehearsed and involve lots of moving parts. In the best case, each has an element of ownership and wonder. There are roles for everyone on the cast to play, and things run the most smoothly when everyone understands their roles and works to improve. Each can be a lot of fun to be part of, and when things are going well, the audience (the customers) are delighted.

We at Bock's Office want to help organizations develop those roles for their cast members in such a way that customers, vendors, suppliers, partners and anyone involved with the organization is delighted to be a part of the organization. That's my vision.

On a related but slightly different track, I've been thinking of myself and my own personal journey throughout this lifetime.

I've always been one who enjoys the first act. That first act has always been the most exciting - you know, the part where they set up the rest of the play by giving the background and providing all the character information and underlying connections that set up the second act. The second act is when everything is resolved. All the pieces fit together and most of the time, especially when it comes to musicals, everyone lives happily ever after.

But I've been thinking recently about the intermission and what that means for me in my life. If I see the first act of my life, that has been about learning and studying and understanding. It's been about filling myself up with knowledge and information. I think that's where I've been up to this point. I now see myself looking forward to the intermission, where I can process and utilize all this material and apply my learning to some possible solutions. The second act is when the solutions get applied and tried or tweaked. I'm ready to go there. I'm looking forward to acting on purpose and really applying my learning to my own and my clients' lives.

Of course this has been a cyclical process for specific projects - I certainly have applied my learning and tweaked and relearned many, many time. However, as I think about myself and my own evolution, I've been more focused on the first act overall.

I'm now ready for the intermission. I want to stop and put my learning to the test. To get out and help more companies and more people with the process based on the results they are getting and to help them see that their present results are not a reflection of their possible futures.

I realize that one of my gifts is brainstorming possibilities. I know it's necessary to put specific goals to the possibilities, but I don't think many of us spend enough time in the possibility stage. Maybe that's what I'll call that part of the process for Bock's Office - the Possibility Stage. On that stage you can try out different parts and roles and costumes and see what it might be like to exist in various possibilities related to the future of the organization and the people involved with it.

At any rate, I see all of this as the intermission - the space between the acts - where I can grab some popcorn and make sense of all the knowledge I've accumulated over the many years I've been filling my brain full of information.

It's time - and look out when the ideas begin to pop! I'll keep you informed on the progress!