. o . .
If only we were more profitable, then we could afford better working conditions. If only our competitors were environmentally conscious, then we could be too. If only I had a better job, then I'd be able to show what I could do. If only I had a loving relationship, then I could express my feelings.
While there may be truth in all these, they really avoid action by blaming external events. They make a person or team solely reactive.
tt
In everyday
life'if"
is a fiction, in the
experiment. In eyeryday theatre
life'if
theatre
'if
is an
is an eyasion, in the
'if is the truth. When we are persuaded to
believe in this truth, then the theatre and life are one.
This is a high aim. lt sounds like hard work. The play needs much work. But when we experience the work as play,
then it is not work any more. A play is play.
tt
Peter Brook
The kind of IF we mean is when you wonderwhat would happen if . . . all sorts ofcrazy things. Using IF in this way is playing with images. It's performed by a different part of our brain to the bit handling logic and reason. Business has long used 'what if questions' to study dilferent business scenarios, choose between alternative cash flows, review options. Spread sheets on computers now let managers play their own'what iP games. Yet it's still mainly a specialist field, rather than a general resource for team creativity. Teams can use IF to transform, to stretch the imagination to reach for something new and better. This method might seem unduly speculative and totally open-ended. You could ask millions of that sort of 'what if question. Where does it start and end? It starts where most games begin, with everyone being willing not to ask 'What's the use of it?'Youjust enjoy it for its own sake to see where it leads. That is, you start at random, which is incidentally where so many dreams begin. But it's often also necessary to SEE what something would look like, HEAR what it would sound like and FEEL what sensations and experiences it arouses. You have to play with the image and then make it utterly real. That's what actors do every day in rehearsal. They create a character and build a scene by living out the future, acting out how it's going
to be.
It is also the basis of our own fast team-building programme, The Producers. During two and halfdays the team members have fun playing with a common issue such as how to launch a new product, or creating a new company culture. They make videos of how they currently see and what they feel about the present situation, what would it be like if they n0