As an independent communications consultant, I have worked for more than 20 years on behalf of governments and other organizations whose change issues are surrounded by uncertainty and dynamics. How do you know what’s going on, where a situation is heading, and what really matters? How can you effectively involve those involved in an issue and make effective and sustainable changes together?
To answer such questions I like to use literature and theatre. After all, stories are mirrors of our reality. They provide insight into human interactions and patterns. In this way they can serve as a reflection and intervention instrument.
After my interdisciplinary PhD in Shakespeare & sustainability, I specialized in qualitative research and the application of narrative learning and reflection methods for change initiatives and reform agendas of governments and other organizations. I developed the method together with colleague Mike Duijn Shakespeare for sustainable decision-making. I am a senior researcher at GovernEUR and managing director/ senior consulting researcher at Learning Stage, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Playfully
At nursery school I could listen breathlessly when the teacher told a story. I had a rich imagination and in my imagination her stories became reality. The old sailing ship in the harbour was the home of Noah and the animals. The loose tile in the schoolyard was the gateway to the underground fairy kingdom. When I learned to read, I discovered that there are many more worlds than the world in which I walked from home to school and back again every day.
I was introduced to theatre during my studies in English Literature. We read and analysed plays and discussed them. Then we divided the tasks and performed the play in the university theatre. I thought what happened there between players and spectators was magical. As if the words of the playwright, the music of the composer, the choices of the dramaturge, director and designers merged into another reality. A reality that everyone – players, audience, production team – ‘took home’ at the end of the evening. And which sometimes changed their perspective on life.
When years later I heard Hamlet say that the purpose of playing is ‘to hold the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time’ it dawned on me: art, and especially theatre, works as a mirror. In that mirror we see ourselves in (the force field of) society in which we live. We can use the theatrical mirror as a compass: what works, what doesn’t work? What do the choices I make lead to? Am I aware of other perspectives that broaden mine?
One can ask such questions as an individual, as a team, as an organization or as a society. Thinking about such questions increases awareness of one’s own role in the bigger picture. The questions also function as a reflection instrument to have a conversation about changes that are needed; at a personal, professional or societal level. Such a reflection conversation is about searching together for what is of value to you and the other person, what your shared story is, and how you put that story into practice. I love having such conversations and feel privileged to guide them, for people’s trust and their openness. And because they often lead to essential encounters that generate sustainable change.
“All the world’s a stage,” Shakespeare wrote elsewhere, “And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.’ Ultimately, we are all players. We are players of stories: our own story, the story of our team, of our organization, of our society. And as we regularly reflect on our own role and that of others in a larger force field, we can learn. Playfully.
