I recently profiled the talented theatrical director Ethan McSweeny, as a case example of Creative Economy leadership. Three insights from that post can apply to any leader pursuing innovation: design your product in a contemporary competitive context; construct it as an overall experience; and develop a distinctive “theory of value” that powerfully differentiates it.
A fourth insight from the previous post, equally applicable, focused on the “how” of McSweeny’s leadership: fostering an emergent process of creation with others. I came to understand that his sparkling dramas result from messy but deliberate experimentation, and iterative collaboration among many people, both behind and on stage. Today’s post elaborates on his process approach.
Probing The Emergent Creative Process
1. The Creative Leader sets up the opportunity for success. Ethan’s discussion about starting a project reflected a keen sense of strategy and self-knowledge.
Work begins when he pursues a directing opportunity. Beyond predictable questions about schedule, budget and prestige, he looks for at least two of three drivers of creative impact: “Is it a play I want to do? Is it a theatre or producer I want to work with? Will there and can there be other talented people involved (actors, technical staff) whom I trust and am excited to collaborate with?”
2. The Creative Leader builds a team around a core operating philosophy. The engagement of actors and technical staff for live theatre is a complex, multi-layered process. McSweeny pursues arrangements that build a shared understanding about how he wants the team to work. People join the production clear about a particular (and proven) way of working.
His beliefs embody an operating philosophy, a set of under-the-surface behavioral assumptions to support high-performance collaboration.
Core Beliefs
First, that although financial constraints must be respected, good art is what drives commercial success, not vice versa. “Too many plays today are hollow, designed backwards from producers’ guesses about audience or critics’ desires,” he avers.
Second, that the creative process must foster experiment and discovery. “I build a team that together will create magic–but we won’t know all of it on day one. I’ll have a preliminary vision, but it will evolve. My mantra is ‘plan relentlessly and be totally open to accident.’ Accidents spawn breakthroughs.”
Third, that all team members are responsible for success as “full citizens.” Adam Green the actor recalled early meetings of cast and crew in McSweeny productions. “He communicates that everyone in the room is important to the show, and will be trusted to do their best. He delegates well, doesn’t micromanage, and will frequently step back for someone else to lead. His rehearsals are pretty damn swell.”
McSweeny later commented: “My main goal is simply to get everybody operating at peak creativity. I’m not the racehorse, I’m the jockey. I have to get the real athletes ready to run the race of their lives—all at the same time.”
Project, Talent, Culture
3. The Creative Leader guides production as both project and process of talent and culture development. “Staging a play,” McSweeny noted, “is a left and right brain exercise.” For this director, left brain oversees a tight management schedule: recruiting, organizing, designing, and integrating the work of different sub-teams (acting and technical) into a final, polished production. Milestones and budgets must be met; the company tracks progress weekly, and together addresses problems if something is “still not working.”
But right brain is also always flashing—developing ideas, and nurturing creative impulses, both the director’s and his collaborators’. Concepts emerge through ongoing experimentation by different professionals, and the freedom—within a structure—that McSweeny encourages. Joe Smelser, his Shakespeare Theatre stage manager told me: “Ethan understands this is an art where ‘the paint talks back.’ He encourages people to speak up, try new things, and to keep developing their own craft.” Jenny Lord, Assistant Director for the Midsummer production agreed, observing that “theatre is an extremely collaborative art form–it’s very rare for anyone involved to be able to look at anything in a production and say, ‘That’s there because of me.'”
Adam Green explained that “much of what Ethan does is editing— ‘heightening and expanding’ what company members improvise during rehearsals.” McSweeny himself talks of “licensing actor’s experiments,” because “people own the idea better if it’s theirs. As the play moves from rehearsals to performances, you want the product to deepen and improve, while still maintaining structure and form.”
Right-Brain Messiness
Exploring accidental ideas is a messy, right-brain process. As the production marches forward, McSweeny also works with the company to circle back and retrofit creative concepts that have emerged. Ethan recalled that “In Midsummer Night’s Dream, we decided to portray the lover’s quarrel as a playful mud fight in the forest. It wasn’t working until the third week of rehearsals, when Adam suggested Puck play a mischievous role in sparking the chaos. But then we had to redesign all the movements, and the prop and costume departments had to try different mud mixtures and washable clothes.”
A major right-brain imperative is dealing with fear. McSweeny was adamant: “What actors do is very, very hard; they know I know that. They’re constantly afraid of failing before an audience. When you invest the whole company with responsibility, they all have fear too. Fear is the ultimate killer of creativity. Removing fear is one of my biggest jobs.”
McSweeny further reflected: “I signal that everyone will be respected. I learn each person’s concerns. I build confidence bottom up, starting with different sub-teams, so they find comfort in a smaller group before facing everyone in full rehearsal. We also do early rounds in deliberately informal settings—around a table, just reading; and then later in a dedicated rehearsal hall that’s not the main stage. It reinforces ‘it’s ok to try something that might not work out.’”
Storytelling Too
McSweeny also builds team culture with storytelling. “In table readings, I invite people to talk about personal experiences, perhaps with family or colleagues, or maybe a television program from the night before. It starts a safe discussion about ideas to try. I also share some of my own vulnerability. That also builds trust.”
Personal coaching is constant. In rehearsals, McSweeny will walk on stage, to help a particular actor or small group to improvise something not playing well.
“In The Tempest, we needed a flying Ariel. We had an actress perfect for the role—but it turned out she was deathly afraid of heights. We worked on that fear, at first privately, and then on stage with other actors. She went on to perform brilliantly— suspended from a cable 40 feet in the air.”
Closing Open Doors, Slowly
4. The Creative Leader curates the final product by “opening and then closing doors” at the right time.
The step-by-step development of a play—recruiting and casting, rehearsing different designs, sounds, characters and action—follows a classic project management funnel. You start wide, and get more focused as ideas gel. Narrowing the funnel requires making decisions that stick. So when there’s an ethos of experimentation, and “the paint talks back”—how do you move the company towards final creative choices?
McSweeny’s answer is by “opening and then closing doors.” At first, he’s all about opening: inviting any actor or technician to propose different ideas, or a new take on a scene or character.
But as the schedule advances, he forces inflection points. “I remind people every week where we are, and what comes next—which they like. And timing is everything. You need to build a sense when exploration ends. But not all at once. You use intuition; and also the text of the play—a source of authority, beyond just ‘what the director wants.’” After a while I’ll start closing doors, and then converge the team around a final answer. Cutting actors off too soon kills their creativity. Let debate flourish too long, actors then lose their way. Structure is freedom.”
Stretch And Capacity
5. The Creative Leader stretches for higher collective performance, and building future capacity. McSweeny summarized a leadership approach simultaneously nurturing and challenging. “I’m open to ideas from anyone but also have the self-confidence to critique them, as long as the team understands it’s to make them and the show better. I respect people’s views, and admit my mistakes. But I also expect them to do the same for me. If an idea isn’t working—whether it’s mine or someone else’s—we have to be willing to discard it.”
This leader also challenges himself and his team by recruiting a mix of both known and unknown talent for every production. “I start with a core of people I know and trust. But I always add some new people I don’t know—a designer, certain actors, or other contributors whom I’ve never worked with. It keeps all of us from falling into familiar patterns. It adds risk, but we all benefit from more innovation. It also keeps expanding my networks for future productions.”
Banishing Ego
6. The Creative Leader builds self-awareness through practice. Ethan McSweeny closed by reflecting on his own professional growth. “When I was younger,” he smiled, “people would naturally challenge my authority. I was more dictatorial, out of insecurity. Now I lead by example. In a collaborative environment, it’s really the better way. I still have to work on managing my own fear-based reactions. Those come out as frustration, or even anger sometimes. I’m getting better at ‘counting to 10’—and recognizing the frustration when it’s coming.”
He finished with advice for any Creative Leader. “The key thing with creative people is to understand where they’re coming from, and simply focus on what will get the best result –regardless of what you think you want. To do that well, you have to manage your ego out of the equation. Ego is right next to fear in killing creativity.”
Originally published on Forbes.com