Military prejudice

I have to confess to a certain prejudice against the military. I grew up as an ‘airforce brat’ on airforce bases around NZ. As a child of the 1970’s (ok, not born then – I was a teenager) the command and control philosophy offended my hippie sensibilities.

As I get older, it seems to me that my prejudice is shared in the private and public sector. And yet often military people have many of the attributes of stronger leaders than their equivalents in ‘civvy street’. In my recent interactions with senior military now working in the public sector, one of the significant leadership attributes is openess to learning. Many have talked of debriefs after operations where everyone, regardless of rank, contributes in an open environment to capture learnings. The people I have meet display a lack of ego-driven behaviour and a focus on achievement. That I think is still relatively rare in the public and private sectors.

There is much to learn from the military for today’s ‘civvy street’ leaders.

 

Great Performance

Wow, we’ve just finished a great season of The Devils. For many of the cast it was the highlight of our acting career. After working together for 3 months, there’s the sadness of not working with the play or each other today. Many of the ingredients of this performance are the same as any great team performance.

• A director with a clear vision of what he wanted and the wisdom to graciously guide the actors towards it. Also a director who wasn’t afraid to ‘scold’ when necessary.
• A commited cast and crew who worked tirelessly towards that vision.
• A lack of ego, that resulted in a very harmonius dressing room (no bitchiness, as sometimes happens).
• A camraderie amongst everyone involved that meant no-one wanted to go home from the party after  the final night. I got home at 5am! And, everyone has been furiously emailing each other since.
• An energy that built on itself and meant that our performance developed as we went along as actors found and developed their characters.

Above all, I think it was one of those rare opportunities where people lose themselves in the pursuit of an inspiring goal. Definitely my best acting experience. Where’s my next one? Bring it on!