I can’t possibly grasp the nuances of the current crisis and the bailout bill.  There is so much data, so many opinions, so many experts weighing in. The problem of credit derivatives unleashed into the global markets by mad mathematicians is so complex it will take legions of sane mathematicians years to unravel and set right.

So I look at it like this:

The crisis is an Elephant, and everyone wrestling with it–you, me, Hank Paulson and Barney Frank–is a Blind Man of Hindustan.  How we describe it depends on which part of it we’re feeling.  And no matter how we describe it, it doesn’t help us figure out what to do with the Elephant.  It’s just a very large animal standing there while blind people disagree about it.

So six blind men of Hindustan
disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
exceeding stiff and strong;
Though each was partly in the right,
they all were in the wrong! – John Godfrey Saxe

One of the benefits of improvisation in business is that it provides a lens, and a common language, through which we can see and learn from performance.  This triangulates the problem and gives us common ground for solving it.  Barney Frank sees the Wall Street problem from a Massachusetts legislator’s perspective.  I see it from a small businessperson’s perspective. As a person the cameras are pointed at, Barney is probably feeling the tusk, so he describes the Elephant as being ‘like a spear.’  From my perspective, the Elephant ‘feels very like a wall’ between me and capital.  If all we’re going to do is debate our differences, we’re never going to get anywhere.

But if Barney and I both speak improvisation…aha.  We can find agreement in that language. Our disagreement about what the Elephant looks like is no longer important because now our dialogue can be about what to do with the Elephant! 

Here’s an analysis of the ‘Bailout Scene’ seen through the lens of improvisation:

Casting:  It is casting more suited to a comedy than to the dramatic gravitas of the moment.  Hank Paulson looks like a steady hand, a guy who’s going to hold our attention onstage, but then he opens his mouth and it’s like a scene from the Exorcist:  “Can you help an old altar boy, Father?” Make it stop!  Barney Frank is like Uncle Frank in It’s a Wonderful Life.  We expect him to have a string tied around his finger to remember the bank deposit, and he’s still going to lose it.  He probably has a pet crow at home.  Boehner is content to sit and pose like some 1980s ad for men’s cologne.  Pelosi has the impossible objective of getting the Blind Men to agree on what the Elephant looks like and then describing that agreement to the voters.  Bush has jumped the shark a couple of times, and now looks like a guy getting eaten by the shark.

Additions and Edits:  There are so many people running on and off the stage that we in the audience are losing track of who the players are, and what roles they’re playing.  Is Warren Buffet a player in this?  I’m not quite sure.  McCain runs in like he’s got an important role to play, does nothing, runs off.  Bush appears on TV for 20 seconds.  Says nothing.  Exits.  Barney Frank tells us in one breath that the country is facing its biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, and then announces that he’s taking a day off work.

Stage Spacing:  There are so many people crowded into the frame in scenes from the U.S. Capitol that viewers are almost forced to ask themselves, ‘Who are they and what are they doing there?’  It becomes a kind of political trivia contest, and makes it difficult for the person speaking to hold the audience’s focus.

Suggestions From the Audience:  If anyone in this scene had a lick of improvisation training, they’d understand the importance of collaborating with the audience.  Improvisation is predicated on the idea that the audience gets involved.  By failing to understand the audience’s anger at the people who created the current turmoil, the players in this scene now have an audience revolt on their hands.  People are out on the sidewalk demanding their money back, and it is not going to be easy to coax them back into the theater.

I wish I could give this a better spin, but they don’t call it a crisis for nothing.  It is, above all else, a crisis in confidence.  The audience has lost confidence in the performance.

The one bright spot in this is Barack Obama, who is a skillful improviser.  As such, he understood from the start that he did not belong in the Bailout Scene, and wisely remained offstage.  Confusing the Election Scene with the Bailout Scene would not have helped anyone’s performance.

With the current scene devolving into chaos, Obama is editing.  He has initiated the new scene with a statement about the bailout easing restrictions by the FDIC.  This at least addresses the suggestion from the audience that whatever the bailout is, it must be structured to give breaks to the small businessperson.

The improviser’s challenge is not to describe the Elephant, it’s to move it in a productive direction.

Tags: Barack Obama, Blind Men of Hindustan, Elephant, Hank Paulson, Improvisation, It's a Wonderful Life, Politics, The Exorcist, Wall Street Bailout

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Casting, Initiations, Objectives, Scenes, Suggestions From the Audience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.