On one hand, we had Obama, our wedding and the Brady Bunchiness of a new family, my book, Costa Rica, yoga, guitar lessons at Flea’s Silver Lake Conservatory, some fantastic clients and new conversations, and the ever-flowing love between us and the wonderful people in our lives.

On the flip side of the coin we minted in 2008 there was Bush and Cheney and their decrepit Industrial Age ‘war economy’ and the general malaise that came over and corrupted so much American business during their reign. At the end of the year, with Bush madly justifying his abhorrent stewardship of the country since 9/11, and Israel and Hamas burning through their munitions inventory like it’s a holiday sale at WarMart, we are gasping for air like we’ve been standing too long in a garage with a smoking Peterbuilt. One of 2009’s themes is going to be about getting out of that garage and breathing the fresh air of new narratives, new ideas for generating wealth in a networked economy. The engine has to run on something other than oil.

The good news coming out of 2008 is that the toxic cloud has a sustainable lining. Because we learn a lot from failure, most of us are a lot smarter than we were when this year began.

Necessity being the mother of invention and all, 2009 is going to be a great year for creativity. We have no choice. We cannot continue down the path we’re on, consuming everything in sight and not even coming close to putting back what we take. We cannot let the destructive narratives continue. They will bleed us dry.

The crooked and unproductive games have to change. Enough with the pyramid and ponzi schemes and insider games that benefit those at the top and shaft everyone else. Enough with the opaque communication. Hierarchical thinking. Politics over process. Class hegemony. Beholdness to the old boy networks. For the economy to rebound, the new networks must be allowed to breathe, and along with them, the ideas, players and connections they are capable of bringing to life.

From conspicuous consumers, we must become prodigious producers. From sappers of the earth’s resources, we have to become replenishers. From seeking to dominate the narrative, we must become supporters of it, contributors to it, because in the networked world, a narrative does not ‘belong’ to anyone. The new narratives are not ‘ownable’. They are not ‘controllable’. They cannot be scripted. They are the co-creations of communities, groups, brands, networks. They are collaborations between performers and audiences.

The good ideas, the innovation, the inspiration it will take to clean up the mess Bush and Co. created–all of it is out there for us, waiting to be discovered. As Obama has so ably demonstrated, the way we discover these possibilities is by continually improvising.

Happy New Year, everyone! Initiate strongly. Know your themes. Play with conviction. And have a productive and healthy 2009!

Good improvisers always pay attention to their physical appearance and presence.

Improv theater rehearsals sometimes focus almost exclusively on communication through one’s physical movements and attitudes. Players, for instance, will walk randomly back and forth across the stage as their coach calls out directions that alter their walks. The directions do NOT suggest a physical response (”Your left foot hurts.”) but an emotional one (”You just won the lottery!”) to be reflected in the walk. Each player responds in his or her own way. One player who ‘just won the lottery’ might skip; another will add some bounce to the step or glide to the stride; still another may walk around in a happy daze.

There is no one correct response to the emotional state. Rather, the focus is on players responding as their authentic selves. The question posed by the coach that each player ‘answers’ with a distinctive walk is “How would YOU do act if YOU won the lottery?” Distinctive repsonses by each player make the group portrait a compelling one. There is ‘a lot going on’ in such a performance, it presents many perspectives and avenues of exploration. When every response is the same (’We’re all skipping because we won the lottery’), there is only one thing going on.

Walking is one of many ways players express an emotional state or an attitude. All aspects of appearance, movement, posture, attitude and presence are considered by an improviser. An improviser has no tic, no mannerism, no way of standing or sitting or looking that does not reflect the emotional life of the role being played. Coaches ask players to consider the angle of their spine, their tempo, their chin, and how they use their hands, continually guiding them toward an awareness of a spirit of animation, literally, the movement of life.

By comparison, how many people in business, Bill Gates among them, are stunted in this area of communication? Many. We adopt one posture, one tempo, one way of dressing, and that, for all practical purposes, is our identity. Bill Gates has the classic geek slouch going. He leads with his head. You can tell he spends a lot of time reading or hunched over a computer or slouched on a couch playing videogames. This posture puts a lot of strain on his lower back. It gives him a belly — more strain on the back — that he would not have if he stood up straight. His body is like a fist forming around his heart. His posture and profile are so familiar that they ‘read’ in silhouette. It is his role, one he has obviously played brilliantly, to be the head brain, the leading thinker, the guy with the vision, the trillionnaire tycoon. The posture is in no way out of character, and aside from the healthiness aspect, you can’t argue with it.

It is no coincidence that Gates’ posture perfectly mirrors that of Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons. They’re essentially playing the same role, the only difference is that Gates is somewhat more conniving and malicious than Burns. (j/k, maybe)

The important point about Gates’ posture is this: His edit of his Microsoft scene, and his eventual entrance onto a new stage, present him with an opportunity. Making a move like Yoga can literally change his posture and open his heart. It will give Gates a new characterization for his next scene, one keeping with his new role as philanthropist and all-around do-gooder who leads with his heart.

Industrial Age organizations demanded consistency of behavior. Players danced a dance choreographed by corporate. It was a marching band, a Busby Berkeley MGM Musical.

Today, in the Networked World, players write code in one scene and become international media sensations in the next. No longer do we play one or two roles in a career. We play ten or twenty or thirty. It’s a mashup mentality. It’s Stomp at your neighborhood theater, performed by your neighbors. Players dance their own dances, and if it’s smart, corporate figures out how to dance along.