My nephew saw his first musical comedy on Broadway when he was eleven. I took him to a revival of “The Music Man” and Joshua went home to take up guitar lessons and song writing. Now that’s he’s in high school, Josh is on the football team and in a band. If he gets chosen for the school play my wishes will be fulfilled.

I’m certainly prejudiced, but I think that theatre and the performing arts are an ideal perfect background for business success. Especially when it comes to understanding the power of creative collaboration. Most theatrical productions require elaborate collaborations between many disciplines - researchers, writers, visual designers, actors/singers/dancers, musicians, choreographers, directors, producers and technicians - all working together for the good of the production.

Collaborations in the theatre require open and steady communication to bring a diverse group of people together and to capitalize on the richness of each person’s expertise. Each discipline brings its own ideas, background and skills to bear on the work, and from there it becomes a total concept, integrating as many ideas from the participants as possible. Central to this concept is the premise that there is no one particular way to create or assist others in their creating. In a world defined this way, everything is negotiable, and collaboration is always valued. Could there be a better model for today’s organizations?