Last night I had the privilege to attend the opening night (well, the opening here in Fort Wayne at least) of Cirque Du Soleil’s Quidam. Simply put, it was a two hour thrill ride! The show featured is the story of young girl whose parents seem distant, uninvolved, even uninterested. As her parents ignore her, she retreats into an imaginary world – the world of Quidam. It’s in this world that she a variety of characters who encourage to be free.
The show is an amazing collection of juggling, aerial acrobatics, contortionists, clowns, live bands, incredible sounds, amazing light effects, and more. It’s really difficult to describe.
As I reflected on the show, I realized that I can learn a lot from this show (and from Cirque Du Soleil in general). Here’s just three lessons I picked up from the show that made me reflect on my own world of technology, web development, and business improvement:
1. Everything Matters
Since Cirque Du Soleil is a circus company. It would be really easy to say that what really matters are the performers. And, this would be correct, at least partially. While watching the performance, I was impressed by how well thought out and executed everything was – the lights, the sound, the stage design, the background, the story… everything. To be fair, the acts were certainly the centerpiece. But, these incredible acts were enhanced with incredible sound (surround sound with great bass), amazing lights, an incredible stage, a continuous movement of people in the background. Performers didn’t just walk on or off stage. The performed their way on stage and then performed their way off stage. Everything mattered. Cirque was creating more than just a circus, they were creating an environment and inviting us into it. And, to do that, everything mattered.
The same is true of great companies. While every business (especially tech businesses) have core competencies and areas that they focus on, truly great companies realize everything matters. In truly great website, everything matters – the font, the line spacing, the spacing around an authors photos… everything. It’s not enough to only focus on the core area. Greatness demands that everything matters.
2. Tell Great Stories
Part of the brilliance of Cirque is that they aren’t just doing great acts. Of course they have incredibly talented performers. But, they’re not just doing these acts. They are telling a story. In the case of Quadim, they’re telling the story of a young girl who is in a family with distant uninvolved parents. She retreats into her own private world to learn about individuality and freedom. Sound familiar? It’s a story we can all relate to. It may be our own story or the story of one of our friends. But, it’s a story all of us can relate to. And, that’s part of the brilliance of Cirque. They do more than just impress us with their talent. They draw us in, make us feel something, let us identify.
And, this is the same brilliance that should drive technology, the internet, and all business improvement. Sure, the internet is filled with lots of talent – lots of really impressive “acts” – video, great design, incredible animation, amazing slide shows. But, what really draws us in is the story – finding ways to make the company real, finding common ground among those reading, listening, watching. Great companies tell great stories. That’s what draws us in…
3. Technology is a tool
Being somewhat of a production and show “nerd” – I paid attention to the “behind the scenes” things. For the Cirque show, this meant watching the lighting operator, the font of house sound guy, the spot operators, the musicians hidden in the back, etc. I was impressed that the entire first act was performed with what appeared to be only 3 people at the front of house position. My guess would be a sound person, lighting person, and a director of sorts. But, even these people didn’t appear to have a lot to do. The whole show appeared to be automated. Again, just guessing here, but through creative use of a lot of DMX, MIDI, and other possible control protocols, the whole just ran. Imagine hitting play on your DVR. Once you hit play, you don’t really have to do much. The show appeared to work in a similar manner. Lighting cues, rigging cues, sound cues, accompaniment tracks and click tracks for the band… everything had to be synchronized to a central source – a central control. But what was so great about all the technology was that it is so easy to NOT see it. The technology just fades into the background. And, this is exactly what technology should do.
Any technology is just a tool. Very rarely is the technology an end in and of itself. It is just a means of getting from point a to point b. Technology just makes the trip faster, easier, safer, etc. In any business, the use of technology should be a tool to accomplish the business goals. When a visitor goes to your website, the technology of that site (PHP, mySQL, Ruby, ASP… whatever) should hide away, not get noticed, and let the visitor notice what really matters – the story (yeah, see the point above).
Three simple lessons that I learned or was reminded of by watching the circus last night. What about you? How have you learned these principles? Where have you learned business principles from? Let me hear your thoughts!
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