Part 3 - Explosion, Reflection, Epiphany

After the focus groups had met, our friend Bob put together a document detailing the information he had gathered.  A few comments he made from that experience still resonate with me - one was that he was surprised the amount of energy that the focus groups had opened up.  I think Bob was actually a little overwhelmed and somewhat taken aback by the magnitude of the energies.  The other was Bob's insistent suggestion that we (the SAK Leadership) respond quickly to the SAK family.  As we were processing the wealth of information, I remember even getting several reminders from Bob with the final one being "Hey, it's been 11 days since I delivered that information to you - folks are eager for your thoughts."

Of Bob's many suggestions and encouragements for moving forward, the core thought was 'Tell them what you heard, then go big."

We scheduled a day to respond to the SAK family and let them know that we heard them and what we intended to do about it.

I gave a lot of back ground information regarding the history of SAK the company and our mission as much of that information we unknown to a number of our people.  I was actually surprised how few of our people knew what the SAK Mission Statement was.  I will include some further information on those subjects in subsequent posts.

The most looming issues / wants were: More transparency, better communication, more leading, less managing.  These issues are actually not uncommon to many businesses.  Letting everyone know all that is going on and why and how decisions are made is a mountainous task, but surely one that needs to be done.  I realized we were not hitting the mark on those fronts.  The other resounding energy was "change or be changed," as Bob put it.

One of the focus group participants put it this way: "We aren’t frustrated because we dislike SAK in any way. We are frustrated because we love SAK and want it to succeed. We don’t need to be placated somehow. We need to be empowered, encouraged, and unleashed."

Near the end of this session is when the EXPLOSION hit.  After going through the "what we heard" and "what we're going to do," there was a challenge from several voices for more.  Our response was not as "BIG" as several had hoped.

After an emotional outburst from yours truly in response - (I had thought what I was offering was indeed some great steps), I pushed that challenge forward with a specific "Let me sit with you, and you, and you and you (the several individuals who were identified in Bob's summary as the most trusted and admired at SAK), to discuss how we can "Share the Wheel."  I am (we are) ready to do that.

[Incidentally, from the information tallied and compiled in Bob's report, my name was not on the Most Trusted and Admired List - a real eye opener that was, and frankly, a pretty heavy gut slug]

It was clear that not only did I need to make some radical moves to include those individuals and energies into the moving forward of SAK - I also needed to really step up as a Leader at SAK - as the Artistic Director - and lead more than manage.  I had gotten buried in the day to day Management junk of SAK and was not offering vision and leadership on creative and artistic levels, as well as not empowering others as much as could be to contribute in those areas.  I need to be there.  I need to lead.  I need to listen.  I need to share the wheel.

SAK has always muddled through the challenge of Artistic and Management Directorship.  With our tight finances and shoestring budget, SAK could traditionally not afford to pay a Managing Director and an Artistic Director.  I served in both of those capacities for a salary less than either would command in the market.  Of course, as many artists and creative types know and have known - we do this because we have to.  We make it work.  We do what needs to be done.

But now it was clear this model could no longer serve SAK.  From this day forward, SAK would be very different.  I did not realize how different it would be at that exact moment.  I had my version of how it would be very different, but on subsequent reflection and self-realization - the truth is SAK was going to soon be very, very different indeed.


This post was supposed to go from Explosion, through Reflection and Epiphany, but holy cow, it's already too long for a single post.  Reflection and Epiphany will have to be the subject of the next post.

Part 2 - It all Comes to a Head

In the fall of 2011 it had become more and more clear that discontent was brewing in the midst of our continued efforts for the show to go on. In December, my friend and co-improviser Mary Thompson-Hunt was embarking on a thesis project for her Masters degree. She was assigned to do a project involving leadership and she approached me with an idea to utilize her knowledge and experience of improvisation and love of SAK. She asked me what were some of my thoughts towards leadership and asked about how I lead and run SAK. That conversation led to a question about what does SAK need most right now and my answer was - More audience. For her thesis and project she chose to center on that topic. Her project was entitled: An Assessment of Improving Audience Attendance at SAK. I let her know that as part of that question, I'd be interested to know both from the perspective of our audiences and the perspective of those who work and perform at SAK what we should do or need to do to build more audience. Mary administered an extensive survey covering that topic and several others.

Again, this exercise revealed more levels of discontent, unhappiness, disenfranchisement and lack of creative fulfillment. I fancy myself as someone who can work well to bring joy and inspiration to groups, but it was clear there was a growing gap between the leadership of SAK (for which I was ultimately responsible) and those who were tasked with making the funny happen on a daily and weekly basis.

In addition to that I received around that time an anonymous email. It was sent from a generic not-identifiable google email address, obviously made for the express purpose of writing to me in an untraceable fashion, which basically said "I'm not a fan of your leadership style," and included a link to a video tagged with "I think you should watch this..." It was a tongue in cheek talk about leadership entitled: "How to de-motivate your people."

Although I took umbrage over some of the viewpoints, thinking I do a lot of what the speaker was suggesting as the "right" way(s) to lead, I did recognize that I was, by many of my choices, inhibiting creative freedom, innovation and joy for many of those on my team.

So my choice was to grab the bull by the horns and dig deeper into the discontent.  This was like the Arab Spring - an Improv Spring if you will.  People were looking for change and advancement and opportunities for growth and joyous fulfillment.  How can you not want them to have that.  I chose not to crack the whip and crack down on the protests, however.  I chose to have lunch.

During a lunch with my friend and awesome associate Bob Kodzis, I spoke of my desire to find out more about what was missing or standing in the way of our forward progression. I shared with Bob the results of Mary's survey findings and he suggested a gathering of several focus groups made up of the different clusters at SAK - our Ensemble, Front of House, Lab Rats, Gen S, Staff, Leadership, etc. Thankfully Bob offered to facilitate those meetings which asked some deeply probing questions including: What do you love about SAK? What needs improvement at SAK? Who do you consider the Most Trusted? The Most Admired?  What needs to change?

From these meetings we were able to distinguish where some of the most toxic areas of discontent were centered.

There were a lot of questions and concerns about how the company was run as well as concerns about artistic stagnation. There was a great desire for more transparency in choices and policies made and instituted and an even greater desire for artistic and creative innovation and as individuals to be more a part of that process and decision making.

In fact, those sentiments were so strong that if left unattended, there would undoubtedly have been a large chunk of the SAK performing family uprooting and seeking creative fulfillment elsewhere.

Something HAD to be done about it, and fast!

End of Part 2

Next Post: Part 3 - Explosion, Reflection, Epiphany

Part 1 - How Did We Get Here?

This is the first in a series of several posts to offer some insight as to how to got to where we are today - Dave Gives the Car Away.

This current transition and opportunity for SAK actually goes back several months and begins with a restless creative energy at SAK. Over the course of time and even beginning in our new and awesome space at the CityArts Factory, a growing energy has been present at SAK to explore new creative thoughts and ideas and expand our creative horizons. Of course this is the dream and vision of every theater, so SAK is really no different on that front. Also, in that time, a core of creative energy has formed among the ensemble we feature in our performances - this core energy exhibits an interest to sow creative oats, if you will. A challenge develops when you have a dynamic like this, especially when paired with the challenges of running a business such as SAK.

As some of you may or may not know, I wear two big hats at SAK - Artistic Director and Managing Director. With the tight and unwieldy budget at SAK this has been an unfortunate necessity, as each position should be a separate individual. However, to make tights ends meet (that doesn't sound good), I made the choice to serve in both capacities for a salary below what either one would command in the marketplace.

Over time, philosophical differences have grown and become more pronounced and it has (had) become apparent to me that I'm like the dad and the core of creative energy is like the kids. The kids had their own ideas about how things should go and many times those did not mesh with how dad was doing things, especially on the business side.

Well, when these kinds of things happen, the family experiences problems and challenges - how do we reconcile these things? SAK has been working through many of those challenges for a number of months.

While in the midst of these challenges, however, the show must go on if we intend to keep our theater doors open. So, despite differences of vision, style and opinion, the SAK family has hung in there to get the job done and continue to entertain the audiences - which is one of the things everybody agrees on - we love our audiences.

End of Part 1

Next Post: Part 2 - It all comes to a head.

Dude, Where's My Car?

As many have already heard, I have decided to step aside as Artistic Director and Managing Director of SAK Comedy Lab. I have further decided to give the "car" to the "yutes." By "car" I mean the artistic reins and operational management of SAK. By "yutes" I mean a group made up of the most trusted and admired improvisers at SAK.

As this transition progresses, I will blog about the changes and challenges from my personal point of view, and will hopefully explain and discuss all the multi-faceted details of this radical move.

At the heart, I am very excited about the potential and future of SAK Comedy Lab and very eager to see what the next several months holds. Stay tuned here for updates, clarifications and blatherings.

Cheers!

Well today marks a milestone for SAK. We have finally secured a beer and wine license. The process was not as complicated as I had expected, although the hurdles to overcome still took us a couple of months. In fact, it was several months into our first year that we were finally able to concentrate on the effort to get the license. Now more hurdles to make sure we are as compliant as we need to be in order to serve and sell legally at the SAK Concession stand. I think we have all the ducks in a row. This will certainly test our core audience and clientele. We do not know for sure if our regulars will still be regular for us if we have beer and wine available. we hope they will still come, but the move seemed more than necessary to attract more folks to the SAK Comedy Lab. I am surprised how many people do not come to SAK simply because we do not have beer and wine available. If we lose patrons who are upset that we now serve beer and wine I will truly feel sorry. If we had enough of those folks coming on a regular basis, filling our seats to the projections we laid forth when we moved in, we would probably have not needed to consider it as we did when we did. We shall see. I think if nothing else if will be kind of nice after a show to enjoy a beer with my fellow performers without having to gather at one or other of the bars in downtown. I don't want to avoid those places completely, but it will be nice to have a beer right in our own place.

Parking "Whoa's"

Seems like every move forward has its complimentary setback, minor or major. SAK is very fortunate to enjoy the ability to offer parking validation for our guests at the Cinema Plaza Parking garage, which is conveniently located right across the street from SAK. There are other parking possibilities, but the Plaza is the most convenient. It seems also, however, it is the most confusing and complicated of the options - or at least until you learn how to navigate it properly.

We have recently learned that the restaurants at the Plaza no longer validate your parking ticket - but SAK still does!! The best news is if SAK is a part of your evening's entertainment you only pay $4 to park. Even if you go to a Magic Game on Friday or Saturday and see the 11:30pm show at SAK you will only pay $4 at the Plaza. This is GOOD NEWS we need to spread!

It is unclear who designed the engineering marvel, but chances are the designers and engineers all drive nothing but Smart Cars (or have lived in Manhattan all their lives). You have to be an expert driver to maneuver through the windy spirals and tight curves and corners your first time. Then there's the labyrinth of elevators, floor letters and numbers and payment options.

We have found through extensive research (and parking there every day) the following best best bets, hints and tips:

• If you're going to SAK or other downtown location park on levels 3 or above. These levels are reserved during the day but at night they are the best bet. The elevators on these floors will take you directly into the Plaza common ground level (plaza) area.
• NOTE:  Levels 2A, 2B and 2C will take you to an elevator on Church and Court and you will undoubtedly feel lost.
• When you exit, you can conveniently get to your car from the same plaza level elevators.
• Always return to the same elevator you arrived on.
• When exiting, if you're paying with credit card - bypass all the payment machines! You don't have to hassle with them unless you're paying cash for your parking. We recommend credit card payment. Not only more convenient but you get a receipt.
• Credit card payment can happen easily and conveniently from your car as you are exiting. Put in your parking ticket (validated if you've been to SAK and you only pay $4), put in your credit card, wait for your receipt after your credit card comes out and you're on your way!

Quantum Improv Back in Session

A new session of Quantum Improv begins this weekend, October 23rd at SAK Comedy Lab. Looking forward to moving forward with Quantum Improv and the Quantum Vision. The class filled to capacity in just 2 hours - very exciting. As the class start approaches I realize I feel like a little kid going back to an old toy box as I feverishly try to remember where I put all the pieces and materials for the Laws of Motion demonstration.

My handy visual aid (I'm now recalling in the 11th hour) takes a good bit of time to set up - and I'm still looking for ways to streamline the process and the demo so it can pack up easier as well as travel more easily. I can't wait to get back into it. I'll be doing a more condensed version this time around to make sure we get done with the class well before the Christmas holiday rush of things begins. This will be a 6 week course.