The Theatre of Business

Why I wanted it

After a lifetime in IT and a few years coaching business owners, I had a theory that would not leave me alone: most organisations do not start out trying to control people. They just want to function. But somewhere between the first spark and the latest strategy deck, something calcifies. People stop moving like water. They start asking for permission.

Theatre gave me the language for the alternative. An ensemble rehearses. It has rhythm. It knows what silence is for. Someone steps up because the moment asks them to, not because they have the title, and the others let them lead because it makes sense.

What happened

I wrote it. Then I wrote it again. Volume one has a prologue and thirty-five chapters, in pairs: Understanding Silence, Working with Silence. Understanding Timing, Working with Timing. An earlier, larger draft ran to three volumes. A lyrical rewrite in 2025 went its own way and I set it aside. In 2026 I wrote ninety-nine short articles from it.

Underneath all the drafts is a raw layer I did not expect to value as much as I do: about 1,350 recorded conversations, going back to a long interview in late 2024 where I first talked the book out loud. My own words, unpolished, are the gold layer. The polished versions are paraphrase.

This summer I had the whole body of work audited, honestly, and the plan changed. The book is not going to be a book first. It is being rebuilt into a paced, conversational companion for leaders: a journey through the ideas that draws a different path for each person, like a constellation rather than a sequence. A large series of articles comes second.

What it looks like

Words. Here is how chapter one opens:

Most organizations don’t start out trying to control people. They just want to function. To grow. To keep the lights on. But somewhere between the first spark and the latest strategy deck, something calcifies.

What’s next

Fifty-six taste decisions are sitting in a file waiting for me. Then the synthesis. Then the build.