Quotes

All the World’s a Stage, and All the Men and Women Merely Players. Or, Something Like That…

“The Disney theme parks and their many cast members make a clear distinction between being onstage and offstage. In Disney-speak, cast members are onstage whenever they are in the public areas of the park and in front of guests. They are offstage when they are behind the scenes and out of their guests’ sight.” – Theodore Kinni, Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (Disney Editions, 2003)

Disney and Shakespeare. Don’t know why, but whenever I’m coming off a work assignment managing a high-profile (meaning, high-pressure) business event, these two guys and their ideas inevitably pop into my mind while I’m winding down and decompressing from the event.

I suppose I’ve always admired the Disney Way of being very intentional about treating the public areas of their theme parks as a stage, or ‘show’ area – and making the clear distinction of what’s backstage and out of guests’ sight. People get excited by what’s happening on stage – both good and bad — but it’s backstage where a lot of work happens to make the show work and the final experience a magical one for guests.

This Disney business approach is pretty well known by this point. Grab some books and articles – there’s good stuff to know.

Bottom line for me: I think it’s worth a little of your time to think about the role you’ve been cast to play at your next event or business meeting, and to play that role with intent and forethought. And remember – it’s not just the people onstage that have a role to play. Backstage players are playing key roles in the production too. Those backstage players have saved my bacon too many times to count, including just this week.

One of my marketing mentors had a great motto: “Always act with strategic intent.” Yep… do that. Try to get clear on what role you’re being asked to perform (oddly, that’s not always apparent). Then, ask yourself what’s the strategic reason your role is being cast in the production. Finally, play the hell out of the role and have fun doing it – people will notice, and that’s what wins Oscars and Emmys.

But geez – that Shakespeare guy. I think his ideas about stages and roles are why I get wistful and philosophical as the adrenaline dials back to normal and the intensity of the event cools into memory. The Bard’s not talking theme parks. Nope – the whole damn world is the stage – go take a look in As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII. To be clear, Shakespeare’s talking about the seven stages of being human, not really what the Disney park folks are talking about, at least not directly.

Now, I admit I don’t love the Shakespeare monologue quite like I used to. Yeah. Realized recently I’m gonna be the guy in pantaloons. Pantaloons… give me a break.

SEUS/Japan in Charlotte, North Carolina October 28, 2024.
The Opening Ceremony at the 46th Annual Joint Meeting of the Southeast U.S./Japan Conference (SEUS/Japan) in Charlotte, North Carolina October 28, 2024.
Published on: Author: David Rhoades
Quotes

We All Listen to Only One Radio Station

You should begin with the thing your readers should take away from your post, and why it matters to them.

Technology Transformation Services (TTS Handbook), U.S. General Services Administration, Home of 18F

Exactly right. And exactly what most people don’t do when writing website copy, or really anything for public consumption, based on what I see coming from many organizations.

The quote is from this Blogging Guide, part of the TTS Handbook from a wing of the U.S. Government, and I invite you to take a look. The modification of the user story format to create a similar tool for evaluating blog posts is, well, *chef’s kiss.*

What we publish really shouldn’t be about us, most of the time. It should be about our audience, our readers, and the problems they’re facing. When we talk about the stuff we’re doing, or the solutions we offer (and, uh, do we even think of ourselves as an organization that delivers solutions to people facing problems?) — When we talk about the stuff we’re doing on our websites or our blogs or our brochures… is our first sentence about them – our reader? And what they’ll be able to do better in their world, right after spending precious time reading our stuff?

There’s an old joke I’ll sometimes tell, which harkens back to my early days in radio. The truth of the matter is — everyone only listens to one radio station: W-I-I-F-M. And like the old station call letters of yesteryear – those call letters stand for something, just like “WLS” Chicago stood for “World’s Largest Store” and “WPTF” meant “We Protect the Family.” Here, the call letters of the only radio station everyone listens to — W-I-I-F-M, stand for “What’s In It For Me.”

It’s a joke, and I don’t mean to suggest you’re selfish or that everyone is, in all things. But, there be truth in this joke, and if you write for an organization or for yourself, it’s truth to heed.

Published on: Author: David Rhoades