Key takeaways
- Stage skills transfer directly: quickly step into foreign worlds.
- Project work is direction: orchestrate many stakeholders into a coherent whole.
- Honest feedback from rehearsal beats diplomatic detours.
For years I hid my acting past on my CV. It looked like a detour with nothing to do with consulting. Today I know: it's my unfair advantage. The skills from the stage transfer surprisingly directly to the job.
Stepping into foreign worlds
An actor has to slip into a strange character and their world in an instant. In consulting it's the same: quickly understand the language, culture and logic of a company instead of giving advice from the outside.
Do that well and you're in within days where others need weeks.
Orchestrating many stakeholders
On stage the director leads many participants into a coherent whole. That's exactly project work: steering different people, interests and trades so that something coherent emerges in the end.
And finally: honest feedback. Theatre doesn't live on applause but on brutally honest rehearsals. That directness is often worth more in projects than any diplomatic detour.
Detours are often the trump card
The supposedly useless past is now my biggest lever. How we work carries exactly that signature: think your way in fast, orchestrate people, be honest. The biggest trump card often sits exactly where you'd never have looked for it.
