I am big fan of story and performance based structures such as the Story Spine. These are great ways of providing a group a structure and can be used in strategic planning, project planning and evaluation. Recently I wrote my own story spine to generate new ideas about where my own business ‘could’ go in the future. These structures can invite possibility!

I learned another structure last week when facilitating the ACAPTA Flashpoint Forum. This is the structure used by many street buskers … you know, they attract the attention of the crowd and then involve audience members in a performace … usually ending in some sort of countdown and grand finale (stunt, backflip etc…) – hat tip to Hemlock the Acrobat for this basic overview …

The Street Busker’s Structure

Crowd Gathers – increasing interest in crowd that forms …

Intro – this is the set-up for the performance

Body of Work – this is the performance itself including everything except for the Grand Finale … a tension is created here that keeps people guessing and with a sense of expectation that something will happen

Hat Lines – this is where the busker invites the audience to contribute something (sometimes with $$$, but not always) in return for the Grand Finale

The Finale – after which payment is collected … the show ends and everyone is happy

Now I am going to think about when and where I can apply this! Any suggestions are welcomed.

Geoff

ps. Here is Hemlock in a 2 minute You Tube video … in this we witness a minute of tension and expectation before the Finale. Payment would have happened next