In this talk, Marc Haine explains the premise of his new book, which reframes business operations through the lens of live theatre. He argues that many business processes—especially onboarding and leadership development—lack the rehearsal, preparation, and training that are standard in theatrical productions. The book contains 20 chapters, each packed with humorous, relatable anecdotes (e.g., comparing a server’s rapid onboarding to an actor being handed a costume and script minutes before a performance) that expose the absurdity of current practices. Haine emphasizes that most leaders are "incidental leaders"—promoted without formal leadership training. To address this, each chapter includes a worksheet designed for leaders to work through with middle‑ and frontline managers. He proposes a weekly cadence: read a chapter, complete the worksheet individually, then convene as a group to discuss findings, with the goal of uncovering new ways to achieve operational excellence.
Chapters
So, I took the whole idea of putting on a live theater play and I said, what happens if I put business into this lens? What would happen? And so, what happens is I wrote this book, 20 chapters. Most of them are hilarious because when you read them, number one, you've experienced it in some form or fashion yourself. At least, I hope so. And we look at it from the business perspective and it just shows how ridiculous some of our processes are when we think about what we do in our business. If you're putting a live show first, it's a perfect example. In hospitality, it's not unheard of that you'll apply for a serving job and they say, oh good, you have 3 years experience serving. That's really great. Okay, here's the menu. Here's your apron. Here's your card for the point-of-sale system. That's your section over there. Go! Would be akin to, oh, 10 years acting. Oh wow! Shakespeare? Wow, that's so good! Wow, I can't wait to see your show. Okay, so here's your costume. Here's the script. You go on in 10. We would never do that. But yet, in businesses, we do that all the time. Just shadow him. Just shadow him for a shift and then tomorrow, you'll be on your own. It's like, what? That's not a rehearsal. And so, it just goes to show that some of our processes and the way that we build our businesses They lack something. Business sense. And so, my hope is that the book has— every chapter has a worksheet. So, my hope with it, I wrote it specifically so that leaders— I believe that most leaders are incidental leaders. So, they've been promoted into a leadership role but never trained to be leaders. And so, my hope is that they read this. Number one, hopefully they giggle no end when they read it. But at the same token, there's a worksheet after every chapter. chapter. And my hope is that leaders can take this with their middle managers and their frontline managers. Go through the book. Read a chapter a week. Work on the worksheets individually. And then, come together once a week to compare notes. Because I have a sneaking suspicion if we do this, we're going to find different ways to be able to do something that really leads to a high level of operational excellence. Wow!
