The Circus Bow and other Lessons From the Big Top, Part 1 - Celebrating Failure

The circus was in town this weekend, and I spent possibly the best Mother's Day ever accompanying my 7-year-old to her first circus experience. Her palpable delight ranks as the highlight. Here was a close second:

For years, my colleagues and I have been talking about the improviser's creed to "Celebrate Failure". The idea that failure is an integral part of doing anything new or creative, e.g. learning to play an instrument, inventing a light bulb, raising a child,  has finally tipped in business circles. This month alone it has been featured in pieces in the Harvard Business Review, on TED.com,  and in Seth Godin's blog. Godin sums things up nicely with this: "As soon as you say, 'Failure is not an option,' you've said, 'Innovation is not an option.'" (Seth Godin's Blog 4/28/11)

Improvisers, by the nature of what they do - making things up on the spot with no rehearsal or time to go back and fix things - have recognized for a long time that if you wish to grow and create, you must not just tolerate failure, you must celebrate it. In order to maintain the motivation and courage to continually try new things, take bigger risks, develop new strategies and techniques and performances, you must learn, in fact, to delight in failure.

So what does this have to do with the circus? Well, one of the ways we remind ourselves to take big risks and celebrate mistakes is by practicing (and teaching our students and clients) what we call The Circus Bow. Here's our spiel on it...

You know how when you go to the circus and you see the guy on the trapeze and the Ring Master says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of All Ages.... now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The Great Sandroni will now attempt the impossible QUADRUPLE flip! Drumroll, please" Then the Great Sandroni flies through the air and spins, once, twice, three and a half times and splat. Into the net, thankfully. Then what happens? He slinks away in embarrassment, mumbling that he's really good at a triple and should have stuck with that, right? No? Oh, he blames the catcher, right? No? What? Right! He takes a great big bow for attempting the impossible and the crowd goes wild!


In workshops, we then have the participants raise their hands above their head and say, "I failed" "I made a mistake!" "I feel silly!" to enthusiastic rounds of applause. Then, we charge them with trying new things. We encourage them to take risks and to dare to be silly, foolish, boring, obvious and simply bad at these new things they try. And when they fail, we tell me, simply take a Circus Bow and we'll give you your round of applause.  It's a lovely metaphor and really does help create a supportive and safe environment for growth.

That said, I wondered after all these years of repeating the story, if things really went down that way at the real circus. Well, guess what?! On Sunday afternoon, after completing amazing tricks on the trapeze, one of the star aerialist was introduced..."Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of All Ages.....the impossible... QUADRUPLE flip.....!" And... after a huge build up complete with drumroll, the aerialist took off into the air and... he missed! And... he took a great big bow. And.... the crowd went wild.
Fantastic!