Sauvé Scholars Blog: Visit to Cirque du Soleil

Note: The conversational quotes used in this post are based on my recollection and might not be an exact reproduction of words uttered by the people involved.

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There is only one word that can attempt to describe the feeling that all of us experienced last Tuesday, March 1st – Wow! Here’s a short attempt to give you a glimpse of the magic that we experienced during our visit to the renowned Cirque du Soleil headquarters – a visit made possible thanks to Sauvé Scholar Carlos Rueda.

“There are three words that I want you to think about while you are here” said Welby Altidor, the Creative Director of Cirque du Soleil as we sat with him after a truly awe-inspiring journey to different divisions inside their company. “The first is creativity. In my view, creativity is the lack of rigidity – no rigid mindset, no rigid rules constraining our ideas, no rigid protocols controlling our behaviour within the organization – that is how I look at creativity” he proposed, waiting for us to disagree with him. Though we took some time to warm up to the idea of arguing fervently with the director of one of the most successful performing arts company in the world, ideas started bouncing out of our minds pretty soon.

And that is a strong reflection of the culture that oozes out of everything that you see at Cirque du Soleil. Every person you meet, every sculpture, every painting, every costume and all the things that for a lack of a better name I’ll choose to call ‘crazy things’ that you stand admiring call out in the strongest possible way for you to express yourself in the most creative way you can imagine.

“But creativity alone is mere decoration, just like everything else that you see around you in our company or on stage during our performances” interrupted Welby. “Our eyes get used to decorations very quickly” he paused to see a few puzzled faces around him before he continued “it is the meaning behind these decorations that lingers on in the minds of the audience. That is what converts a creative decoration into a Wow! And that is the second word that I want you to think about – Wow.” We were slowly getting absorbed into a magical world as we listened to Welby explain to us about all the different ways in which they strive to add Wow! into every experience that they create – be it on stage or within their company. Their administrative staff members work sitting beside huge glass walls that separate them from artists who are training adjacent to them. “It helps them remember why they are doing the work they are doing, even when it gets less exciting at times. It connects them to the Wow that we create for our audience and their role in taking that experience from our offices to the hearts of people.”

As Welby explained more about how their internal business processes work, we realized that if intelligently & creatively planned, the abstract, non-quantifiable aspects of a company’s culture can often influence the performance of a company a lot more than rules and protocols that we assume to be necessary for an organization to run efficiently. What impressed me greatly is the way they constantly related the work that they do with the social change that they wish to inspire. “We broadcast no messages through our performances, but we give people a pretext to bring out what is already there in their hearts. That’s our vision – to revoke, to provoke, to invoke. We are in the business of selling inspiration” explained Welby. “And that brings me to the third word that I want you to think about – Social change.” (None of us bothered to mention that there were two words in “Social change” – it turns out that there is not much of a difference between 3 and 4 when you are looking at it through the lens of creativity.)

“I wish that all of you will think about how what you want to do contributes to a positive change in the world around us. And the only thing that can help you in your efforts to change the world is imagination.”

When we walked out of their company at the end of the day, I can speak for everyone when I say there was only one feeling that filled our minds – WOW! We were introduced to a corporate culture that transcends the boundaries of the popular management & leadership theories that get thrown around these days like sea shells on a crowded beach. And I am sure what we learnt at Cirque du Soleil will stay with us for a long time to come.