3 Arms, 3 Legs – 2 Dancers
Have you ever seen a professional dancer without an arm? How about one without a leg?
Unlikely.
And what if the dancers do not just shuffle to any hip-hop or pop tune, but dance a modern ballet piece?
Unthinkable?
Not for these two dancers.
She is without one arm, he is without one leg. Individually, it seemed impossible for each of them to pursue their performing dreams. Dance after all is an art that requires the unfettered and absolute discipline of the body - even more so, ballet.
To be a passable dancer requires years and years of rigorous training. It is not enough to have natural grace and fluidity, but it also requires strength – lots of it. To be elite requires much more. It requires each dancer to have a core of steel while making all the movements appear effortless. And it requires an athleticism demanded from the most elite of athletes.
When I first saw the video of this couple I was at first somewhat dumbstruck – I didn’t quite know how to respond as I had never seen dancers with such physical limitations. But I was transfixed. You see, as a pair, their individual disabilities disappear as they provide what the other lacks. Together they become one, and in doing so present one of the most inspiring and beautiful pairs to watch on stage. Take a look at the video so you have a better idea of what I’m talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLVRQCjh8c
As you’ll have noticed with these two, the level of communication between any two well paired dancers is truly sublime.
Author John Gray’s bestselling book Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus was an interesting study on the differences in how men and women communicate – especially so because there isn’t an operating manual for men and women and (unfortunately) children don’t come with a set of instructions!
Come to think of it, how many of us really, really understand the opposite sex? Not until the book made the bestseller list did many of us even think, “Hmmm, so that is why she is so upset” or “I wonder why he is so quiet?”
But what about business? Have we considered how being from “Mars” and “Venus” affect how these two camps do business? The answer is - they do business the way Martians and Venusians do – differently.
Men being what nature made them, typically go into business to win. Women typically go into business to win-win. Let me explain…
From my business experience and speaking as a Martian, I have found that men go into business with the following perspective. “For me to win, you have to lose. The pie (the pie of business) is only so big, and my job is to go and carve out as big a piece of pie as I can.” This is an attitude of scarcity.
And from my years of consulting with women in business, I have found their approach to business has this attitude : “Well there’s a pie there that’s only so big. Why don’t we see how we can make that pie go further? Or why don’t we work at making another pie? Then I can have a pie and you can have a pie i.e. we can have more pie.” This is an attitude of abundance.
In summary - as nature dictates, men compete and women complement.
Traditional business teaches us that in order to win, we have to wipe out the competition. This is essentially because men created the rules of business. But is there a way for us to complement each other without having to lord over the competition?
Each one of us has a business crutch somewhere. Figuratively, some of us lack an arm and the others lack a leg somewhere in our skills and knowledge. But can we still dance?
Is it still possible to do a beautiful business “pas de deux” (translation : dance for two) without browbeating the business next door to death? Is there a way to showcase the skills of your competitor without having to diminish our own strengths and capabilities?
After all, the business pie is big enough that everyone can get a piece without the other going hungry. Why compete when we can complement?
How can we make our competitors our collaborators? Now that is an artistic endeavour!
Anyone for pie?
