Here’s how to make an entrance.
Posted on: Friday, June 9, 2017 Category: Blog (57)2 min read
Uta Hagen developed a way for actors to make a scene really work. She called it the ‘Three Entrances technique’. It was to help the actor develop the character – noting that their life existed before they entered the stage and will continue after they leave it. It was a way to make their character more real.
Before you enter a meeting, a room, your workplace – anywhere in fact, good or bad things may have happened to you and they will impact the way that you enter that space.
If you have had the best morning – you went to the gym, had time to make a healthy lunch, had a good chat with your partner/child/friend/pet and had no problems at all with your commute – you might physically ‘bounce’ into work…you know that feeling, right?
On the other hand, think how you show up when you slept through the alarm, there was no fresh milk for your coffee, your partner/child/friend/pet yelled (or barked) at you because you hadn’t done something that they had asked of you and your bus was late. You rush in, you don’t see anyone, you look down and you feel harassed.
So, what happens before you enter a space impacts how you enter it.
The same is for when you leave a space. Think about how you leave a work meeting if you are going to meet your best friend who you haven’t seen for ages and you have a booking at a restaurant that you have both been trying to get into. And then, what about if you leave that meeting (that ran over) to give feedback to a team member that is not positive. Again, where you are going will impact the way that you leave.
And finally, the third entrance – is what you are doing now.
You can make a choice about how you enter something. You can play a story out in your head to set the scene for the impact you want. Three questions to ask yourself to deliberately enter a room with impact are:
- COMING FROM: What have I just been doing – how do I feel?
- HERE NOW: How do I want to make the other people feel?
- GOING TO: How do I feel about where I am going now?