Why Every Business Leader Should Spend a Day Backstage

A few years ago, I started getting a specific kind of question from friends in the business world. They'd come backstage after a show, watch the chaos of a scene change happen in total darkness and total silence, and ask some version of the same thing: how does anyone manage this without everything falling apart?

That question became the seed for YPO Broadway: Behind the Curtain, an immersive program I created for senior executives that combines Tony-winning productions with backstage access, improv workshops, and direct conversation about leadership.

What backstage actually teaches

A Broadway production is, structurally, one of the most demanding leadership environments that exists. Hundreds of people, from stagehands to musicians to actors to wardrobe, have to execute a complex, time-sensitive sequence flawlessly, eight times a week, with zero room for the kind of "we'll fix it next sprint" thinking that's common in business.

What executives discover backstage isn't really about theatre. It's about:

• Decision-making under irreversible time pressure. Once the curtain is up, you cannot pause the show to fix a problem. Every department has built systems for handling failure in real time, not after the fact.
• Trust without constant oversight. A stage manager calling a show from the booth cannot see every department simultaneously. The entire operation runs on trust built through rehearsal, not surveillance.
• Creative risk inside rigid constraints. A two-hour run time, a fixed budget, a finite stage. Constraints don't kill creativity backstage, they sharpen it.

Why improv, specifically

Improv terrifies most executives in the first five minutes and becomes the most-cited part of the experience by the end. There's no way to fake competence in improv. You either listen to your scene partner and build on what they give you, or the scene collapses immediately. It's one of the fastest ways I've found to teach genuine collaborative listening to people who are used to being the smartest person in the room.