Do You Want to Dance?

Avi Liran wants to know—and here’s why

By Bill Hatton

Are we family? Or rather, are you willing to dance to “We Are Family?”

The 1979 Sister Sledge disco hit has a catchy, danceable tune, and you probably remember the refrain. Global leadership speaker Avi Liran wants to know if you’ll dance to it. In front of your colleagues. With them.

At the HRO Today Forum in Singapore, his presentation included asking a volunteer to step forward and dance in front of the audience. (Turned out she was a skilled dancer.) And he tried to imitate her dance moves, and then he asked the audience to try to do the dance moves of the volunteer on stage. And then more volunteers to try their own dance moves, and then point to someone else to try a dance move for others to learn and imitate.

Here’s why: Liran believes if you can try to dance in front of others and take chances at trying others’ moves and offer your own dance moves—and passing these moves back and forth—and if you are willing to do this in a spirit of good fun and of even joy – well, that’s where you want to be. You’re probably offering some joy to those around you. It tells us a bit about what you’ll be like to work with, whether you’re energizing the culture around you.

However, beware the scowlers. Beware those that are unwilling. Not unskilled, unwilling. Locked down, cross-armed, not-gonna people. Liran flat-out said watch out for those who are toxic, killjoys, because they will always doing their own thing and won’t be contributing in positive ways to a joy-filled company culture. Dancing requires someone to lead and someone to follow—or at least try to follow. Positive company cultures have the same company culture.

For their part, the Forum audience was enthusiastic and full of energy.

Liran, an economist and MBA, is the Chief Joy-Care Officer of Ha-P.com, a positive leadership and team- building consulting firm based in Singapore. As a public speaker, he mixes soft skills such as a humorous and even dance-driven approach to teaching and learning, but also has a hard-nosed approach to business itself.