The admonishment by US House Speaker John Boehner to his fellow Republican became legendary the moment it was uttered. ‘Get your ass in line’ is a rare beauty of the helplessness of the House Speaker during a closed meeting where he tried to rally support from his fellow party members for a debt bill last Wednesday (27 July 2011). He knows his proposal is not going to make it and this was his last resort to find a way out.

When a leader reverts to such strong words you know the Titanic is sinking. The meeting will end in a disaster. And it did.

Some meetings are more important than others

Most meeting disasters don’t have any impact on the world. The disasters are confined to the people attending the meeting. You missed a deal because of your clumsy presentation, you jeopardized your next career move because you were daydreaming and thus taken by surprise with an important question, you were taken over by your emotions and insulted your colleague. Nothing really the bigger world cares a lot about.

But the ‘get your ass in line’ meeting disaster might lead to an economic crisis that could dwarf the ones we’ve just overcome. That’s what makes the words of John Boehner legendary.

In essence, the meetings of the politicians trying to solve the US debt crisis are not that different from meetings that have the true ambition to change things. (I’m not talking about the boring ritualised weekly staff meeting of most organisations. They are usually considered a waste of time and rightly so).

I’ve been facilitating many meetings where emotions have been running high and hard words exchanged. And the emotions often serve as a catalyst to come closer to one and other. They help the other to understand the importance of your position and trigger his or her empathy towards you. But sometimes that doesn’t work.

Improvisation as a way to come closer

You can then try a few other things, all applied improvisation techniques. You can start singing your argument with the other or you could use numbers as words or you could start talking in gibberish. It helps closing the emotional gap between you and your opponent. It makes for a good laugh too. I don’t say it always works but it’s worth a try when all other options are exhausted.

I doubt John Boehner ever considered any of these.