Why AAFD Sings and Dances

Linda Gillen, Bob Purvin, Julie Golden, Bob Barnett, and Louise Lucas sing.

SAN ANTONIO - For 17 years a curious spectacle has occurred during the annual American Association of Franchisees and Dealers' banquet that celebrates Total Quality Franchising. AAFD's chairman, his wife, staff and chosen franchisee leaders get into costume to sing and dance for the audience. This year, its 17th birthday, the association's theme was decidedly Texan.

So why does the chair of the AAFD, who tries to improve the lot of 50,000 franchisees with their franchisors, get up to make such a spectacle of himself and his team? Is it because he likes to sing? Partly. But according to him, these performances are meant to help foster a certain organizational culture.

"My wife Julie Golden has run a non-profit organization for years called the Let's Put on a Show Foundation that takes universities, corporations and charitable organizations to convey a spirit of camaraderie and collaboration," he explains. "A big part of total quality franchising is that we should get along. What we want is for our members to get along and get along in the right spirit."

Some franchisors that aren't part of AAFD harshly dismiss such shows as something of a joke. But Purvin really isn't on another planet when it comes to advocating song and dance in organizations. Getting executives to participate in musicals has been a team and leadership building technique among corporations for some time. 

For example, TeamBuildingUK mentions on its web site that musicals help resolve conflict. The head of the AAFD also talks along these lines, that is, when he's not singing or leading franchisee meetings. "In mediation between franchisor and franchise owner, the trick is to accentuate that both parties want the brand to succeed," Purvin declares. "Somewhere in the mediation both parties realize that they are in this together. Music represents that."

Some management building programs hire Hollywood choreographers to help push middle-aged executives to realize that magic can happen under the right circumstances. These executives sometimes reach a leadership epiphany when they are positioned so far out of the norm as to sing and dance at levels that they didn't think possible.

Purvin agrees.

"The thing is to have people we normally see in a business context placed differently," he says. "What Julie succeeds in doing is making ordinary folks like me look good. We try to take people you never think of as performers and make them shine."

The chair of the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers and his wife are not alone in such thoughts. Australia-based training company Broadway to Boardroom also stresses that managers dancing and singing "causes participants to expand their comfort zones in a fun and supported way."

"The formula is to take familiar songs and insert fair franchise words for the lyrics," Purvin says.

This year there were lyrics such as "Oh franchisor, oh franchisee, If we just work together how happy we will be." Or, the changed words to Oh Give Me a Home. "Oh give me a store, where the customers roam," and later, "where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the cash drawer keeps ringing all day."

The lyrics can be corny.

Julie Golden states, "I put high profile people in an organization on stage to show them in another way. I've seen this in organizations. It team builds when you are putting on a show."

She isn't kidding. Bob Barnett, a past president of the Jackson Hewitt franchisee association, was willing to humble himself with his crooning, surprising the audience when they heard the accountant's melodious tenor voice.

Purvin and his wife obviously enjoy performing with and for their friends and colleagues.

"We have a lot of fun with these road shows," Purvin states with a twinkle in his eye.

 His wife interjects, "Yes, we really do."

He thinks the audience has fun too. "Usually every year someone comes up to me and says, 'I've been to a hundred award shows and dread every one of them, but I had fun tonight.'"

Choreographer, writer and singer Julie Golden affirmatively states,  "I've been doing this for 28 years. I hear it from many that there is a joy with the performers and a joy with the audience."