I’ve been an entertainer for 28 years. Not an actor, an entertainer. One difference between the two is the 4th wall. When you’re an entertainer, there isn’t one.

When there’s no 4th wall and you get something right, you know, you can feel it. And when you get it wrong, when something bombs, you feeeeeel it.

It’s you and the audience, a direct connection.

In his great podcast on neurobiology, Dr Andrew Huberman discusses how making errors is the key to neuroplasticity, the key to making a change that makes things better.

If you work in a way in which you are removed from your audience, if you work behind a 4th wall, that feedback loop isn’t anywhere nearly as pronounced, if you even get it at all.

There’s a reason why Genchi Genbutsu is a tenet of lean manufacturing and subsequently lean startup. Genchi Genbutsu; go and see; go to the place where the work is happening and see for yourself if you want to understand.

The map is not the territory. A map is a report. Reports can be flawed, out of date, biassed.

In order to truly understand, one needs to get closer. Get closer to your audience, to your customer, to your team. Get out from behind the protection of that 4th wall. Get way out, onto the hook. Get close enough that you can feel if you’re succeeding or if you bombing.

The stand up comic doesn’t need a report, or a manager, or a dashboard. If she’s winning she knows, she can feel it. And if something isn’t landing, she knows, and she can fix it.

If you want to speed up your success, muster the courage to step out from behind your 4th wall.

Yes, it’ll be intimidating, and yes, it’s exciting, and yes, if you can stomach the tension, you’ll learn really, really quickly.