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When the science of planning meets the soul of theater and the precision of
industry
Implementing strategic
planning in a pharmaceutical company requires much more than spreadsheets and
market analysis. It demands deep listening, systemic vision, human sensitivity,
and a purpose that transcends the logic of immediate profit. With this
awareness, a mid-sized Latin American pharmaceutical company decided to
transform its organizational culture through the Quasar K+ methodology,
developed by professor and playwright Antônio Carlos dos Santos. Inspired by a
bold integration of science, theater, and strategic management, this approach
proposes not merely technical planning, but an affective and symbolic redesign
of how organizations breathe, communicate, and dream together.
The process began with
the stage called “Institutional Breathing,” a central concept in the MAT
methodology – Mindset, Action, and Theater. Instead of starting with cold data,
the planning process kicked off with sensory workshops in which leaders,
technicians, workers, and researchers were invited to express themselves
physically in relation to the company. In scenic circles, participants embodied
their feelings: some bent over, revealing exhaustion and invisibility; others
leaned forward, symbolizing a desire for innovation. This emotional cartography
allowed the planning team to identify invisible blockages, latent potentials,
and discomfort zones that conventional research would not detect. As demonstrated
by Antonio Damasio (1996), emotional states directly influence cognitive
performance and decision-making—and any planning that disregards this will be
merely a formality with no real impact.
Based on this living
and embodied diagnosis, the creation of the company's Institutional Mission
began. At this stage, the approach of the book “Strategic Communication: the
art of speaking well” by Antônio Carlos dos Santos was used, teaching how
to craft short, resonant, and memorable messages. Employees participated in
theatrical games from the ThM methodology – Theater Movement – in which they
proposed phrases summarizing the company’s purpose. Expressions emerged such as
“Caring for lives with science and soul,” “Research with ethics, produce with
passion,” and “Breathe health, inspire the future.” After open voting and
dramatic enactments of the phrases, the chosen mission was: “Producing health
with meaning, science, and sensitivity.” A mission not read on murals, but
lived in the body, spoken with truth and clarity by every employee – from
logistics to R&D.
With the mission
alive, the next step was building the Vision of the Future. Inspired by Erwin
Piscator’s epic theater and the concept of narrative prototyping,
interdisciplinary groups created scenes representing the ideal company in 2035.
In one of the scenes, actors portrayed a production line where robots and
humans worked together in harmony; in another, scientists engaged in dialogue
with Indigenous communities to develop sustainable herbal medicines. The scenes
were recorded on video, analyzed, and synthesized into the phrase: “To be an
ethical, innovative pharmaceutical company and a protagonist in planetary
health.” The vision then took form in videos, songs, and illustrations created
by the employees themselves—a practice resonating with the studies of
Immordino-Yang (2017), who advocates for deep learning through multiple
languages and affective stimuli.
With the mission and
vision rooted in collective experience, the next step was the creation of Strategic
Policies. Here, the institutional dramaturgy of Quasar K+ shone brightly: each
policy became a theatrical act; each project, a scene; each action, a symbolic
gesture with a beginning, middle, and end. The innovation policy was called
“New Scene”; the social responsibility policy, “Solidarity Act”; and the
internal well-being policy, “Stage of Care.” Teams then wrote their “action
scripts” based on the book “Moving Letters: the art of writing well,”
which teaches how to craft strategic texts with clarity, rhythm, and emotional
impact. These scripts were presented in performative meetings and discussed in
open feedback circles—an experience that turned planning into a living event,
understood and celebrated by all.
In the following
stage, Objectives and Goals were formulated. Instead of cold numbers or generic
charts, each objective was symbolically represented in theatrical workshops.
For instance, the objective “Reduce the development time of new drugs” was
enacted as a collaborative marathon where participants had to complete a course
carrying symbolic vials. The goals were built using OKRs adapted to the Quasar
K+ methodology: in addition to technical indicators such as deadlines and
percentages, emotional and sensitive indicators were included, like “enthusiasm
level in meetings,” “spontaneous compliments,” and “perceived impact on the
medical community.” The evaluation was based on the sensitive evaluation
methodology (Guerra, 2021), which recognizes subjectivity as legitimate data in
organizational contexts.
To ensure continuous
Feedback, the company applied the TBMB methodology – Mané Beiçudo Puppet
Theater. Each sector created symbolic puppet characters with unique traits,
like the puppet “Maria of Control,” who said, “Caring for the detail is caring
for the whole,” or the puppet “Mr. Innovato,” who repeated, “I made a mistake,
but I learned faster!” In monthly meetings, the puppets narrated, through
theater, successes, failures, and necessary adjustments. This approach,
inspired by the Pedagogies of Creativity and Autonomy, generated a safe space
for critiques, praise, and reinvention, where the lightness of theater replaced
the weight of traditional reports and spreadsheets.
The entire process was
documented in “Scene Notebooks,” a kind of hybrid diary mixing technical
minutes, sensitive narratives, rehearsal photos, and personal reflections.
These notebooks were accessible to all employees and served as a living archive
of the planning process—a practice backed by Pennebaker’s studies (2007), which
show that reflective writing improves emotional well-being, strengthens bonds,
and increases engagement in change processes. The writing was done not only by
managers but by any team member who wanted to share a story, a metaphor, or a
discovery.
The highlight of the
process was the event “Life on Stage,” a public celebration of the strategic
plan in theatrical format. The final document was presented through dramatic
reading, interspersed with videos, dances, testimonials, and sensory
installations. The CEO shared the stage with production technicians; HR danced
with the legal team; R&D performed with marketing. The strategic plan was
no longer a PDF hidden on corporate servers but a living work, shared,
understood, and desired by all. There was pride, belonging, and above all,
collective clarity of purpose.
Applying Quasar K+ in
a pharmaceutical company is not just about implementing a methodology: it’s
about cultivating a new way of being an organization. It means accepting that
strategic planning must touch emotion, awaken the body, and involve the soul.
It means understanding that goals and indicators cannot exist without a
mission, that policies cannot breathe without listening, and that the future
can only be built with stories that are well-told and deeply felt. By uniting
the scientific precision of the industry with the symbolic power of theater,
the pharmaceutical company discovered a powerful truth: planning is, above all,
an act of collective creation. And as Antônio Carlos dos Santos writes in “Breathing,
Voice, and Diction”, “A company that breathes together communicates better
and achieves with more soul.”
Access the books by Antônio Carlos dos Santos on amazon.com or amazon.com.br
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