Stage and Production Crews: Prevent the Second Error

What the research supports—and what it does not

Research associates clear information sharing with team functioning; structured response planning can help people act on agreed goals. Neither source proves that this tabletop procedure improves safety incident rates.

Research provides a rationale for testing a skill in context; it does not prove that this exact IBE exercise, timing, scoring method or audience adaptation has been experimentally validated.

The free IBE Cue-to-Cue Recovery Tabletop exercise | 25 minutes

Use a hypothetical, NON-HAZARDOUS scenario and the production's existing cue, emergency and stop-work protocols. The safety manager retains full authority over technical decisions.

Run the entire practice below before deciding whether additional coaching would be useful. No login, purchase, scorecard or assessment is required for this starter exercise.

1. Select a benign missed cue, such as a delayed non-critical transition, and define which role has decision authority.
2. Map the minimum required handoff: who identifies the issue, who confirms it, and who authorizes the revised next step.
3. Run a verbal tabletop using only approved radio terminology. Observe whether each person knows the next action; do not simulate dangerous electrical, rigging or pyrotechnic faults.
4. Insert a second harmless change and rehearse a concise confirmation before resuming the cue sequence.
5. Debrief objectively: missing information, unclear role boundaries and one next-rehearsal improvement.

Apply it to a real performance scenario

A visual projection cue runs late. The stage manager confirms the revised order under the established show-control protocol while departments avoid contradictory instructions.

In rehearsal, change only one variable at a time where practical. The aim is to observe the planned response, not to manufacture extreme pressure.

What to record

Record confirmed handoffs, unresolved decisions and correct adherence to existing protocols. Keep safety incident reporting separate and under the organization's mandated process.

Record what happened, what you intended to do and one specific adjustment for the next practice. Protect participant confidentiality; do not put identifying client or student notes into a public form.

A seven-day transfer plan

Use the exercise during a routine company meeting, then adapt language to the production's real communication hierarchy.

Day 1: establish a normal baseline. Days 2–4: rehearse the cue or handoff in short, safe blocks. Days 5–6: practice one realistic variation. Day 7: compare adherence and task results, ask for participant feedback and keep only adjustments that make sense in context.

Safety, scope and limitations

Mental-performance instruction does not replace occupational safety, union rules, qualified engineering or technical certification. Never use an IBE drill to override a stop-work requirement.

IBE Performance provides performance education and coaching, not psychotherapy, medical assessment or crisis care. Consult appropriately qualified local professionals where scope, safeguarding or legal requirements apply.

Research sources and original-work disclosure

The publications below inform the underlying principles. The examples, sequence, scripts, rehearsal design and informal observation measures on this page are original IBE Performance educational adaptations. They have not been clinically validated or presented as tests created by the cited researchers.

• Mesmer-Magnus & DeChurch (2009), Information Sharing and Team Performance: A Meta-Analysis ↗
• Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement ↗