Stop Performing at Work. Start Rehearsing. with Kira Troilo

Why is it so hard for teams to say what they actually think?

We nod in meetings, then raise concerns in Slack afterward. We approve work, then reopen it at the last minute. We pile up version 20, 30, 40 of a deliverable, wondering why nothing ever feels finished.

In this episode of Ops Cast, host Michael Hartmann sits down with Kira Troilo, founder of Art & Soul Consulting, who brings two decades of theater experience into the world of team collaboration.

Her insight is that most teams are stuck in “performance mode,” being careful and polite, when what they really need is “rehearsal mode,” where it’s safe to be messy, disagree early, and surface the truth before it gets expensive.

Michael and Kira discussed:

• Why politeness is a hidden source of inefficiency, and what the “silence tax” actually costs organizations
• The real reason approval cycles balloon into endless rounds of revisions
• How theater’s “first rehearsal” tradition translates to designing better team kickoffs
• Why tools, workflows, and AI don’t fix the underlying communication problem
• Practical tactics teams can adopt this week to give honest feedback earlier
• Whether AI and automation make these collaboration challenges better or worse
• How leaders can shift from managing output to designing how their teams work together

If you’ve ever felt that rework, fire drills, and misalignment are symptoms of something deeper on your team, this conversation will give you a new lens and a starting point.