Insight: Company Three

The power of three rules - Ned Glasier

We think young people have too many rules in their life.

Some schools have more than a hundred rules, all written down. They relate to how you should wear your uniform, how you should walk in the corridor, what constitutes ‘good’ behaviour. They are often negative (in that they say what you shouldn’t do, rather than what you should) and they turn a student’s relationship with their teacher into a series of binary processes.

Young people have rules at school, rules at home, rules in the street, social rules, online rules. At a time when we should be giving them autonomy and trust, they have more rules than any other humans at any other age.

We think this is too many, so we only have three.

Company Three’s three rules are positive, simple and memorable.

Be Kind. Be Brave. Be Yourself.

In twelve years of running the company we’ve never had to add any. And we’ve never had a situation in which we haven’t been able to apply one of the rules to help us reach a solution.

For us, the rules sit at the heart of our key aim in our work - to build a long-term, trusting relationship with the young people we work with. Without this relationship we can’t have proper, honest conversations. And without those conversations we can’t make plays that really speak of what young people care about and want to change in the world.

We love the rules so much, we had a whole range of merchandise made with them on.

In truth, we only really have one rule.

Be Brave and Be Yourself are both invitations. We ask our young people to step outside their comfort zones and to be honest about who they are, but if they don’t feel able to do that yet, that’s fine.

Be Kind, however, is the fulcrum of our work. Without kindness, no-one in a room can be brave or honest. So this rule is one we enforce rigorously and consistently - sometimes even quite strictly - in our work.

And the rule applies as much to the staff and any other adults in the room too. We embody it in the way we greet and listen to the young people we work with. In the generosity of our actions - whether that’s organising meals together, going away on trips or remembering someone’s birthday.

When people are kind, you feel better able to take risks, to stretch yourself and try new things. These are all essential for making great theatre - and for growing into a great person.