New Column: Preparing to Act Freely — Project Management Through Masato Sakai’s Performance in VIVANT

VIVANT is captivating.

The story itself is compelling, but what has drawn me in most this time is Masato Sakai’s performance.

Yusuke Nogi, his alter ego F, and Liu Mingxuan.

Three distinct characters played by one actor.

The face and body are the same, yet the moment each character appears on screen, he seems like a completely different person. On some filming days, Sakai reportedly played Nogi in the morning and Liu in the afternoon.

How is such a transformation possible?

Curious, I began reading interviews with Sakai and looking into what he has said about acting. That led me to an intriguing idea.

Sakai is an actor who prepares extensively.

He repeatedly reads his lines aloud, memorizing them until they become almost unconscious. To improve his articulation, he also practices by converting words into vowel sounds.

Yet despite this level of preparation, Sakai values what he describes as:

“A rule not to set rules.”

Rather than fixing his own approach in advance, he allows the rules to take shape together with everyone on set.

Prepare thoroughly.
But do not insist on performing exactly as prepared.

When I encountered this apparent contradiction, I thought:

Isn’t this also true of project management?

Preparation is essential for project managers.

We create schedules. We identify risks. We analyze stakeholders. We plan how meetings might unfold and prepare answers to the questions we expect to receive.

Yet projects rarely go exactly as planned.

A client suddenly changes direction.

A team member overseas offers an entirely unexpected perspective.

An assumption that was valid yesterday no longer holds today.

When that happens, simply repeating, “This is what the plan says,” will not move the project forward.

We need to observe how others respond, understand what has changed, and, when necessary, let go of the scenario we prepared.

That is not the same as making things up as we go.

It is precisely because we have prepared thoroughly that we are free to respond when the unexpected happens.

The more experienced a project manager becomes, the more careful they need to be about relying on their own patterns of success.

“It worked last time.”

“This is the right approach in situations like this.”

“This is how I always do it.”

Experience is a powerful asset. But over time, it can also become a set of rules that limits us.

This is especially true in global projects, where what seems obvious to us may not be obvious to someone else.

The people are different. The organizations are different. The cultures are different.

That is why, instead of imposing our own answer on others, we need to pause and see the situation from their perspective.

This is also central to our PM Global Immersive Reality Training® for leadership development.

Participants step into a position or role different from their own and experience what that person might see, feel, and consider when making a decision.

Come to think of it, this may be somewhat similar to an actor stepping into a role.

Nogi, F, and Liu Mingxuan.

Sakai inhabits each character as a different person. Rather than simply reproducing a predetermined performance, he responds to what he receives from the other actors and from the situation on set.

Isn’t the same true of global projects?

Prepare thoroughly.
But do not cling to the answer you prepared.

Stay grounded.
But do not force everything into your own mold.

I began by trying to understand how Sakai could play three different characters in the same production. Instead, I found myself learning something important about what it means to be a project manager.

Preparation is not only about making the future go according to plan.

It is what allows us to act freely when the future does not go according to plan.

Those were the thoughts that came to me as I watched VIVANT.