Warren Lamb Biography
Warren Lamb (1923-2014 ) was born in northern England and educated at Wallasey Grammar School. At 16 he left school to join Lloyds Bank. In 1941 he enlisted in the Royal Navy. Following active service during World War II, he returned reluctantly to banking. A chance meeting with Rudolf Laban, the eminent European movement theorist, encouraged Lamb to pursue an interest in movement notation and the possibility for its use in behavioral analysis. He abandoned his banking career and enrolled in the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester, which was run by Laban’s colleague, Lisa Ullmann.
During the war years, Laban had collaborated with F.C. Lawrence, one of the first people to establish management consultancy in England. Drawing upon Laban’s movement theories and notation system and Lawrence’s consulting acumen, the two had developed and applied unique work study techniques to enhance efficiency in enterprises essential to the war effort. Laban introduced Warren Lamb to Lawrence and, while still a student of movement and dance, Lamb began to work with some of Lawrence’s clients, applying the newly developed assessment method. He was met by intense scepticism but eventually convinced the Paton Lawrence company staff and their clients of the validity of the method, which was then known as the Laban Lawrence Personal Effort Assessment.
Lamb established his own management consultancy in 1952. This initiated a period of intense development activity during which Lamb sought to clarify movement assessment methods and to establish firm connections between patterns of movement behavior and decision making processes. By 1965 the procedure was crystallized and his first book, Posture and Gesture, was published. Further refinements followed and were published in Management Behaviour (1969) and Body Code (1987). Lamb’s consulting practice grew, as he and colleagues provided individual assessments and top team planning services to clients such as Trebor (candy), Eversheds (printers), Lansing Bagnall (trucks), Dunlop (sports equipment), Albany International (paper industry), CIGA Hotels, and the General Electric Company. Movement Pattern Analysis, as Lamb’s work has come to be known, has an impressive track record, for many of the major companies listed above were Lamb’s clients for two to three decades.
Throughout his long career, Warren Lamb has insisted that movement – recognized in its true sense as a constant process of variation -- should be regarded as a subject in its own right. Since movement is part of every activity, Lamb has advocated that it be studied in a multi-disciplinary fashion. While most of his professional activity has been in industrial and commercial fields, Lamb has worked with a wide variety of people – sculptors, artists, musicians, actors, teachers, therapists, and psychiatrists. This breadth of experience has allowed him to identify seven creative concepts. These have been succinctly summed up in his most recent book, A Framework for Understanding Movement (2012), as follows:
One – The concept of a decision-making sequence, enabling emphasis to be put on the process as distinct from the content of a decision
Two – The isolation of Posture-Gesture Merger as revealing the relatively enduring features of a person’s movement patterns
Three – The systematic matching of Effort and Shape with decision-making processes
Four – The notion of affinities between Effort and Shape having significance for interaction
Five – The distinction of two types of Flow: the flow of Effort and the flow of Shape
Six – The Frameworks of Management Action and Interaction, which divide the decision-making process into six basic Action Motivations, four Interaction styles, and overall factors such as Identifying and dynamic Loading
Seven – The recognition that Flow (of Effort and Shape) diminishes during childhood growth while the Effort and Shaping of movement is being developed
Lamb’s very original contributions to the field of movement study have been recognized internationally, for he has received two “Lifetime Achievement” awards: Motus Humanus (USA 1995) and the International Congress on Movement Analysis in Education, Therapy, and Science (Germany 2010). In addition, his lengthy collaborations with other movement study pioneers, notably Irmgard Bartenieff and Judith Kestenberg, have profoundly influenced Laban Movement Analysis training in the US and the development of the Kestenberg Movement Profile.
Warren Lamb (1923-2014 ) was born in northern England and educated at Wallasey Grammar School. At 16 he left school to join Lloyds Bank. In 1941 he enlisted in the Royal Navy. Following active service during World War II, he returned reluctantly to banking. A chance meeting with Rudolf Laban, the eminent European movement theorist, encouraged Lamb to pursue an interest in movement notation and the possibility for its use in behavioral analysis. He abandoned his banking career and enrolled in the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester, which was run by Laban’s colleague, Lisa Ullmann.
During the war years, Laban had collaborated with F.C. Lawrence, one of the first people to establish management consultancy in England. Drawing upon Laban’s movement theories and notation system and Lawrence’s consulting acumen, the two had developed and applied unique work study techniques to enhance efficiency in enterprises essential to the war effort. Laban introduced Warren Lamb to Lawrence and, while still a student of movement and dance, Lamb began to work with some of Lawrence’s clients, applying the newly developed assessment method. He was met by intense scepticism but eventually convinced the Paton Lawrence company staff and their clients of the validity of the method, which was then known as the Laban Lawrence Personal Effort Assessment.
Lamb established his own management consultancy in 1952. This initiated a period of intense development activity during which Lamb sought to clarify movement assessment methods and to establish firm connections between patterns of movement behavior and decision making processes. By 1965 the procedure was crystallized and his first book, Posture and Gesture, was published. Further refinements followed and were published in Management Behaviour (1969) and Body Code (1987). Lamb’s consulting practice grew, as he and colleagues provided individual assessments and top team planning services to clients such as Trebor (candy), Eversheds (printers), Lansing Bagnall (trucks), Dunlop (sports equipment), Albany International (paper industry), CIGA Hotels, and the General Electric Company. Movement Pattern Analysis, as Lamb’s work has come to be known, has an impressive track record, for many of the major companies listed above were Lamb’s clients for two to three decades.
Throughout his long career, Warren Lamb has insisted that movement – recognized in its true sense as a constant process of variation -- should be regarded as a subject in its own right. Since movement is part of every activity, Lamb has advocated that it be studied in a multi-disciplinary fashion. While most of his professional activity has been in industrial and commercial fields, Lamb has worked with a wide variety of people – sculptors, artists, musicians, actors, teachers, therapists, and psychiatrists. This breadth of experience has allowed him to identify seven creative concepts. These have been succinctly summed up in his most recent book, A Framework for Understanding Movement (2012), as follows:
One – The concept of a decision-making sequence, enabling emphasis to be put on the process as distinct from the content of a decision
Two – The isolation of Posture-Gesture Merger as revealing the relatively enduring features of a person’s movement patterns
Three – The systematic matching of Effort and Shape with decision-making processes
Four – The notion of affinities between Effort and Shape having significance for interaction
Five – The distinction of two types of Flow: the flow of Effort and the flow of Shape
Six – The Frameworks of Management Action and Interaction, which divide the decision-making process into six basic Action Motivations, four Interaction styles, and overall factors such as Identifying and dynamic Loading
Seven – The recognition that Flow (of Effort and Shape) diminishes during childhood growth while the Effort and Shaping of movement is being developed
Lamb’s very original contributions to the field of movement study have been recognized internationally, for he has received two “Lifetime Achievement” awards: Motus Humanus (USA 1995) and the International Congress on Movement Analysis in Education, Therapy, and Science (Germany 2010). In addition, his lengthy collaborations with other movement study pioneers, notably Irmgard Bartenieff and Judith Kestenberg, have profoundly influenced Laban Movement Analysis training in the US and the development of the Kestenberg Movement Profile.
