Improv at Work
If you’ve seen an improv show, you know it can be an exciting, surprising spectacle full of laughter. There’s no script or plan to go by, it’s all made up right before the audience’s eyes. Improv is the art of being present and in the moment. It’s the ability to let go and adapt to an ever-changing context, in tandem with your scene partners. It’s about being aware of the people watching you, reading them and surprising them… all without judging yourself.
Among the uninitiated, many people are scared of the idea of being on a stage, without a clear objective and no script. However, without realising it, these kinds of situations often arise while we’re at work. A question “out of left field” that we didn’t expect during a presentation, a colleague who throws us off our game, the pressure of needing a perfect solution to a pressing problem: there is no shortage of situations where we might need to improvise in a professional context.
So, those same skills that allow improv performers to create a show out of thin air can be applied in the workplace.
THE IMPROVISER'S SKILL SET
The base skills of improv are simple, yet challenging: listening, collaborating, adapting, creating and storytelling. Listening and collaborating allow us to connect to the people around us, adapting gives us resilience, while creating and storytelling are the act of flexing a muscle we might not be used to using, our imagination.
LISTENING: Working on listening has many benefits. When we listen, we become receptive to new ideas and ways of thinking. We slow ourselves down and give ourselves time to think. And when we listen to other people we connect better with them and become ready to collaborate with them. Even though many assume that they’ve already got this skill down pat, the reality is that, in a world of constant turbulence, few people have truly mastered the art of listening.
COLLABORATING: In improv, we shine by making others shine. To create scenes that work, players have to trust one another, work together and put aside their egos for the good of the scene. This way, the more we help our scene partners to be funny or interesting, the better the scene will work. Isn’t this a good model for the teamwork and collaboration we aim to have at work?
ADAPTING: “The show must go on!”, as they say. In improv, there are no errors, only opportunities. A character says something strange? A performer messes up on stage? A mixup in the details of the story being told? Regardless of the mistake, there’s a way to take advantage of the flub: lean into the supposed error and commit to making it work! Sometimes the very best scenes are full of such “errors” and push the performers to explore ideas they might not have had otherwise. The same thing can happen at work. Don’t forget that we owe the slinky, penicillin, chips and soap that floats to the “errors” of people at work.
CREATING: It’s not always easy to be creative. Once we are adults, our brains create a mess of thoughts and ideas that keep us jumping from one thought to the next, automatically and chaotically. Being creative is trying to break our mental patterns and think outside the box. Instead of falling back on routine or traditional solutions, improv challenges us to find new ways of looking at things and solving problems.
STORYTELLING: People love telling and hearing stories. Being able to frame your work as a narrative makes it more enjoyable to present and improves how it is received and retained by others. Improv helps with presentations and reports by giving a story framework that is familiar and easy to understand. It’s a powerful tool to reach out, engage with people and convince our audience.
The skills that improv develops can all be applied in our place of work. Whether it’s to build our conversation skills, improve our collaboration or to free our creativity before a brainstorming session, improv exercises are a joyful way to connect with each other and improve how we work.
A SIMPLE EXERCISE TO GET YOU STARTED
Try telling a story one sentence at a time! In groups of 2 to 4 people, work together to tell a single story.
One person starts with “Once there was a…” and completes the sentence with the main character of the story. For example, “Once there was a firefighter.” The next person in the group adds the next sentence, presenting an action. For example, “The firefighter heard an alarm and got in the fire truck.” And then the next person adds the next sentence and so on. Each person adds their piece of the story until the group agrees that the story is complete, after one (or many) round(s). It’s a good idea to keep the sentences short instead of overcomplicating things.
This is a fun exercise that teaches us to listen to what was just said and ask us to imagine and create what happens next. The best part is that since it’s a totally made up story, there’s no wrong way to do it!
TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Improv can be used to create scenarios where skills are applied in a safe and engaging way. Because there are plenty of exercises and workshops that can develop these skills, you may find it helpful to find a professional trainer before implementing these kinds of initiatives at your work. An expert can help you identify and target your specific needs and those of your group. They can even help you custom build a workshop (or a series of workshops!) that meets your budget, goals and timeline.
Curious? There’s already a company in Montreal that specialises in applying improv in the workplace: US!
So, why not liberate your team’s creativity and imagination, develop their soft skills, all while getting the benefits of teambuilding and laughter? Send an email to contact@improvforprofessionals.com today and ask how we can help.
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