What Can Business Learn From Improv
“The fun is always on the other side of a YES.”
If your team lacks a script, inclusion, fun, exploration, and balanced contributions, improv skills are instrumental for all of these!
Parents who have a two-year-old experience the Age of No. In Improv, humans experience “Yes, And.” In a world that historically glamorizes exclusivity and worships heroes, improvisation reinforces inclusivity and glamorizes the ensemble. The mother of improvisation, Viola Spolin, declared that everyone is stage worthy.
As a social worker with inner-city youth in Chicago, Viola formulated tools and games to stimulate creative expression and social behavior in the children. Her improv games had a therapeutic effect on the players. The games undermine self-consciousness, pre-planning, and judgment. In this playful mode, the players are uniquely present. Her exercises fool spontaneity into being. Improv exercises encourage diverse thoughts and divergent thinking. Improv is a collaborative advantage.
Don’t mistake Improv for Impromptu. Impromptu is ad-libbing, chaos, and rule-free. Improv includes rules and requires practice - important since you don’t know what’s coming next. The improv world teaches that obstacles are gifts, they are opportunities, and you don’t have to tackle them alone. Improv improves skills to think on your feet. Improv leverages strengths of the individuals in your ensemble. It improves teamwork and team results.
Improv is a unique tool. All members of an improv team are committed to the success of the other members of the ensemble. It commits each member to explore and heighten the contributions of others, without control. This is the “Yes, And.” This is an Agreement Factory. Improv changes the narrative of “a team is as strong as its weakest member.” At some point, everyone is destined to be their team’s weak member. With improv skills, your team is “only as good as its ability to compensate for its weakest member.”
Improv helps to balance contributions and undermine monopolization by a single person. It’s important that every person “bring a brick, not a cathedral.”
Improv is engaging, inclusive, and fun. Mistakes become funny. Because you don’t know where it might lead, it can be serendipity. Add this Performing Art to your toolkit.