• How improv fits into the creative process of a workplace

Improv is an excellent method for quickly innovating and creating hundreds of new ideas from scratch. Through active listening, and suspending criticism and judgement, improvisers create a safe space to share ideas, and then build on them collaboratively in order to come up with new concepts.

These same principles, of active listening, suspending criticism and judgement, and collaboration, can be applied to the creative process of a workplace to enhance innovation in the early stages of idea generation and development. Later on in the process we will, of course, wish to deliberately employ constructive criticism and use team members’ judgement based on their intellect and experience to pick the best ideas. But this should come towards the end of the process, not at the start, as is so often the case when collaboration goes wrong.

There are four key improv principles that businesses can employ to improve collaboration and innovation:

  • Listening
  • Accepting offers
  • Making Your Teammates Look Good
  • Building Trust

Our improv for business workshops focus on guiding participants through these four principles, with an emphasis on how improv, playfulness, and spontaneity can be used in the workplace, and particularly how it can be applied to creative processes.

Fundamentally, our workshops are about building teams that collaborate effectively, where individuals suspend their own egos or agenda to forward the group agenda.

1. Listening and Awareness

Everything we say or do contains ‘offers’. In improv, the word ‘offer’ is used to describe an opportunity to develop an idea. It’s a bit of information, a notion, a phrase, that acts like a launching pad for a brilliant idea.

Often these offers are deliberate. But sometimes they are accidental: we unintentionally say something that someone else finds interesting and they run with it. Big ideas come from developing these small offers, step by step, from acorn to oak tree. But you can’t develop an offer if you haven’t heard it first.

So far, so obvious. The trouble is, most of us are actually bad listeners, and we don’t realize it. It’s very easy not to listen properly. For example, say you are going to a creative meeting about a certain issue. You think you’ve got the answer, so the meeting essentially turns into a waiting game whilst you politely ‘listen’ to others take their turn to present their ideas. Really though, you’re just passing the time until you can say your piece. You aren’t interested in developing other people’s ideas; you are barely taking in any of the information. You are stuck in your head, obsessing about your idea instead.

Often, in brainstorms for example, we stop becoming listeners and become salespeople instead. Trying to control the conversation stops the exploration of ideas, and this is not a productive route to creativity or effective communication.

So, what’s the solution? Well, in happy, productive teams, team members feel heard and understood. This requires individuals to listen fully to their fellow team members so they can hear their ideas, understand their concerns, and empathize with their unique needs.

Most communication problems stem from poor listening: we miss verbal and non-verbal clues about what our colleagues and clients are thinking and feeling. This leads them to feel that we haven’t understood them, and eventually this leads to dysfunctional relationships.

In our improv for business workshops, we train active listening skills. Good listening starts from a position of openness and humility. It’s about accepting that great ideas are produced by great teams working well. Great individuals thrive in great teams, but ego can stop us listening and collaborating well.

The secret to avoiding the natural human disposition to listen poorly is firstly, self-awareness, and secondly, to train the skill of active listening without judgement—that is, to be entirely present as you listen, not stuck in your own head. Improv offers a brilliant framework to achieve these two objectives.

Key Takeaways:

  • Importance of Offers: Every big idea starts with an ‘offer’—a suggestion that, with development, could flourish into something novel and exciting. Offers are essential for creativity.
  • Impact of Poor Listening: We can only develop offers if we are truly listening to others and their ideas. When we are waiting to present our own ideas, rather than engaging with others’ contributions, we stifle creativity.
  • Benefits of Active Listening: Openness, humility, and placing your focus outside of yourself are key to listening effectively. When we listen well, we build more productive teams where everyone feels heard and understood.
  • The Role of Improv in Active Listening: Improv exercises can enhance self-awareness and active listening skills, fostering better collaboration and creativity in teams.

2. Saying ‘Yes, and’

It’s not enough to just listen to another person’s ideas, though. Your colleagues need to feel supported as well. To do this, we need to accept their idea and attempt to build on it in some way. In improv, this is known as the ‘Yes, and’ principle.

This principle can be easily employed during the creative process in your workplace. When team members share an idea, we must first of all employ active listening whilst they are speaking. Then we need to show we have heard, understood, and appreciated their idea by being positive about it (the ‘Yes’). Finally, we support their idea by building on it (the ‘and’).

It’s important that this is an ‘and’ rather than a ‘but’. When we say ‘Yes, but’ we are essentially blocking our team member’s idea, stopping it in its tracks. This is obviously hugely disheartening, and it results in a combative culture not conducive to collaboration. Not only that, it’s also very wasteful: that is an idea which might have made you money if you had given it the space to be explored!

One reason people block is because they jump straight into analysis too early in the creative process. We’re often disadvantaged when it comes to generating good ideas because we think too fast: our analytical brains shut off new ideas before they have fully emerged, in order to keep us safe and resist change. Too often we dismiss ideas based on perceived problems or flaws. We judge them rather than reframing them into unexpected, innovative solutions.

Improvisation teaches us the importance of suspending judgement. When applied to the creative process at work, it teaches us to hold back on constructive criticism until the very end of the process, rather than shutting ideas down before they’ve had time to blossom.

Accepting others’ ideas enthusiastically creates an atmosphere of collaboration, one where innovation can thrive. So think like an improviser and don’t kill an idea before it’s fully formed!

Key Takeaways:

  • Use the “Yes, and…” Principle: Embrace and build upon colleagues’ ideas by employing the “Yes, and…” principle. Accepting and then adding to their idea fosters a collaborative environment where ideas can flourish.
  • Avoid Premature Criticism: Delay critical analysis until later in the creative process. This approach allows ideas to develop fully without being prematurely judged or dismissed.
  • Create a Culture of Innovation: By accepting and building on ideas, organizations can cultivate an atmosphere where innovation is encouraged and diverse perspectives are valued.

3. Making your colleague look good

In improv, we are taught to make each other look good. On stage, you support your scene partner with the offers they make, and they in turn support you, as you build the scene or story together, piece by piece.

At work, this looks like supporting your colleagues’ ideas. We believe in Group Mind, which says that the collective intelligence of the ensemble working together is far greater than the intelligence of one individual member. Great work is produced by great teams. Star individuals are not sufficient for star teams, but they do thrive in them. If everyone leaves their ego at the door and takes responsibility for making their partners look good, you will create a positive atmosphere in which you can build trust with your colleagues—which leads us to the fourth principle…

Key Takeaways:

  • Support Colleagues’ Ideas: Mirroring the improv principle of making each other look good, focus on how you can support your colleagues’ ideas.
  • Group Mind: Prioritize collective intelligence over individual effort. Truly brilliant work comes from a cohesive team, rather than standout individuals.
  • Foster a Positive Atmosphere: We build trust within a team in environments where egos are set aside, and everyone takes care to listen to one another and support each other’s offers.

4. Building trust

Improv is based on collaboration, not competition. The way that great improvisers are able to collaborate so effectively is through employing the previous three improv principles we have discussed to build an atmosphere of psychological safety, trust, and support.

Employing these three principles within a workplace builds trust. It allows every member of the team to feel heard and be able to contribute freely without fear of criticism or judgement, leading to more creative innovation. Once we trust our team, individuals from any background can learn to be present within the group and work, offer by offer, towards a clear shared goal.

Key Takeaways:

  • Trust and Safety: Building trust and fostering psychological safety within a team allows members to feel heard and valued, enabling them to contribute ideas more freely, without fear of criticism or judgement.
  • Creative Innovation: This type of supportive, collaborative environment encourages greater creative innovation where team members from diverse backgrounds feel confident to contribute.

Conclusion

Improv might seem like something which has no place at work, but we’ve shown that its four key principles:

  • Listening to others
  • Accepting offers
  • Making your teammates look good
  • Building trust

can greatly enhance creative processes in the workplace. Focusing on these four principles will help to foster a truly collaborative work environment where creative juices flow and innovation can thrive.

Although these skills are simple, they are not necessarily easy to employ. In order to excel at them, we need to overcome our fear of uncertainty and also drop our need to be in control of our ideas. But with practice, we can learn to harness these skills, becoming less judgemental (of ourselves and others) and instead, more creative and productive at work.

Ready to start? It all begins with ‘yes, and.’

Read about how design and consulting firm IDEO have applied improv to their creative process following our improv workshops here.

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