How do you handle a crisis? What steps do you take when unexpected changes disrupt your plans? Thriving in uncertainty requires managers and employees who can think on their feet and react swiftly without a script. In other words: it requires skilled improvisers.
Improvisers are masters of dealing with change. Ideas are developed thick and fast in every performance, with the improv players remaining in a state of constant flow and innovation. Communicating effortlessly; and at times seemingly telepathically, they can weave together a brand new show as a cohesive team. While this might look like magic from the outside, improvisers are actually using a set of techniques they have learned through training, and practised in rehearsals, in order to become experts at innovating, communicating, and responding to change with creative agility.
These skills are not only applicable to the stage but also apply to businesses, which is why we use them in our improv training for business workshops. Though improvisation might seem at odds with the structured processes typical of most businesses, the skills it develops are actually essential for organisational agility.
So that you can start thinking like an improviser, here are 5 improv techniques you can start applying at work right now!
1. Listen Attentively
Listening sounds like the most basic of all skills but how often do we really listen? A commonplace example of poor listening skills takes place at the pub after work. One of your colleagues will be telling a funny or interesting story and everyone will look like they’re listening intently. However, the truth of the matter is that by the halfway point in the story everyone at the table is thinking of their own funny or interesting story to share. As your colleague finishes their story, everyone around the table nearly spills their drink rushing to be the first person to talk: “Great story! That reminds me of something that happened to me…” That’s not good listening, that’s waiting to talk.
This happens much less obviously when we’re communicating at work, but it’s still just as prevalent. Often when we say we’re listening, really what we’re talking about is preparing our own response. By formulating a response as the person is speaking, we feel we’ll remove any awkward silences and give ourselves extra thinking time to create a better reply. But how can we adequately respond if we’re not actually listening, with our full attention, to what the person speaking has just said?
When we’re not taking on board everything a colleague or client is giving us we end up imposing our own agenda, rather than looking at what they actually need. Next time you’re in a situation like this, instead of pre-planning your response, give yourself permission to just listen. See how much more information you find yourself able to work with, and how it affects your ability to respond directly to what they have said. As a bonus, see how many times you catch yourself swapping from listening to pre-planning mode. We think you’ll be surprised at how much that tally tots up throughout the day!
2. Respond Honestly
Allowing ourselves to be obvious or average sounds exceptionally counterintuitive as a business technique but this is how improvisers allow a free flow of ideas to occur in live collaboration. Our inner critic is often a powerful barrier in any collaborative process, preventing us from contributing because we believe our ideas aren’t ‘interesting’, ‘good’ or ‘clever’ enough. But this stifles creative innovation, setting an unrealistic expectation for our contributions.
In improv we imagine we are building a Cathedral, brick by brick. Through an iterative process of bringing a single ‘brick’ (read, idea) each, we end up constructing a beautiful Cathedral together. If we were told that we had to bring the Cathedral immediately, in a single step, we’d baulk at the idea. But this is exactly what we’re doing whenever we let our self-critic win; we are expecting more of ourselves than bringing the next single ‘brick’, which consequently means we bring nothing at all.
Next time you are in a brainstorming meeting, instead of feeling like you need to bring a whole Cathedral, suggest what you believe to be the next logical step in a project or an idea.
3. Use ‘Yes And’
The improviser’s golden rule is to ‘Yes, and…’ ideas that are given to us. The ‘Yes’ refers to accepting the other person’s idea. The ‘and’ refers to building on that idea. By using this technique improvisers build ideas quickly and efficiently, vital for when they are performing live on stage. It’s worth noting that applying ‘Yes, and’ to business doesn’t lead to flippancy, instead we use it to defer judgement and build on concepts more quickly.
When a new idea is on the table we feel like we’re doing a service to the group by pointing out problems. This comes from a good place, after all we don’t want to devote resources to an untested idea. However, there is a tendency to say no far too early into the process, killing fledgling ideas before they’ve had a chance to develop. This also sets a precedent that every idea needs to be fully formed and bullet proof before we can even mention it. These high expectations don’t inspire a group, instead they leave everyone terrified of judgement.
Next time a new idea comes out in a meeting, identify what’s good in the idea and press forward instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water. We can never call ourselves innovative if we never give new ideas a chance.
4. Leverage Your Individuality
Individuality is a term that is thrown around as a valuable asset to teamwork but it often feels lost in the day to day workings of a company. In improvisation the players are constantly working together as a team, but their uniqueness is still of the utmost importance. If players don’t bring their unique perspective into the show the performance becomes one dimensional and shallow. So, how can we bring this combination of teamwork and uniqueness into the business world?
While we talked about improv’s golden rule being ‘Yes, and’ that does not mean we strive for teams full of ‘Yes People’. As we already mentioned, the ‘Yes’ is to do with the attitude with which we approach offers from others: one of positivity and commitment, regardless of whether or not it was our idea. Now the ‘And’ is where we can bring our individuality when building on someone else’s offer. We use our unique perspective to suggest new directions to go in, giving a team novel options so they can pick what sounds like the best course of action.
Individuality does not mean selfishness, it means giving your team other potential angles and different skill sets from which to approach a project or solution to a problem.
5. Treat Mistakes as Gifts
Improvisers have learnt how to embrace mistakes. They are valued not only as a learning opportunity, but also as unexpected gifts that can be weaved into the tapestry of a scene live on stage. A misspoken line can become the funniest new material for improvisers to play with and explore. Improv doesn’t teach us to avoid mistakes but rather to change our attitude towards them.
In the business world mistakes are highly stigmatised. Despite the fact we know that no one is perfect and we all make mistakes, it can be hard to apply this technique of embracing mistakes at work due to our fear of failure or of getting it ‘wrong’.
Consider, though, the field of Scientific Research. Science is fundamentally built on mistakes. Scientists test assumptions by putting them in situations where there is the possibility of failure. Without the possibility of failure, there is no value in a scientific experiment. Penicillin was quite literally discovered due to a mistake. One of Alexander Fleming’s samples was accidentally contaminated with a type of mould which, it turned out, was a rare strain of Penicillium notatum capable of killing bacteria, and this discovery eventually caused a massive leap forward in medicine.
A more directly applicable example comes from the way that Dyson operates. Through iterative changes to different designs they are constantly testing and improving their products. The amount of failed prototypes far outnumbers that of the successful ones, but these successes are only possible due to the sheer number of attempts.
Penalising mistakes doesn’t stop people making them, it just causes people to hide their mistakes, robbing a corporation of the opportunity to learn from them. The airline industry has fully embraced this philosophy with their creation of the black box.
Every aeroplane contains a black box with all of the inflight data, monitoring every intricate detail of the journey including an audio recording of the conversations in the cockpit. In the unfortunate event of an aeroplane crash the black box is recovered and the information is openly shared and analysed. From looking at the data, experts are able to identify any potential mistakes which caused the crash and then use this information to change procedure to minimise the future risk. This open attitude to mistakes is a large part of the airline industry’s success and exceptionally low mortality rate.
Changing your attitude towards mistakes opens you up to opportunities of unlimited potential. Next time your team makes a mistake, as opposed to starting a witch hunt, turn it into a scientific investigation that will benefit the entire team.
Key Takeaways
Thriving in uncertainty requires managers and employees who can think on their feet and react swiftly without a script. Essentially, it requires skilled improvisers. These 5 improvisation techniques, though often overlooked in business training, are key to fostering organisational agility and innovative thinking.
- Listen Attentively: Truly listening means fully engaging with the speaker, without pre-planning your response. This leads to more effective communication and innovation.
- Respond Honestly: Contribute your most ‘obvious’ ideas without self-censorship. This encourages the free flow of ideas and fosters creativity within a team.
- Use ‘Yes, And’: Embrace and build on others’ ideas instead of immediately pointing out problems. This promotes a more collaborative approach to ideation and problem-solving.
- Leverage Individuality: Bring your unique perspectives and skillset to the table to enrich team brainstorming and enhance collective decision-making.
- Treat Mistakes as Gifts: Try to embrace mistakes as learning opportunities. Adopting this mindset encourages experimentation and continuous improvement, leading to greater organisational resilience and innovation.
Improvisation skills are not just for the stage; they are essential for navigating the ever-changing landscape of the business world. By adopting these five improv techniques you can help to cultivate a culture of adaptability, innovation, and effective communication at work. Start listening attentively, responding honestly, using ‘Yes, and’, leveraging your individuality, and treating mistakes as gifts to become more resilient and agile, ready to tackle any challenge that comes your way.
Encourage teams within your business to embrace the power of improv and watch as your organisation begins to thrive in uncertainty, work more collaboratively, and innovate more effectively.
Ready to start your ‘Improv for Business’ journey?
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