Enhance your leadership skills with the power of improv…
‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ hit our screens in September 1988, making the likes of Paul Merton, Tony Slattery and Josie Lawrence household names in the process. This remains most people’s first association with the word ‘improvisation.’ Thousands of people take ‘improv’ classes here at Hoopla every year because they want to learn to make people laugh. But what our students soon discover is that improvisation can have profound and transformational effects off-stage too, both at home and at work.
Improvisation is about a lot more than comedy. Improvisation is the art of acting without script. And yes, this often happens on-stage for entertainment, but we often have to improvise in life. We improvise when we collaborate to solve problems, we improvise when we respond to unexpected events, and isn’t almost all communication improvised? Far from being niche, it seems that improvisation might even be the essential skill of the modern workplace. In the context of constant uncertainty and change facing us over the next few decades, the ability to improvise becomes a crucial meta-skill to thrive. Our capacity to improvise allows us to apply all our knowledge, skills and experience to the unique context or situation we are in. In short, it makes us flexible and adaptable.
It is because of these wide-ranging benefits that Hoopla Business works with managers from leading firms all over the world — Unilever, Google, Facebook and more — showing them how the skills of improvised comedy can make them more effective leaders. Here, we’ll take you through 5 of those skills which can help you to become a better manager and leader.
- It Begins with Listening
Rather than focusing on what they want to say, first and foremost improvisers focus on listening attentively to their scene partner. For ‘scene partner’ read ‘colleague’. If we want to connect with and to influence others, we need to meet them where they are. We cannot do this without listening brilliantly.
Unfortunately, real listening is rare in life. So often we aren’t really listening to each other, we are waiting to respond. We are stuck in our heads, going over the script of what we want to say, and missing what’s actually going on in the conversation. Improvisers define listening as the willingness to be changed. Do you let the other person’s words, ideas, and feelings land on you and change your response? Listening like this is the secret to brilliant communication. And good communication is at the heart of effective leadership and collaboration.
- Adopt a ‘Yes, and’ Mindset
The improv philosophy of ‘Yes, and’ is all about accepting and building on the ideas of our scene partner. It is a philosophy which can be easily adopted by leaders when talking to colleagues or clients. But all too often, leaders lead with ‘Yes, but’. Essentially, they block ideas. But why? It’s rarely because they are rude. In fact, it is often because they want to show leadership: to give others the benefit of their expertise and experience. In short, leaders consider criticising ideas as a generous act, a sign of robust thinking. And this sort of interrogation is often useful. The trouble comes when leaders default to that mode of communication, when a ‘Yes, and’ response would be more productive.
Saying ‘Yes, but’ and not ‘Yes, and’ can inadvertently create a culture where people don’t want to share their ideas at all (why would you if they are just going to get shut down?). And this brings real world costs. A culture where no-one wants to speak up clearly isn’t productive in a time of constant change where innovation is key. By prematurely judging ideas, we might kill-off innovative suggestions that could provide real value with a little more development. Ask yourself, at a time where new approaches are essential, is your leadership style making your company’s ability to react creatively to change more, or less likely?
- Treat Everything as an Offer
The potential we find in change is based on how we look at it. You are treating everything as an offer when you decide to frame mistakes, problems, and curve balls as serendipitous opportunities rather than frustrating challenges. Treating everything as an offer is about asking, ‘What can I use here?’ rather than ‘What’s missing?’ . This is especially important in a time when we are all being asked to do more with less ingredients.
Cookery is an apt metaphor here. An average cook needs a finished recipe and a complete set of ingredients to create a delicious meal. A good cook can open the fridge, survey the leftovers, and create magic from whatever is there. The difference between the two is not in their skills, it is in their mindset. If you can learn to treat everything as an offer, to see possibility in the constraints, you’ll be able to see the opportunities amid the carnage.
- Give and Take Focus
In an improvised performance on stage, no one performer is pre-determined as the leader of the show. However, this doesn’t mean there is no leadership. Leadership is present in every moment, but it is distributed across the group, with different people stepping forward at different times depending on the demands of the moment. Improvisers call this concept ‘follow the follower’ and it requires us to give (not just take) focus. Giving focus to others can be emotionally challenging for leaders, as they are afraid that giving away control, however temporarily, makes them look weak. But the ability to surrender control of the process allows leaders to unlock the collective intelligence of the team and ensure the group is as responsive to change as possible.
- Keep Making Choices
One of the reasons leaders don’t like surrendering control is that people might mess things up. Yet, Jeff Bezos at Amazon points out there is a difference between reversible and irreversible decisions. Most decisions fit into the reversible category. While there may be some time and resources wasted in a decision you reverse, your reward is that by delegating this sort of decision to others you remove yourself as a bottleneck, speeding up your team’s capacity to innovate.
The key to responding to change is to keep making choices, even under conditions of incomplete information. Improvisers say that the only bad choice you can make is no choice, because even when we make a bad choice it means that something is happening. If something is happening, then we are getting feedback. If we are getting feedback, then we are learning. Remember, we can always adjust our course if that choice turns out to be wrong. If we don’t make choices, however, we just move sideways.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritise Listening: Effective leadership begins with truly listening to others. Focus on understanding and being open to change based on what you hear.
- Adopt a ‘Yes, and’ Approach: Encourage idea-sharing by building on suggestions rather than immediately critiquing them. This approach promotes innovation and prevents a culture of fear, where team members hesitate to contribute.
- Embrace Change as Opportunity: Treat unexpected challenges as opportunities for growth. Shift your mindset to see potential in every situation, which is crucial for navigating constant change.
- Distribute Leadership: Give focus and responsibility to others when appropriate to enhance team responsiveness and leverage collective intelligence.
- Keep Making Choices: Even when there is incomplete information, encourage your team to keep making decisions, learning from outcomes to continuously improve and innovate.
Want more tips like these? Check out Company Director and Co-Founder of Hoopla Business, Max Dickins’, book, ‘Improvise! Use the Secrets of Improv to Achieve Extraordinary Results at Work’.
Want to book us to help develop your leadership skills?
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