Applied Improv

What is Improv?

Improv is using your creative skills in their most natural form, and we have countless games and exercises that can help add structure to this creative craft. We can also make it useful in your business. In a sense, Improv is one of the purest forms of creation, as there is no element of judgement. The central tenet is to accept what your improv partner has said and build on it. This is known as “Yes and…”, the first rule of improv.

When we immerse ourselves in this world, we unconditionally accept the reality being created. We are immediately collaborating and building ideas without getting caught up by questioning the ideas as they emerge.

When can improv be useful?

Improv is useful in many circumstances, such as:

• Building a team – Improv is first and foremost a lot of fun. We can use it to get into a flow state and build a team’s morale
• Sidestepping assumptions – During improv, participants will accept the reality they have built without questioning it. This may aid us to avoid our assumptions
• Abandoning biases – Similarly, improv allows participants to abandon biases, or even explore biases they may not hold
• Exploration – Improvising scenes can help explore a problem, issue or opportunity in a safe environment, heightening our curiosity
• Saying Yes and… encourages active, and often, empathic listening in the workplace
• Allowing the participants to abandon any limitations and shoot for the moon
• Improv can involve prototyping and playing out scenarios to uncover deeper learning about your subject
• Helping us explore our responses to emergency situations and improve strategies

Don’t just take our word for it, this article in the Harvard Business Review details how improv can be used to unite your team.

There is no limit in improv and there is also no limit to the uses we can find for it, get in touch to book your bespoke improv workshop…

Improv in the Workplace

Improv may seem intimidating at first, but in reality we do it all the time. Whenever we have a conversation or something unexpected comes up, our responses are improvised.

The world we create when we improvise in our workshops offers a safe space to try out ideas, test responses to situations, play with language and uncover opportunities we didn’t know existed.

In Gamechangers, Mike Bonnifer refers to the elements of cosmetic meaning that we bring to many of our business meetings and improv allows us to strip that away.

Our workshops provide the structure that participants need in order to allow useful meaning to emerge from improv rather than chaos.