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michael

Great interview.

I think most people recognize the value of positive collaboration, building relationships, active listening, flexibly, etc., in business, which are all skills that are wonderfully integral to improvisation. The problem comes in the implementation. I believe that no one (or almost no one) will having their thinking or behavior changed in any appreciable way by one 3-hour workshop, or even an all-day workshop. And it is the rare company that will invest in a weekly class for, say, 3 months, for its employees. So, in general, improvisational training in business becomes a special event for some segment of the workforce that introduces them to a new way of working but doesn't really reinforce it enough through practice to make any lasting difference. It's like going to the gym twice a year and thinking that gets you in shape.

I grow weary of all the different business consultants talking to each other about how important their particular take on management development is, everyone nods seriously and then goes to deliver yet another disposable 3-hour workshop or Powerpoint presentation. I think we need to change the discussion from why and how improv is useful, to how do we really use it to affect lasting change. I don't think one weekend retreat is going to do that.

Oh, and regarding your answer to the 2nd question: I'm not sure I've ever sought out or discovered an algorithm in my life. Do I need a Vorpal Sword for that?

Jay Rhoderick

Thanks for the comment, Michael! I completely agree with you that implementation is the key and the main challenge is sustainability. Certainly few of us make permanent changes after only 3 hours. One point I tried to make in the interview is that the individual is more and more responsible for his own self-invention and growth as a one-person business. It is indeed easy for consultants to go on presenting themselves as the "light and the way". But it's actually an ongoing personal investment for the improvisation participant to decide to make for their own brand. The HR person hiring the consultant can’t force it, for sure.
I think we true-believers need to even more aggressively preach the "how and why improv works" message to the “civilian” business world, while at the SAME TIME push for introducing and implementing it in a sustainable and authentic way in individuals' practices.
Recently I worked with a group that had department managers improvising with custodians, sales associates, and IT folks all together. It revealed, of course, many differences and disconnects. But it also gave the participants the opportunity to differentiate themselves each as experts with distinctive POV's and specific routines and methods of doing things (yes, algorithms) which added up to the firm's efficiency and value.
Sustainability is tricky. But when each workshop participant truly feels what it's like to be a self-directed and uniquely-qualified contributor to the game everyone is playing, that generates potential personal buy-in. You're right, it's just like going to the gym--when it's once every 3 months with no follow-through, nothing happens. But when the workshop asks people to try something new, to show up as they haven't shown up (or been asked to show up) at work, that's when I challenge them to make improv best practices part of their personal brand, as useful applications on a daily basis. It's follow-through for the sake of their own growth (however they define that growth) and thus for their company's health. They powerfully revise their own work style.
Touché on “algorithm”! A nice Carroll-esque riposte with the Vorpal Sword! The Algorithm's a thick-skinned beastie which eludes attacks (like a good improviser).
I much appreciate the chance to expand on my thoughts in the interview. Thanks Michael!

michael

So, it sounds like you're saying that if someone has a personal trainer come in now and then to give them a great workout, it'll inspire them to keep going to the gym on their own. Yeah, I guess. Sometimes. I guess I'm saying that it would be even better if more folks could commit to and afford a personal trainer every week for, you know, a while. That hasn't been my experience with soft skills training in the corporate environment.

Michelle

Hi Michael. Thanks for your comments and questions. I agree with Jay, and to "yes and" him, I would add that improv-based training great for the reason he outlined, and I have found that significant transformation can occur within the workshop itself. What is makes improvisational specificially especially powerful as a training tool - and as a way of being in life and all relationships - is that is has a specific set of principles, "rules of engagement" that set the stege for creativity to emerge, and lasting change to happen (and are almost the opposite of the operating priciples in most organizations).

And, yes, like all muslces, paradoxically, one has to practice improv to be more "natural" in it. It is the principles, as much the practices, that enable change to happen quite quickly. I have used them for over with organization for a variety of purposes, not the least of which is to become a more sustainably innovative work culture. Applying the principles in the business envoronemnt allows the improv training to last long after the workshop is over. Mastering the practices, while adhering to the principles when it is easier to fall back into our habitual, comfortable, or planned responses, takes practice.

If you took a 3 hour workshop, and then did nothing else but take even the most basic principles with you and consciously apply them to your relationships, workplace, collaborative projects, etc - and stayed committed to the principles even when the going got tough - you could experience change quite quickly and dramatically. It would not be without discomfort, but the more you do it, the easier it gets :-)

Jay Rhoderick

The principles are deliberately simple, and with a few moments of reflection each day, you can start to see changes in your interactions with people. The practices can show up in unplanned watercooler conversations, as well as in engagements with customers, colleagues, and supervisors.

Michelle

Yes! :-)

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