As the years tick on and I get closer to being an AARP member, I wanted to share a piece Kara Baskin and I created for AARP’s Life Reimagined site. She and I worked on several pieces together for that now retired (ironic, no?) blog.
The 5 golden rules of improv can take you to a more creative, more productive career:
Good comedians make humor look easy, but improvised comedy is more than being funny. It takes technique—the same skills that work in business. “It involves active listening, confidence, creative thinking, flexibility, and working as a team,” says Deana Criess, executive coach at Boston-based theater ImprovBoston. Criess leads workshops for corporate employees to teach them how to think like actors—flexibly, creatively and confidently—to perform better on the job.
Here are five tips that work on stage and in the office.
1. Say “Yes.” Improvisation is rooted in the idea that, no matter what your scene partner does, you agree to it. Saying yes is what allows actors to create “something out of nothing” on stage, Criess says. It’s also how to create the next best thing for your company. Of course you shouldn’t green light every idea tossed out at every meeting. But you should embrace a corporate culture that says yes to the “idea of ideas,” instead of resisting change. “Reprogram the corporate mindset from a ‘no’ model to a ‘yes’ model,” Criess says. “Make ‘yes’ the default and use ‘no’ out of purpose, not habit.”
2. Add “And.” The second rule of improvisation is that it’s not enough to say yes—you also need to be open to collaboration. The phrase “yes, and” is key to building a successful improv scene or running a successful business, Criess says. While it’s important to have workers agree to ideas, they also need to add to them. That’s where “and” comes in. It ensures collaboration. “Success in business never comes in a vacuum. It may start as one person’s vision, but it catches fire once other folks are able to be inspired by it and add to it,” Criess says.
3. Have each other’s back. “As improvisers, our job isn’t to be the funniest person in any given show; it’s to make our scene partner look good. We do that by supporting each other on stage. If my partner has an idea, I will support it—and I know that if I have an idea, it will be supported right back. But in business we often get hung up on owning ideas or competing internally,” she says. Workers get farther faster by supporting one another’s ideas. “In one scene I might get the big laugh; in the next scene, it will be someone else. That’s how a team is supposed to work,” she says. Maybe your colleague has a great idea at a meeting. Support it! Next time, it’ll be your turn, and they’ll repay the favor.
4. Make a choice. “Doing nothing isn’t compelling in theater, and it isn’t effective in business. Make a choice. Do something. Take a risk,” Criess urges. “In business, be the person who gets things moving. You can always make a different choice later. You can always course-correct. The point is to move. Businesses grow and thrive when they have momentum,” she says. Help contribute to it; don’t sit in the audience. No one will notice you.
5. Fail big. The most memorable actors take risks. It’s the same in business. “In improvisation, failure is not the enemy; fear is. Some of the best moments on stage are when someone is clearly out of their comfort zone and going for it. In business, the worst thing you can do is be afraid of making a mistake,” she says. “Fear leads to stagnation and stagnation is bad for business.” Some of the biggest innovations in history have come from so-called “failures”: the microwave, Velcro, the Slinky, even penicillin. So reboot your mindset and make yourself vulnerable. As Criess says, “The only way to truly fail in improvisation is let fear take over, and the same is true in business. Failure is simply another step to success.”
Originally published as part of AARP’s Life Reimagined By Kara Baskin • April 30, 2015
Deana Criess 