You might have heard of OMG or ROFL.  Well, here’s a new acronym to help with your communications at work: LARO 

What does it stand for? Listen, Acknowledge, Reflect and Offer.
 
When you are in a work meeting, and people are blocking the forward motion of the conversation by saying ‘yes, but that will not work because of…’ or ‘we don’t have the resources for that…’ or ‘that’s a bad idea…’, they have lapsed into CRITICALthinking rather than staying in DIVERGENT thinking. CRITICAL thinking is about evaluating, DIVERGENT thinking is about problem solving and solutions. There is a time and place for both methods, however, shutting down creative problem solving at each turn is not a useful strategy.

Try LARO to keep the conversation moving forward:

 - LISTEN to the objections that people are bringing up. 
 - ACKNOWLEDGE they are bringing up a valid point. Critical thinking is necessary for strategic planning. 
 - REFLECT back what you hear. This allows the person to know that you heard them, and understand what they are saying and feeling. 
 - OFFER alternatives to move them into the possibility of problem solving. Use sentences like:

• “What if (blank) was not a factor… What could happen then?”
• “What if we had the resources…. What could we do?” 
• “What if we tried it, what might happen?”

 Try it! Report back. I’d love to know how it works for you.

​I recently spoke to an individual who is in charge of a company, and he mentioned to me an award they give out called the ‘First Penguin Award.’
 
The idea is - if you are a penguin on the edge of the iceberg, with all the other penguins standing with you, who is the first one to jump into the water and swim to land? What risks are lurking under the surface? Will they all just freeze waiting on the iceberg? No one wants to go first… because maybe the first penguin will get eaten. And if they do get eaten then the others know not to jump in. So all the penguins just stand on the iceberg looking at each other.

Until one brave penguin steps up. They are the ‘first penguin’ to jump into the unknown. And they make it to land safely! The other penguins decide to follow! And everyone moves forward. Or, maybe they don't make it safely. And the other penguins now know they will get eaten if they jump in. Either way, someone had to take the first step...
 
The leader I spoke to encourages his employees to be the ‘first penguin’. To jump. To try something scary. He especially rewards them if they fail. And he publicly acknowledges them for being brave enough to jump off the iceberg.
 
By making failure something that is celebrated, his company culture encourages taking risks and trying innovative new ideas. 
 
How can you encourage taking risks in your organization? 

One way is to make it fun to fail. Employees can be more confident to experiment and try new things, knowing it is more important to try than to worry about failing. Give out your own 'first penguin' award. The winner gets to keep a stuffed penguin on their desk for a month.

That is how you succeed and create an innovative / growth mindset for your company.

To learn more about Innovation and Growth Mindset workshops, Contact Andrew for more info.

A key lesson I learned in Improv was “make your scene partner look good.“

Sometimes that’s a hard lesson to learn, or to understand fully. Many organizations I have worked for had a Superman philosophy: "Without me, this whole place would collapse!" That idea doesn't allow space to make the rest of your team shine - instead it charges ahead with a 'take no prisoners' attitude.

Understanding that it is generally not about you is an opportunity for growth. In a sustainable team culture, everyone focuses on:

• the mission (why we are here, and what we are working on),
• the organization (what do we believe in, and how does that manifest in our work),
• the task at hand (what am I doing today to work towards these goals).

These items are bigger than the individual. As a team member, you are a part of the larger machine. You have a role to play. You need to bring everything you can to the table, and accept and build on the things that other people bring to the table. Together you can build something bigger than any one individual can create on their own. You can build brilliance.

Isn’t that the lesson you want your entire company to embrace?

Email Andrew or more information on workshops and presentations.

​When I do workshops all over the country, I am always encountering the same question: “My kid wants to go into theater… what do I do?!?!?!”
The look of fear and concern from the parent is evident.
I usually have to unpack the discussion to find out what exactly is their concern about a degree in the arts?
Always, the answer is: “They will never make enough money to survive….”
This has led me to talk openly about what I have learned from my training in theater. I learned:

• How to take $50 and make an amazing set that challenges and excites audiences.
• To motivate people to work for very little, or nothing, in order to accomplish a goal.
• To manage difficult personalities, and to discover ways to communicate that could bring individuals together to work in a team.
• How to engage an audience (customers) into paying money for my product, and how to make them think they can’t live without what I have to offer.

 
In short, I learned sales, fiscal responsibility, leadership, management and presentation skills.
 
Theater training is leadership training. Taking the talents of others and directing them into a cohesive project, which is inclusive of all of their abilities, is a skill that only a true leader can accomplish. Listening, responding, and motivating others to work towards a goal larger than their own individual part is the essence of leadership. Creating theater is the essence of leadership.
 
So, when a concerned parent asks me that question, I always say “Let them.” The truth is, your child will learn more about themselves (authenticity) and more about others (emotional intelligence) then they will in any MBA program. They will learn how to tell a story, motivate a team, and use whatever resources they have to make a vision come true.
 
Theater is the skill we all need and use everyday. And if you don’t have it, find an actor to teach you.

Find out what theater training can do for your team - email Andrew today!

 The iPhone was known as a disruptive force in the phone industry. I hear the term ‘disruptor’ being used a lot these days; how a new product will be the disruptor of whatever industry, and will be ‘shaking up‘ everything.
The question becomes: how do you figure out what can be a disrupter? If you are planning to improve on something, an idea or a product (like a phone) you have to break the pre-conceived notions of what you believe is possible. You have to think of what is desired, or what is outside the realm of possibility to create something new.

This is a hard task, considering we all have our own confirmation bias. We all have a frame of reference that our brains operate within. We can only step outside of that if we begin questioning that frame of reference and looking for things that do not fit into that frame. Only by doing that can we discover real changes.

And most importantly – you have to WANT to change. You have to want to recreate the new story to see the possibilities.  For a long time, Kodak thought they were in the film business. As a result they missed out on the beginnings of the digital photo revolution, and other innovations. The frame that Kodak couldn’t change was understanding that their business wasn’t in film, it was in creating memories. The film business had worked for them in the past, so it was easier to stay with that frame, rather than looking to see what could be the next disrupter.

How do you do this? How do you constantly question the frame of reference you have, and see if it still serves your business? One way is through the ruthless and radical acceptance of reality. Things will always change, and we have to accept that and be prepared for new ideas. This is where the tool of using ‘yes, and’ (accepting the current status, and seeing what is possible in the future) is key.  It is that skill of building on the reality we have, and using that to create innovation.  

Yes, and. The ultimate disruptor.

To learn more about 'yes and ' training and find out how it can transform your organization, contact us!

From Wikipedia: 
Design thinking refers to creative strategies designers utilize during the process of designing. 

Design Thinking seems to be on everyone's minds these days.  A simple search will reveal multiple online sources for college classes, documents and white papers all discussing the ideas and methods of Design Thinking.
​
What is it really? It is a group of people all building on ideas. "Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking includes "building up" ideas, with few, or no, limits on breadth during a "brainstorming" phase. This helps reduce fear of failure in the participant(s) and encourages input and participation from a wide variety of sources in the ideation phases."
 
It is a practice of 'yes, and'.

Improv provides the structure to allow Design Thinking to work. It is the basis of Design Thinking in the ideation phase; How do we continue to move the conversation forward and upward, without having a 'no' or a 'yes, but' blocking the progress? It is the base toolset. And as this article in Fast Company magazine says, Improv Comedians make the best Design thinkers.

So give your organization a good dose of Design Thinking in a fun and engaging way that they will remember and utilize. Give your company an ImprovMindset.

Public speaking is an art. As someone who provides multiple speeches every year, I have a chance to see many of other speakers.
Inevitably, I see the same thing. Like this article in Forbes, the same mistakes are made over and over. You can see the coaching that someone has been told, and the little things that a speech coach did to quell the speaker's normal responses: they walk in a  straight line from one side of the stage to another, they try to have flashy graphics, and they start with a joke of some sort (which often does not work as well as planned.)
From my work as a professional Actor - we train to engage an audience. We practice bringing a personal connection, carrying the rhythm and tone, changing the speed to make emphasis.These are all part of the tools of our trade. And it takes years to master - one ToastMaster class is not going to make you a dynamic speaker overnight.
As with all practices, it takes perseverance, training and practice. And it shows when someone has spent the time, and invested in their presentation. It makes us, as listeners, feel respected.
So next time you have a big speech coming up - consider it this way: You are a world famous actor, and these are your lines. You might win an Oscar/ Tony for this role, so you want to prepare for every possible scenario, and stay on message. And most important, you want to be willing to improvise based on unforeseen changes in the situation and make it all seem like it was planned.
​So be prepared for your next presentation. Take an acting class.

​

In a recent report from USC, researchers discovered how being funny changes your brain. 
They showed a cartoon from the New Yorker, and asked participants to create one funny caption, and one un-funny caption. Meanwhile, they performed MRI scans on them to record their brain activity.
“What we found is that the more experienced someone is at doing comedy, the more activation we saw in the temporal lobe,” said USC doctoral student Ori Amir, who led the study with Irving Biederman, professor of psychology and computer science. The temporal lobe receives sensory information and is the region of the brain key to comprehending speech and visual cognition. It’s also where abstract information, semantic information and remote associations meaningfully converge.
In contrast, the amateur comedians and non-comedians relied on their prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for executive functions like planning complex cognitive behavior and decision-making.
“The professional improv comedians let their free associations give them solutions,” Biederman said.
Many business leaders ask me what they can do to create more independent thinkers and problem solvers in their organizations. Now the answer is clear: Send them to an Improv Class! The more experience they get, the more they will rely on making new connections between items and creating innovative solutions.

For information about having an improv class for your organization, contact Andrew for details.

Many years ago I had the honor of working  with the head of the Lithuanian National Theater , Jonas Jurasas. I was in graduate school, and he was a guest director of great renown that the school hired to direct a play. The show was a messy circus themed play that was a huge stretch for many of us, and a great challenge for us as actors and artists.
​At one section, I had to descend down a ramp overhearing the onstage conversation. I would start walking and Jonas would say "faster!" so I would speed up. Then he would say "slower!" and I would slow down. Then he would say "No! Faster!" and I would speed up. Only to have him say "No! Slower!" I finally took the moment at a great to ask him,  “When I make that entrance, do you want me to move fast, or slow?" His answer was emphatically “Yes!”
At first I thought it was a translation barrier. Did he understand what I was asking him? His english was quite good, but there had been a few translation errors in the process. So I asked him again, "What I am wondering is, should I move fast, or should I move slow?" His answer again - "YES!"
After a few other questions, he finally clarified what he wanted. He said "you are walking slowly, but you are moving so fast inside!”
At first, I took this as an example of how a crazy Lithuanian Director tells you to do something. I mean, how was this possible? I can move one way, or the other, not both! After a little more conversation with him, I realized what he wanted. He wanted the movement to be physically slow, and the thought process to be very fast, like holding a team of horses back from running. When I started trying that, he would yell out "YES! THAT IS WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR!"
Very often I find myself telling this story as a great example to being able to do two things that I thought were incongruent. ​In my mind, I couldn't do both - it was impossible. I was limiting what I thought I could do, and what I was needing to do to make the play work. I had been stuck in an 'either / or' style of linear thinking, and was unable to find a win-win solution. The possibility of doing both things simultaneously was alien to me, and so it could never be a solution.
So when you find yourself in an 'either / or' decision process, ask yourself the question: "Can I do both?" Maybe unlocking the linear thinking can be a key to a new innovative solution.