Many people look at the theatrical work that my company does onstage and they say "it's amazing that this is unscripted!" Or more often it is "So, what part was scripted, and what part was improvised..." The idea that things are constantly being created in the spot using a few simple rules is mind boggling, and somewhat impossible for people to believe. The truth is - Improvisation is an act of constant innovation. We take what the audience gives us and create a theatrical work that amazes, engages and involves the audience as active participants in the process. The audience leaves the theater knowing they had a part in the end product that was created. Wouldn't that be great for your business? If each employee left with the thought that they were a part of the whole, that they had an amount of control over the larger piece that has been created? These rules for engagement in improvisational theater cross over to any phase of work, to any industry. They can help shape how your company operates, giving each of your employees the chance to leave each day feeling like they are a part of the larger organization. These tenets: Being willing to play, finding the drive / commitment in what you do, listening and building on offers with your team; these are all skills that we strive for in our organizations. So why would people look at Improv and say 'what can you teach me about business?' The answer is: a lot.
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One of the best things that I have ever found to describe the process of 'yes, and' is a box of mismatched legos. What can you build with them? ANYTHING! With each piece you have a short thought process to go through:
And you have to be willing to play. To see your vision alter based on what you have. Not many of us running companies can scrap all our resources and buy new ones. We use what we have to accomplish the goals we set out. When a piece doesn't fit, we save it. We use what we can and remember that the next structure might need completely different pieces. The process of building an organization has sometimes been described as 'walking backwards. ' We see what we need better in reverse than we did going forward. In that moment, we used what we had to do what we needed to do. So the next time you are stuck on a decision - write down all the resources you have as 'Building Blocks' and see if there is a new way to arrange them. What can you build this time? ANYTHING! Learn how 'Yes, and..' training can support new idea generation and innovation in your business. From Wikipedia: "The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare. Since the 1920s, the Oxfordian theory has been the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theory." I have heard this theory for years, that there is no possible way that a person of such humble origins could be responsible for brilliance. This theory is the same as saying that any child growing up poor in an intercity environment could never amount to anything. Many times when I am working with teams I will have people say "Tom doesn't like to do anything outgoing..." Then once we start, Tom does the thing that blows everyone away by being adventurous and innovative. The comment afterwards is always "I didn't know you were capable of that!" As I approach teams, I know that each and every one of the people on a team have their own skills. They each fall into a role to play, and they sometime play that role reluctantly. However, they have far below the surface that they don't bring to work, or show to their co-workers. And sometimes that part they keep inside can be a game changer for their career, and your businesses future. So - next time you say "There is no way that Sally will go with this new business idea...." give her a little credit and ask her. Maybe she has been waiting to be asked. Maybe, your idea is just what she was looking for. Everyone has the potential to be extraordinary. It's only the limitations that others place on us that can hold us down. Learn how 'Yes, and..' training can support new idea generation and innovation in your business. I had the opportunity to Emcee an event here in Seattle this week that was a graduation of nine companies from a start-up accelerator. As I spent the week meeting and listening to the pitches of the budding CEOs, I was struck by the importance of story and presentation. Each company had a great story, and some AMAZING technology. The start up accelerator had some great stories as well, and a great track record of helping entrepreneurs find their mission and realize their dreams. As each company's CEO stood up and talked for their six minute presentations, they were only able to partially tell the whole story of what they do. I started teaching a story structure I learned years ago that is close to the same structure that Pixar uses for their movies:
This basic structure is based on all fairy tales. It can be adapted to whatever need you might have - even a new company:
There are really only three parts:
It's an easy structure, one that we all recognize and can use to help make people understand why we have created the company we have created, or why our software solution exists and what problem it solves. It also helps us see what the future will look like with our new solution. Ask yourself: am I telling the whole story? When I send emails - am I telling people: 1) what I am working on, 2) what I need and, 3) what I hope to accomplish - or am I not telling the full story? When you tell the story of your company, can you tell the whole story? ImprovMindset can help you present your story in an effective and memorable way. Click here for more info. "Overconfident professionals sincerely believe they have expertise, act as experts and look like experts. You will have to struggle to remind yourself that they may be in the grip of an illusion." —Daniel Kahneman There are two parts to the Overconfidence Effect that I am fascinated by: the 'Illusion of Control' and 'Contrary Evidence.' Illusion of Control is the tendency for people to behave as if they might have some control when in fact they have none. Example of this can be seen in businesses everywhere, especially by leaders who feel they must control every aspect of the business. (Side note: for years all hiring at Google went though Larry Page, regardless of the position...) Contrary Evidence where people engage in more defensive pessimism in advance of important outcomes, in an attempt to reduce the disappointment of a bad outcome. So rather than embracing what could happen, they look to sabotage themselves to lessen the blow of possible failure before that failure has even occurred. It is self preservation at the expense of growth and forward motion. One lesson I always teach in my workshops is to embrace that feeling of danger and loss of control. When that fight-or-flight sensation hits you, reframe it into "This is going to be a train wreck!!! And I can't wait to see what I learn from it!!!" Understanding that we have no control over the outcomes, and embracing change is what ImprovMindset Training is all about. Letting go of expectations, responding to stimulus in the moment and not sabotaging the outcome - these are the valuable lessons that we teach, and that help form a new heuristic for decision making in the workplace. Find out more and see what ImprovMindset can provide for your organization. When I talk with Business Leaders about case studies, they always say “I would have done this…” Or “I would not have made that choice…” The reason that case studies are used for training is that they are subjective; they are an example of a situation - what happened - and outline a decision moment for people to make their own choices as to how they would have reacted. It’s very easy, in the comfort of our own chairs at home, to decide how we would do something. It’s easy when we sit watching football and say “I would not have chosen that play…” As someone who NEVER played football, when I find myself saying that I have to laugh. A mentor of mine talked to me about ‘how do you describe the taste of a strawberry?’ The idea is that there are things that have to be experienced, and only by DOING can you know how you would react. We try to explain things that need to be felt - acted - done. It’s not about the words, it’s about action. I have a favorite joke: How many actors does it take to screw in a light bulb? Six. One to do it, and six to say ‘I could have done it better if I had been given the chance.’ The next time you find yourself saying “I would have done that completely differently…” remember that you didn’t. There might have been fifty mitigating factors that changed how the person who made that decision in real time chose his/her choices. It doesn’t mean you can’t learn from it and consider your own choices. What it means is that you can consider that you might not know the whole story, and that only by experiencing all the factors of that moment could you really say how you would react. It’s like describing the taste of a strawberry; you have to just do it, as some things need to be done to be experienced. A number of years ago I had a house in South Seattle, and I used to ride my Scooter back and forth to work. On my route was a business called AA Roofing Supply - and on most days there would be a person standing out front in a costume waving to cars. Sometimes it was an Ape. Sometimes a Chicken. Sometimes a Super Hero, or a Mexican Wrestler. And on certain days, there would be a hybrid of costumes. A Super Hero with a Chicken head. An Ape with a Mexican Wrestler Mask. A Chicken with an Ape's head. The variety changed as much as possible. I use this story to illustrate a point; I can't make up something that good. If I wrote that into screen play, people would see it and say "That's impossible..." But it was REAL. I saw it. Every day. (And I have never needed Roofing Supplies. But I STILL remember the name of the store.) Sometimes, reality is far more obscure that our imagination. Yet, we limit our imagination by saying "No, we can't do that innovation... it's too weird..." or "No one will ever go for that..." We shut down the next big idea since our version of reality is very tame. Then our version of reality comes into contact with a giant Chicken wearing a Mexican Wrestling mask. So as you are considering options for the next big idea, be aware that you might be limiting your own growth by setting perimeters on your innovation. You might believe that the limitations are based in reality, and you might feel as if you are being responsible to reality. For a moment - consider that maybe your reality needs to be opened a little wider. Consider a Superhero Chicken. And see if you can't find something that might have been outside of your concept of reality that can drive the new ideas forward. "The level of our success is limited only by our imagination" Aesop There have been hundreds of discussions about how people learn, and the process that each individual goes through for learning. The Learning Curve is always fascinating to watch. Gathering knowledge and speed as you begin to learn, and then having steep acceleration. The hard part for a lot of my clients is leading to the Plateau, and the frustration of the Plateau. "How come I am not learning more?" "Why aren't I accelerating like I was before?" In experiential learning, we recognize the physical limitations of rapid learning and Plateaus and what they do to us. It makes some people feel alive and excited. It also makes other people scared and uncertain. The same is true of Plateaus; some people feel frustrated being in a holding pattern, and others feel comfortable and like they can finally exhale. For me, the Plateau is a place to lean into. It's the time that your body is learning from the practice, and leading you to the next Steep Acceleration. You have to let the Plateau do it's job, and let the physical practice of learning catch up to the intellectual growth. By tying the physical and intellectual together, you can create real change. So don't rest in the Plateau. See what it is teaching you. See what it has to offer when you can focus on the slower growth process. It's the time to get deeper into the learning and make it a practice. And practice makes perfect. Click here for more information on Andrew's work or to contact him for a quote. In my recent work, I have been working with clients surrounding leaps of faith; diving into the unknown and finding out something new that you would have never found in the safety of your current surroundings. It is a method of putting yourself in a vulnerable position, one of uncertainty, to find the edge of what you know and push beyond it.
In the olden days, they used to print on the uncharted waters of maps 'Here there be dragons.' The same is true for our lives. We are used to a daily work routine - a way of operating. It's comfortable. It breeds a complacency. For many of us, we would rather deal with small set backs and be comfortable, then to stretch and find a new opportunity. Part of my work involves giving participants the physical understanding and the physical experience of taking a leap of faith. We practice doing it in controlled ways, so that we can explore our tendencies to not want to rock the boat. We can then see the decisions in a new light, and see how we might be sabotaging our future by keeping the next big thing from changing everything we know and love. A desire to change causes self-reflection, it creates introspection. Couple this physical training with an intellectual understanding like Franklin's decision making process, and you have a physical and intellectual practice to follow for decisions. As I work to change the dynamic of my work - I look at the dysfunctions of my organization and see that they reflect my personal dysfunctions. Since I built the organization, I have to face my own personal demons and be willing to slay them to find the next step. And here there be dragons. That small feeling - the 'pit of your stomach oh-my-god-what-am-I-going-to-do' feeling is a chemical fight or flight response that we, as humans, have hard wired into our brains. It is based on protecting ourselves from the Sabertooth tiger that might attack us. It is the vestige of an older world, that still affects us now. How can we begin to reframe that feeling - that fear - into excitement and wonder? Into the joy of finding outcome thing new? Can we look at the uncharted waters and think 'wow, I wonder what a dragon looks like? let's find out!' I believe by linking the intellectual process with a physical practice, we an alter the fear factor of decisions. After that, we have to reinforce the practice with more repetition. Practice does make perfect. And reflection on the practice gives self realization. Here there be dragons. For more information on Andrew's work, click here. I have read tons of articles and books about the alleged rules;
All these lists are about the (insert number here) things you need to do to achieve your goals. They are varied and sometimes contradictory. And they are based off one person's experience or perspective of events that they see from multiple angles. Rules are a method that can help guide you. Goals are the thing that makes you take action. Rules are there to help, not to follow. They are guidelines, and they are edges, boundaries that you can test and push against to reach your goals. They are useful tools. They are not the thing that gets you success. Success can only be lead by goals. Dreams. Ideas. Leadership to inspire others to join into that those goals and dreams. To consider the goal and the dream above the individual need. That is the recipe for success. So ask yourself; what rules have you found yourself attached to that hold you back? What are the self-imposed boundaries that set your goals and dreams on the back burner? Identify those rules, and see if they can be re-examined to assist in your actions to move forward. You can either let rules hold you back, or you can let them help you move forward. What 'rules of business success' are you following that stifle your growth? |
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