(This is the text version of my article that appeared in the magazine Human Capital January 2018 issue Vol.21 No. 8)
Usually Managerial responses to any proposition ranges from a direct “No” to “NO, but” and then “Yes, but” to a direct “Yes.”. The magic of “Yes,…. And” is acceptance, and then acts as a building brick, a movement forward to the original idea. |
Improv is a short
form of the noun improvisation. And Improv!
can happen anywhere and everywhere! Anyone who has viewed the UK fav show
“Whose Line is It Anyway” would know the speed in which the actors improvise on
the show builds a hilarious, fun-filled banter.
Improvisation
has been used as a Drama tool for many years and it can train an artist to
agility & in-the-moment thinking especially when a co-artiste forgets a
dialogue or goes wrong on a particular action.
I
have used this tool to train Public Speakers especially the ones with stage
fright as this tool immensely helps if one goes “blank” in front of an audience
- improvise and come out of mind-freeze!
In
colleges, there have been enough competitions around improvising on-the-spot or
what is called as impromptu.
So,
the quest of some of us who see Drama as a Life Skill has been to bring this
powerful Drama Tool to the space of Adult Learning and Application in
organisational settings. This quest is what we would call Applied Improv
So, what is Applied Improv?
Scripted unto the
website (http://appliedimprovisation.network/) of Applied
Improvisation Network (AIN), it says, Applied Improvisation uses the
principles, tools, practices, skills and mind-sets developed in comedy, jazz
and theatre and utilises them for non-theatrical or performance purposes.
Applied Improv thus is about Application of Improv in other
environments. From my lens of being a Trainer & Facilitator - it is about
Application of Improv in organisational context.
Improv in Organisations
Primarily people think that it can be used for Fun @ Workplace and
relegate it to the space of fun, frolic and games, thus making a powerful tool
that can build Collaboration, Agility and Creativity lie unnoticed in the
side-lines.
The way I see it, Improv can be a magical wand in the space of building
a culture of Collaboration in the workplace. How? This is what this article is
about.
2 Tools of Improv that can build
culture of Collaboration in organisations
1.
Yes…And
– One of the foundational tools of Improv, ‘Yes…And’ is built on the ‘Accept
and Build’ concept.
As my friend Paul Jackson writes
in his book ‘Easy – Your Life pass to Creativity and Confidence – “Accepting is
not the same as agreeing. Accepting is hearing what’s on offer and taking
account of it as part of ‘Here’ and ‘Now’.
Usually Managerial responses to
any offer/suggestion/proposition/ideation ranges from a direct “No” to “No,
but” and then “Yes, but” to a direct “Yes”. The magic of “Yes…And” is
acceptance and then acts as a building brick, a movement forward to the
original idea.
More often than not, with years of experience, knowledge
and positional power, many Managers are in a habit of not listening to the team
and reactively have a “No” when they are into a one-to-one communication. In
group environments, they are a bit nicer and say a “Yes” along with a thorn of
the word “But” in their communication. So when the Manager says, “Yes…But” the
impact on the team is that of a No. The Manager feels good that he/she did use
an encouraging “Yes” however they forget the flip-flop impact with the “But”
that was added later.
Gerald and Henry authors of ‘How
to Read a Person like a Book’, say, “But” is a verbal eraser. Nothing that
comes before it counts.
On the other hand, let’s say Managers
and teams were encouraged to use, “Yes… And” whenever they hear an
idea/suggestion/thought, what could happen?
Let’s look at One-to-one conversations:-
Example 1
Team-member: “I think we should
use an app for people signing in on the attendance”
[Alternative 1] Manager: “No, it
won’t work”
[Alternative 2] Manager: “No, ….
But I like your ideas… please keep on giving them” (Really?)
[Alternative 3] Manager: “Yes,
…. But they will mark their attendance much before they enter the office. They
may cheat the system”
[Alternative 4] Manager: “Yes,….
And we could ensure that there is some way in which people can mark their attendance
only when they are inside the office”
Example 2
Manager: “You will have to stay
late and work on this tonight”.
[Alternative 1] Team-member: “No”
[Alternative 2] Team-member:
“No, …. But why can’t someone else?”
[Alternative 3] Team-member:
“Yes, …. But why always me?”
[Alternative 4] Team-member:
“Yes, …. And I am sure you would support me on how this needs to be done”
OR Team-member: “Yes, …. And I was wondering how
I tell my family that I can’t take them to the movie that we have already
booked tickets to”
If you look at the examples
above, a direct Yes or No has its consequences. A “No” can perceptively look as
insubordination and putting a “Yes” can make ones reality go under-cover and
thus disengage team-members.
The “Yes… But” is as good as the
impact of saying “No”!
And, the magical “Yes… And”
keeps the conversation moving ahead. Reading this may look conceptual and
just-another-gimmick and my offer to the readers is to –GO DO IT. When one uses
the “Yes…And” in conversations the magic unfolds – let’s look at how it works
out in groups or meetings or in decision making.
Using “Yes, but…” in groups
“Let’s have a meeting next week”
“Yes, but … next week has many
holidays”
“Yes, but … we could decide on meeting
on Monday”
“Yes, but … Monday is usually so
drag”
“Yes, but … then let’s look at
the meeting on Tues”
“Yes, but … Tuesday’s have a lot
of traffic around here”
“Yes, but … let’s meet some
other week”.
If you can sense the energy, the group’s energy at this point of time
would be deflated.
Using “Yes, And…” in groups
“Let’s have a meeting next week”
“Yes, and… we need keep into
account a few holidays next week”
“Yes, and … Monday, Tuesday or
Wednesday looks good to meet”
“Yes, and … Monday can be dull
for a few of us”
“Yes, and … Tuesday can have
traffic in the morning in the area”
“Yes, and … Tuesday afternoon is
usually free of traffic”
“Yes, and … 3 pm looks doable”
“Yes, and … 3.30 would make me
be here prepared as I have a meeting ending at 3 pm”
“Yes, and … 3.30 seems good”
The energy of the group would be
much higher for the meeting.
In the words of Kat Koppet in
her book “Training to Imagine”, she scripts “Yes, And” is both an incredible
simple and deeply profound tool for solving problems, building relationships,
and creating new products. Organisations have embraced the concept more
directly and enthusiastically than any other improv approach”
As a Manager, think of how you
can use a “Yes,… and” to one of your new members proposing an idea that was
tried in the organisation a few years ago and the pilot had flopped. So would
you say “No”, “No, But”, “Yes, But” or do you have the courage to accept and
build by using a “Yes, And” and encourage your team to keep on ideating
forward!
2. Word Story
Meetings could start with an
engaging Improv activity, that’s known as one/two-word story. Devote the first
5 minutes of every meeting in running this energizer.
How does one do it – The first
member starts with 2 words, the next person (in the round-robin style) adds 2 words
more and then the next person adds another 2 and so on. The words added thus
should form into a grammatical sentence. When the sentence comes to a natural
close the person can say full-stop. At times, one may add a Question mark or an
exclamation mark. Sometimes people who do not want to end the sentence add an
“and” rather than a stop. Commas aren’t allowed as part of the sentences.
Then the next person starts a
new sentence that is connected to the previous sentence/s. Thus keep it ongoing
till a story starts emerging. The faster the speed this exercise gathers, the
greater is the acceptance and moving forward that happens. A few grammatical
mistakes are fine as the group picks up speed in building the sentence.
Unknowingly what happens in the
group is - acceptance and moving forward – precisely what a culture of
collaboration requires. To accept what the earlier person has offered requires
one to trust whatever the person brings up!
One can vary this exercise by
making it one-word story or a sentence story.
Example:
I am – feeling
very- hot and - I like – to
go – have a - ice-cream (full-stop).
Or I am – feeling
very - irritated about – the smell
– in the – room (full-stop).
Or I love – you
said – the prince – again (full-stop).
Or I came – to
the – office and – wondered how – do I - make my – idea stand – out (full
stop).
If you look at the example
above, one never knows how the sentences will be made – it depends on the next
person who uses a set of certain words the way it emerges for them and interesting
the trajectory of the whole sentence moves on its own course.
There are many such Improv tools
that can be introduced once the above 2 are brought into practice. It may look
childish and (no ‘but’) yet
there lies a child in all of us who always was the most collaborative. Isn’t it?
Now, the question is “Do you
want to Improv?”
About the Author:
Ajit K. Kamath CPF, is the
Principal Enabler at WizTalks Management Consultants. He has been in the field
of Training and Facilitation for 23 years, and now into Executive Coaching. He
is one of the Founders of the India Chapter of
International Association of Facilitators He has also been a practitioner of Drama
& Improv Tools in organisational settings and has been a part of Applied
Improv Network. He can be contacted on ajitkamath@wiztalks.com
or on wiztalks@gmail.com.
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