Improv Learning
by Julie Sheldon Huffacker

 

Imagine you walk into a room full of coworkers or students. Uncharacteristically, they didn’t even notice you open the door. They’re up on their feet, energized and highly focused on some kind of interactive activity. You watch the group alternate between laughter and the spontaneous “ahhs” and “hmmms” of discovery. They’re doing improv.

Contrary to what you might expect, none of them are actors. They don’t have to be. And if you pulled one aside to ask them how it’s been to work with “theater” all day, he might say something like, “At first I was nervous, even anxious. I mean, it’s a big risk to do this in front of my peers and my boss, right? But here we are, all doing it. We’re really stretching and learning about ourselves, personally and all together. I’ve got to admit that it’s more fun than I thought I’d ever have at work. And it’s amazing how much we’ve accomplished in a short period of time.”

(Then he’d probably excuse himself and rejoin the group, because it’s much more gratifying to engage in improv than it is to just stand there and talk about it.)

 

What is improv?

There’s a Catch-22 here: it’s difficult to describe improv. The key to understanding it lies in firsthand experience. In fact, you probably have quite a bit of experience with improv already, because improvisation happens all the time—in conversations, meetings, and in virtually every type of living system.

What we mean by improv in this context is a specific and highly accessible form of improvisational theater. A group of actors—who have no idea what they’re about to do or say—get up on stage and create a story as they go along, usually with suggestions from the audience, These actors are typically working within an agreed upon form, which provides a loose framework for the story or scene. But again, do you have to have acting experience to make use of this stuff? Absolutely not.

At their best, improvisers on stage look like mind readers. They look like they’ve rehearsed, like she knows what he is going to say and is ready with repartee. The truth of the matter is that improvisers really don’t know what’s going to happen; they do create compelling stories and scenes on the fly, and they do it by exercising a core set of skills that comprise the heart of improvisational practice. In the field of improv, these skills are described in many different ways, but you might think of them like this: listening, being present, being “fit and well,” accepting offers, letting go of agendas, and being willing to change. Simple concepts, and yet they are foundational to humans’ ability to relate productively, create collectively, and negotiate change successfully.

And those are some of the reasons that improv can be so very powerful in facilitating learning.

 

So where, and how, can we use it?

In our organization, we’ve had long-into-the-night conversations trying to identify places where improv can NOT be used. We’ve yet to come up with any (but if you do, please let us know). Within our own networked organization, On Your Feet, we have experience using improv with an unbelievably broad range of organizations, including Fortune 500s like Nike, Intel, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and global ad agencies; smaller regional groups such as architecture firms and heating companies; academic settings including an Irish middle school, masters-level business programs and nursing schools; and public sector agencies including the British Ministry of Defense and state probation officers.

So improv can be used with all kinds of groups, fine. But what kinds of issues and skill-building does it address, specifically? Again, an exceptionally wide range. We tend to use improv in three different ways:

When a client group needs to develop specific skills that are inherent to improv, you can use it to teach them. Examples include effective collaboration and teamwork, collective creativity, presentation skills, enhanced communication and relationship norms, cultural change, increased confidence, greater comfort with uncertainty, risk-taking and experimentation, and transformational leadership development.

When a client has a problem that needs to be solved, specific improv forms can be used as the vessel, or format, for facilitating solutions. Examples include generating new product ideas, developing and revitalizing brands, values and alignment work, finding new work structures and processes, diversity work, and vision and strategy formulation.

When a client group has intrinsic barriers that get in the way of their ability to work the way they need to in order to solve a problem or advance an issue, improv gets the group working together in a new way—if a non-confrontational culture is getting in the way of tackling tough issues, for example, or hierarchy is sabotaging the ability to communicate and co-create, improv can help shift the dynamic for the purpose of solving the problem.

Like other experience-based learning tools, improv appeals to a wide range of learners. It helps root learning through emotional memory, is highly energizing, and can be incisively effective in shifting dynamics within working groups.

While improv is far enough removed from normal everyday working and classroom contexts to facilitate new perspectives and awareness with relative ease, it has the benefit of being more than a metaphor. Improv forms are constructed with the very processes to which we want to apply new learning, including verbal conversation, physical interaction and other elements of relationship. Improv models how we access new ideas, as well as how we make relevant, useful action happen. Because the processes of improvisation and those we use in daily life are so similar, improv-driven learning is highly translatable back to the office or out in the world.

 

How improv fits with Accelerated Learning principles

Looking further at why improv can be so effective is a bit like reading the IAL website, they share so many principles in common. Here are a few highlights:

As we all know, emotional state plays a critical role in learning effectiveness. Improv helps create a positive emotional context, in which participants are comfortable and having fun. Additionally, because it is based in story and often gives participants the “high” of succeeding in the face of risk, participants connect emotionally to the experience of doing improv. This increases learning relevance and retention.

The high level of physical activity, along with a skillfully facilitated balance of experience, reflection and application, create a learning environment that maximizes engagement and learning efficiency. The open, inviting room setup of an improv workshop typically invites new thinking through contrast (to the typical work environment) and lack of hierarchy. Additionally, improv workshops at their best—well-paced, as described above—appeal to all types of learners, and reinforce concepts by plugging into all styles of learning.

The use of story and character—improv’s primary medium—draws on the power of metaphor and complexity in facilitating new awareness, learning and articulation. Again, improv is not a metaphor, but rather a framework that employs the same processes with which we conduct our daily lives. At the same time, however, improv gives us an opportunity to step back from daily life and explore new vocabulary, paradigms, and ways of working—new tools that we can then turn around and use to enhance our effectiveness day-to-day.

Personal confidence—this sense of being “fit and well”—is one of the practices improv actors must employ, and the practice of improv seems to nourish it. This and the experience of success in the face of perceived risk, coupled with the fact that for many improv is just plain fun (some participants even describe feeling a sense of “joy”), may increase the draw to practice new learning and behaviors.

Finally, improv introduces a way of working together that is highly successful for groups. The improv model emphasizes collaboration and co-creation, and introduces practices for doing so effectively. This brings with it the added benefits of a positive group experience, common language and ways of working that optimize individual contribution toward a common goal.

 

For more information about improv and business…