What exactly does improv give to the corporate world and how is it benefitting workplaces, even during (or especially during) the pandemic! This episode we explore the ways improv is helping the business world become more effective and more human, and how not knowing what is to come can be an advantage.

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This show features:

Richard Bradford, head of facilitation at The Maydays:

Aih Mendoza from Third World Improv:
https://thirdworldimprov.com
www.facebook.com/thirdworldimprov
and check out Third World Improv's house team who are performing weekly shows here:
www.facebook.com/housekeepingimprov

Neil Mullarkey from The Comedy Store Players:
https://neilmullarkey.com

Episode transcript:

This… is the Improv Chronicle Podcast. I'm Lloydie.

Lloydie James Lloyd: When improv means business. Improvisors going into workplaces to give improv skills to staff members is nothing new. It's something that's become increasingly useful to corporations the world over, with many of the big names in finance, technology and pharmaceuticals using improvisors to help their staff gain valuable skills. 

So, what exactly does improv give to the corporate world and how is it benefiting workplaces, even during or especially during the pandemic? My first port of call on this subject was close to home for me.

Richard Bradford: Well, we see organizations coming in to us with a wide range of needs.

Lloydie: Richard Bradford is Head of Facilitation of one of the companies I work for, The Maydays. He acts as a bridge between organizations and their needs, and The Maydays and what we're able to do in terms of delivering trainings and experiences.

Richard: I think the thing with improv, though, is that there is a fear that the teams that people have in mind may not respond well to it being improv because they think they're going to have to sing on stage and it's going to be petrifying. 

So, what we try and do is think of improvisation as applied to different skillsets that an organization knows they need help with. And the organizations leave us to bridge it and make it work for that organization. Even if it's a team full of introverts, they would run a mile if they knew what they what it was or what they thought it was going to be. 

But we will have improv sessions for things like sales pitch training and proposing to other organizations, presentation work; just things around ideation, flexibility and agility, group dynamics, where a team, as I said earlier, is probably kind of works a lot together, but perhaps just in a quite ossified way and they need to just kind of shake loose with senior executives. We do quite a lot around confidence and communication skills and their own engagement and mindfulness as well. Just being present, being really kind of in a good active listening space.

Lloydie: Listening is something that came up in different ways throughout making this episode. Aih Mendoza is from Manila in the Philippines and teaches with Third World Improv. They run classes and shows and go into businesses as well.

Aih Mendoza: Overall, it's a lot of interpersonal skills, isn't it? That I think is at the heart of it. What corporate improv does is allowing, I think, the humanity to come back to corporations where it can be very cold, it can be very clinical. You know, oftentimes employees – Well, from our experience, when we do our corporate improv training, it oftentimes in teams, it can feel like not so much of a team and more like the employees are utilities. You know, they're cogs in the machine. And that can always really impact just general collaboration, innovation, creativity, my goodness, everything, psychological safety, the feeling of connectedness at work, the feeling of being heard and all those all those nice things. 

And so, corporate improv really helps most teams discover how to make each other look good, how to make the team look good, how to listen to each other properly, work together, collaborate. So, that's the lay of the land. It's like the bird's eye view of what improv can give during the normal times.

Lloydie: Neil Mullarkey is a member of the Comedy Store Players in London, UK, and has been teaching improv to people in all walks of life for nearly a quarter of a century.

Neil Mullarkey: It's interesting. At the top level, it helps individuals listen better. It helps teams work better. It helps people understand that their way of seeing the world is not unique and that diversity can actually be creative, not destructive. 

But at its base level. I think if I've allowed a team just to have fun together, to laugh, I've done a good job.

Lloydie: Do you think that last point about them being able to laugh is sometimes underrated by businesses?

Neil: Definitely. People talk about creativity, innovation, collaboration, and they don't realize that people laughing together is emblematic and also creates the right environment. Laughter, humour, not laughing at somebody, but that sense of having a smile together does mean that people are prepared to take risks, that people are prepared to speak up. 

There's a book called Humour Seriously, which is {indistinct 5:17} by some improv and academics. They know how important humour is to make teams work better together. It doesn't have to be silly. It doesn't have to be aggressive. In fact, I think banter often isn't humour at all. It's just bullying. 

But organizations, I often ask them, you may be thinking about your 10000 steps; your five a day. What about a laughter audit? Are you laughing enough; in meetings, between meetings, in groups? What's the energy? Is it somehow creating humanity or is it somehow depleting shared humanity?

Lloydie: What specific skills do you think improv can offer to workplaces, because very often a corporation will turn around and say, yes, but what can we actually show for this training?

Neil: People don't always know what improv can provide. Some people think it helps presentation skills; and it does. Some people think that it helps you to think on your feet without falling flat on your face, which is one of the 

course I have run. Yes, that's true. You can feel confident in uncertain moments. If you're listening, you always have something to say. But also, if you look at that more deeply, you'll get on better with your colleagues, with your clients. So, improv is how do we deal with what's before us? Sometimes I call it leadership in the moment. So, it can help leaders. 

Improv can be an interpersonal skill. Hey, are we doing stuff together? Am I listen to you? Am I my bantering in a good way? Am I taking what you say and just networking, listen to what you're saying, having better conversations? 

And then at a more profound level, if you are thinking about a world that is changing and ambiguous and complex, then improv says, “We can cope with this.” Because when you're in an improv scene, it can go anywhere. It may go initially in a place you expect, it may change, it may transform. And if you've got the mindset of an improviser, as a leader, as somebody who's trying to think about the future, then you are going to feel confident that change will be something you can cope with. In fact, improv is always saying, “We don't know what's going to come, and that is an advantage, not a disadvantage.”

Lloydie: And change things have. The pandemic has been a big shift for all of us. So, has that made the adaptability of an improv mindset even more relevant? Richard Bradford thinks so.

Richard: So, I think the pandemic has affected businesses in a lot of ways. And it's been lovely to see how actually people working from home can generate a lot of productivity. And there's probably more trust around that model than there was before. 

But it hasn't taken away, from a human perspective, is that that feeling of isolation. And we've seen how improvisation can really unite people together in a way that just any old Zoom call cannot do. Again, it's an ability to form deep connections with people and to get people to kind of relax and share and feel a part of a deeper team. And that is really important. 

But I think the other thing is also about the quality of those Zoom meetings, because we're all, to varying degrees, probably sick of them by now. But if, as everything seems to be suggesting, people are going to carry on working remotely for at least a part of the time, those meetings – I mean, there's always been a question as to how effective meetings are – but those meetings are going to have to be effective. 

And The Maydays have been doing a lot of work around and creating environments within Zoom constructs where we can get around the fact that body language and tone of voice can often be missed or muffled by poor Internet connections and so on. So, we’re kind of reconstructing what a Zoom meeting needs to be like in order to be a lot more on a par with the effectiveness of a face-to-face situation

Aih: For corporations during the pandemic, I think we first have to look at what the corporations are going through at during the pandemic; what the pandemic has taken away from a lot of businesses. Obviously, the working from home situation has made things like eye contact, you know, that's impossible. Other social cues are also a little bit difficult. And so, even more than ever, it has, I guess, for lack of a better word, reduced a lot of employees to feeling even more like, again, cogs in the machine; that they're just kind of weak or something. 

So, here in the Philippines, we say, like, “You're just hands.” Basically, like you're literally just executing things. And other than that, nothing else. 

So, for improv to come in, it kind of – I've seen, I think, the biggest value. We've done a couple of corporate workshops over the pandemic, online, which is very interesting. One of the biggest things is that realization in mostly the leadership in the corporation. That realization that comes into their eyes when they say, “Oh, my goodness. Yes, these are these are people I'm working with” or understanding like, “This is how I can hear them better” or “These are the things that they are telling me that I'm not listening to.”

Lloydie: And Aih brings us back to listening again in relation to online calls, as does Neil.

Neil: Well, I found that, of course, I've applied all the skills I've got from the theatre and especially improv to Zoom and other video platforms. Listening is vital in video calls. Making it interactive is vital in those calls. Dealing with what's in front of you, if somebody says something you didn't expect, making sure that everyone is part of the conversation, making sure people don't hogget, that there's good turn taking, thinking creatively, not just about what's being said, but just the way you set things up. So, have conversations, to begin with, that are firm and social rather than getting to the task straight away. 

I experimented with standing up when presenting on Zoom and now people are saying that's helping them bring energy to tell their stories better. I experiment with changing the dynamic. So, I move in and out of shot, I go into the depths, I bring in 3D objects; that it lives in a way that perhaps just slides don't. So, all of the things that I naturally would be thinking about how to make an improv show more interactive, more interesting, more creative, and dare I say, funnier, can apply to Zoom, definitely.

Lloydie: That's true. I think people are very, very quick to click on the screen share button, aren't they, rather than necessarily bring it to life themselves.

Neil: Yeah. 

And so, I say you should animate the screen. So, use your hands. And I often say to people, “Let's go and get an object.” So, it's been really interesting to ask people in advance, bring an object that's got you through lockdown. And they tell stories and we get to understand them and we share our humanity. 

I say, “Get up and move about” because sitting is the new smoking. So, if you're sitting hunched over a laptop for 12 hours a day, it's not good for you; your physical life, your creative life, your cognitive skills. So, go get an object. Be honest. If there's somebody from Amazon at the front door or children and pets and partners, bring them in, share the shot. 

So, the thing that we be doing at the Comedy Store, we've done a thing called Crowd Sauce – Spelt sauce like tomato sauce. I'm saying, “Let's have multiple people on the screen”, because it's great to see two or three people interacting with one another. The screen comes alive. So, I'm always trying to get the interaction that I would get in a comedy club in the theatre, in a workshop. 

And it's not impossible. It's a shame that I don't see them, but I'm I feel as involved with them as I would in face to face. 

And I did an improv session for the International Coaches Federation. They said, “Can you tell us about improv and how it might apply to a team or group coaching?” And it was just such a thrill. I had people from Costa Rica, Rwanda, Vietnam, Singapore, the United States, Europe, far East, far South. And it was just wonderful to be part of that. 

Obviously, I wish I could be there in all those places in real life. But for a moment, we shared something very widely. And I do love to travel, but thinking about my carbon footprint. But I would never have had those people in one moment in the past. So, that's been the offer, I suppose, the yes-and of improv jargon that Covid has given us. 

Despite all the terrible, terrible stories we hear, we have found ways of humanity gathering and talking and sharing over and above any geographical boundaries. 

Improv embraces uncertainty. Improv enjoys vulnerability and fallibility. You can make mistakes in improv, and sometimes they're the most wonderful part of the evening. Sometimes they bring the greatest joy when somebody giggles or mishears or says something they didn't quite mean to say. 

And that is where I think improv has a profound influence on businesses because it embraces humanity. Lots of businesses will say, “We encourage risk. We encourage failure”, and then they don't. Improv gives guide rails for creativity and collaboration that allow for difference and allow for fallibility.

Lloydie: Neil talks out guide rails. And those are things that you set up ahead of a task. But as Richard points out, sometimes in businesses, things can be done in a peculiar way around.

Richard: When organizations have had a really busy year and they've done really well, they'll reward people by doing a fun thing. And it's just that it feels like, you know, if we go right back to school; that you've done the whole year and you get to bring in games on the last day. It's ridiculous. 

If we flip that and see how doing that at the start of a period and just getting people really just being happy in what they do and communicating freely and openly and having frank conversations and just feeling that confidence from being genuine, then that will power an organization forward to even better outcomes, surely.

Lloydie: And having people happy in their work is something that Aih is passionate about.

Aih: You spend so much of your time at your corporate job. And to do that, to go through those hours without seeing it through the lens and putting a filter of joy through it is just draining all these people mentally and emotionally. And that's why we have so many corporate people who are so jaded, who have no idea that they're just going through the motions and it's turning them into, again, just like shells of people almost. People are so bitter at work. It's very common here, at least. 

So, I think I'll never get tired of doing a corporate improv workshop and seeing people kind of be reinvigorated. It's just that shift in mindset; that perspective. It's oftentimes, as improvisers, we take it for granted. It's simple for us. It's like it's our every day. But a lot of them really just, it blows them away to realize what can be possible and how much more human a workplace can become.

Lloydie: And Neil feels anyone in business or any walk of life can benefit from the experience of an improv show or class.

Neil: Well, I'm on a mission now. I'm at an age where I can look back and say to everyone, “This is what I've learned.” And I want everyone listening to this podcast to go and see an improv show and attend an improv class. And you can. You can attend one anywhere in the world. Just try it out. Enjoy the fun of it. Enjoy the collaborative spirit of it. 

So, go watch a show in person, when it's ready, and attend an improv class, because it'll lift your spirits and give you such confidence in yourself and in others. And in this process that's been around for over a century, actually, starting with a social worker in Chicago. 

Next time… on The Improv Chronicle Podcast.

Getting out of your head. From time to time, many, if not most improvisers find themselves stuck inside their head and thinking too much. 

Next episode, a variety of improvisers share their perspectives on that phenomenon and tips on how to cope with it. 

The Improv Chronicle podcast is produced and hosted by me, Lloydie James Lloyd.  There's now a newsletter to go with this podcast. It comes out on the weeks when we don't release an episode. Sign up and get the world of improv in your inbox when you go to improvchronicle.com