For an improviser, I do a lot of planning. In planning this blog, I envision three groups of people (okay, four or five) I can serve. To make it easier for you, I’ve made the following categories. You’ll find them just under the title for each post.
train better: For improvisers who train
First, I thought of improvisers who want to lead corporate trainings using their art-form but are not sure where to start. If this describes you, you might be having a hard time learning how to “speak training,” and, more importantly, to “think training.” My goal is to provide you some Training 101 content geared specifically to the soft skills trainings we are so often sought for: customer service, sales, management / leadership, communication / presentation, and creativity / innovation. I started where you’re starting, but along the way I taught myself this world and became a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance. I’ll share what I I’ve learned about instructional design that’s been most valuable to selling, designing, and delivering improv-based training. These posts will help you deliver better work for your clients, and feel better and more confident while doing it.
think improv: For trainers who want to use more improv at work
On the other side, there are a growing number of mainstream trainers who want to bring more of this “improv thing” into their work, but it's important to them to do it in a measurable, valuable way. When improv entered the training world, training managers saw a fun, original kind of teambuilding, but not much else. It deserves so much more attention. Improv heroes like Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone should sit alongside interactive learning heroes like Thiagi and Mel Silberman as creators of amazing, engaging, and transformational tools for learning. These posts will be geared to empower those who already identify as Talent Developers to use improv and interactive approaches in a way that is still “learner-centered, performance-based.”
better short-form: For improvisers who love short-form
Beyond the corporate world, I want to help improvisers to better perform the kind of improv I’ve dedicated my artistic career to: short-form. This refers to the kind of game-based improv popularized by ComedySportz, which I have played professionally since 2000 and have often shared with other improvisers as a teacher, coach, and director. Some improvisers still think in terms of doing long-form for “the art” and short-form for “the money.” It doesn’t have to be that way. Both are great media for “the art.” (And both, by the way, deserve “the money,” but that’s a different blog.) Also, trainers take note: many short-form games, with a few tweaks, become versatile and impactful training games.
full self work: For people who just want work to work better
The fourth group is, of course, everybody else. As automation and artificial intelligence pervade our work lives, a lot of organizational cultures are seeming less and less human. I believe the savvy organization will differentiate by encouraging and empowering its people to bring their full selves to work. We already talk about needing everyone’s creativity, but we need so much more than that. We need those deliciously risky aspects of our people: their emotion, intuition, spirituality, and that essential human wildness which makes managing so wonderful and exhausting. If you’ve noticed that you and the people you lead feel less and less “alive” at work, and want to change that, this blog will be for you, too.
off topic: For me, but you’re welcome to come along
This blog started from a month of me being thoroughly self-absorbed and terrified. There’s something to be said for saying things just because you’ve decided to say them. When I incline toward such flights of fancy, I hope to make them interesting, even humorous. Read them if you don’t mind the occasional excursion into opera, disc golf, plant-based eating, or classic Doctor Who. (Did I mention I was a nerd before anyone wanted to be called a nerd?)
Hopefully, one or two of the above categories will feel cozy. Feel free to comment; I’ll try to answer questions. And, if you have advice or a correction, I’ll take it to heart, and may even change the original post. If there’s something you’d really like to ask me to write about or want to reach out to me directly for any reason, please do. If you really like something so much and want to share it, quote it, etc., I’d be honored. Please look at these Terms of Use for more.