Certainty in uncertainty - improvisation as a competence

Did you know that the CEO of one of the largest technology companies was formerly an improviser? Developing improvisation skills can increase your effectiveness in times of uncertainty. See how improvisation techniques help reduce stress caused by change, act effectively when something goes against plan, and increase creativity in organizations.

‍

From this article you will learn:

• What is the ability to improvise,
• In what situations improvisation works,
• How stage improvisation differs from applied improvisation,
• Who used improvisation in marketing,
• What is the "yes, and" technique, which is the foundation of improvisation,
• Why impro is present in MBA programs in the States,
• about a comedian who became CEO of a technology company.

You improvise more often than you think

Did you happen to create an RTM (real-time-marketing) creative? Or launched a new product overnight? Or maybe you had to make important decisions in a surprising situation? These are the moments when we improvise. We do it almost every day.

In this article, I will not only try to give you an idea of what the skill of improvisation is, but also suggest how you can use it to increase your effectiveness in uncertain times.

Improvisation - that is, I (don't) know what to do

Improvisation, unfortunately, often has bad PR. It is mistakenly associated with acting in the dark, being chaotic or trying to create "just anything to make it happen." It is also possible that you do not directly associate improvisation with professionalism. However, it is a sizable part of our professional lives.

How many of your projects have gone exactly as planned? Without any modification? Well, that's how. We live in a multipolar world, full of uncertainty and constant change. We can't control everything. Much less can we prepare for every possible scenario.

‍

Therefore, people who are able to respond adequately to the situation and adjust their behavior on the fly are usually more effective than those who act schematically or become paralyzed by unforeseen changes.

‍

This is the context in which we use the skill of improvisation. So let's take a moment to systematize this issue.

Warsaw, we have a problem

On November 1, 2011, a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767 filled with passengers took off from Newark Airport in New Jersey. It was scheduled to land at Chopin Airport at 1:35 p.m. Unfortunately, a malfunction was detected during the flight - a failure of the hydraulic system responsible for extending the landing gear. None of the repair procedures solved the problem. Captain Tadeusz Wrona and co-pilot Jerzy Szwarc found themselves in a difficult, unforeseen and extremely stressful situation, which they had to deal with on the spot.

Time to come up with solutions was limited. After several laps around Warsaw and unsuccessful approaches to landing, a bold decision was made, the consequences of which were unforeseeable - it was decided to land without extended landing gear. The whole thing took several seconds. After a long journey, the unleashed machine settled at Okecie. No one was injured. Many passengers said later that they did not feel the difference between an ordinary landing on wheels and planting the plane in such a way.

The example of Flight 016 perfectly illustrates what the ability to improvise is. Of course, not all of us are in charge of an airplane and responsible for the lives of more than 200 people, while each of us has some responsibility that we "pilot".

‍

Maybe you are responsible for the entire organization, maybe for a specific department or project, or maybe for a specific task. Unforeseen situations are embedded in our daily lives, and how we deal with them will affect our effectiveness.

‍

The ability to improvise

‍

‍

"You can't control the waves, but you can learn to surf them" - this quote, authored by Jon Kabat-Zinn, aptly captures what the ability to improvise is. I define it as the ability to adapt to a variable or unplanned situation in which we are surprised or lose control.

We do this with new possible strategies that we come up with on the fly. Often under time pressure.

Our goal is to increase the likelihood of achieving the result we want, despite the lack of control.

Very often, such action causes stress and uncertainty, the taming of which is the first step in successful improvisation.

‍

When you don't know what to do because your plan becomes outdated, it doesn't immediately mean that you are unprepared. The opposite may be true. Within the framework of these surprising situations, you can use all your knowledge, experience, intuition and available resources that you have accumulated throughout your life. When you improvise, instead of focusing on the fact that things don't go according to plan, you focus on the possibilities.

‍

That's exactly what Capt. Wrona and his crew did.

Two faces of improvisation

Nowadays, you may encounter two types of improvisation.

1. improvisation on stage

The first is stage improvisation.

Its main idea is to create scenes and performances, during which the story is invented live, together with the audience and before their eyes. During such a performance, performers improvise dialogues, create characters and plot. It can be said that they are simultaneously actors, directors and screenwriters.

Improvised performances can be seen today in every major city in Poland. Impro is also known from TV shows, such as the Polish "Heirs" and the American "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". Recently, stage impro also made its way to Netflix in the form of the show "Middleditch & Schwartz."

Stage improvisation can also be used in marketing.

‍

Example

A great example of the use of improvisation in marketing is the series of ads by the Mumio cabaret for the Plus GSM network from 2005-2012.

As director Iwo Zaniewski said, the team improvised scenes with the assumption that the entire story - beginning, middle and punchline (or lack thereof) - had to be fit into 25 seconds. As a result, unique, intelligent and funny commercial spots were created, which, despite the passage of years, are still remembered by many people (e.g. "Kopytko").

The purpose of stage improvisation is to provide entertainment, or more precisely, comedy, which is created through the brilliance of improvisers, their authenticity and based on situational humor.

‍

2. improvisation in business

When we take improvisation out of its theatrical context, we can effectively adapt it to business practice. After all, now more often than ever organizations, teams and managers have to deal with uncertainty and change - exactly like improvisers on stage. This is the area of applied improvisation.

It's a collection of workshop methods that both offset the stress caused by uncertainty and volatility and develop important soft skills that we use every day at work.

In applied improvisation workshops you can practice effective communication, cooperation and creativity. Impro exercises are great for integrating a team, increasing trust within it, and opening up employees, who begin to show more initiative and courage. Such classes can also familiarize people with public speaking and, last but not least, teach managers agile management, which builds a flexible organizational culture instead of rigidity.

‍

‍

Improvisation teaches:

• leveling stress in unforeseen situations,
• out-of-the-box thinking,
• more creativity,
• Communication appropriate to the situation,
• more effective cooperation,
• more agile and flexible management.
  

Nowadays, I see an increased interest in developing such competencies among companies. The pandemic has shown how important it is in a team to adapt, take initiative and generate solutions. All this has a real impact on efficiency and promotes employee well-being.

‍

The "yes, and" technique

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of Change By Design, said: "If one sentence can capture the essence of creative thinking, it might just be 'yes, and'."

‍

The foundation of improvisation is the "yes, and" technique, i.e. actively listening, accepting and accepting offers, proposals. Negating ideas can block and consequently kill creativity and initiative. In addition to saying "yes" to new ideas, the idea is to develop them with one's own associations and thus formulate a new offer.

‍

You can freely use the "yes, and" technique during brainstorming sessions and creative meetings. Its goal is to get participants to develop their ideas and inspire each other instead of judging each other.

In contrast, with "yes, and more..." we expand every idea, even the most offbeat ones, so that there is fun, enthusiasm and initiative in the team, and the fear of evaluation disappears. As a result of this approach, we are able to increase both the number and variety of ideas generated by the group.

‍

Tip

If you don't clearly separate the creation phase from the idea evaluation phase, participants may feel resistance to sharing bold, out-of-the-box or ridiculous ideas. And that's where innovation is often found. It's only at a later stage that it's worth seeing which idea will be most appropriate for the situation.

Soft and hard skills

Reach back to your class in high school. Did the people who had the best grades at the time achieve the greatest career success in adulthood?

‍

‍

According to the Carnegie Institute of Technology, 85% of professional and financial success depends on soft skills. We are talking about how we are able to communicate, negotiate and build relationships with other people.

Meanwhile, our education is mainly oriented towards the development of hard skills - technical, concrete skills. Of course, they are very important. But when we focus only on them, we can disrupt our personal and professional development.

How to develop soft skills? Best by learning through experience (experiential learning). Recall learning to ride a bicycle. In order to master it, we had to experience it - to keep our balance, feel the speed and probably capsize a few times.

We learn from such experiences, through them we learn and model our behavior - until a skill enters our blood. In exactly the same way we develop communication, creativity, cooperation, public speaking or team management.

Applied improvisation workshops create a space where we can experience and build on that while having fun.

Improvising CEO

A good example of someone who developed his competence through improvisation is Dick Costolo - former CEO of Twitter - called "one of Silicon Valley's most impressive CEOs" by the Business Insider website.

Costolo was an improviser in theaters in Chicago before starting his career in IT. In interviews, he is eager to share how the skills he developed through improvisation and stand-up techniques helped him lead Twitter from 2010 to 2015.

Interestingly, this is not an isolated case. Applied improvisation workshops are present in the MBA programs of the most prestigious Western universities training future leaders and women leaders (such as Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Los Angeles).

Immutability of change

Our reality is changing so rapidly that we are unable to control it. The effective way to operate in such an environment is not to try to control this chaos, but to develop the ability to seamlessly interact with it, i.e. to improvise. Actors, employees, as well as CEOs of large technology companies use it. Maybe the end of the year is a good opportunity to give it a try? Or maybe improvisation will be your resolution for the new year?

‍

Exercise

At your next creative meeting, try to be a "yes, and." Actively listen, accept and develop all ideas and offers, defer to their evaluation and final choice. The goal is to encourage the team to be more creative, and to see how often you block other people and situations to stay in your safe zone of belief and control. Innovation is where the risk is.

‍

Worth reading:

1. J. Scinto, "Why Improv Training Is Great Business Training," Forbes, accessed online at https://bit.ly/3XxVwCX.
2. B. Rogers, "Can A Comedy Improv Team Improve Your Marketing?", Forbes, accessed online at https://bit.ly/3OrsOPL.