Now, more than ever, organizations need managers and employees who can think "hot" and experiment outside of clearly delineated patterns. Improvisation is not an innate skill, it can be learned and should be developed. Those leaders who assume otherwise will be left behind.

Nowadays, being a leader is stressful. Every day you have to analyze and react to the ever-changing reality. On good days, everything works as it should. But on worse days, things fall apart before your eyes. Anxiety is an inherent component of uncertainty, and you can't escape it. But you can accept it and turn it into positive action. This is what improvisation will help you do.

To be an effective manager you need to be able to build a connection between what you know and what you don't know. The latter is much easier to find and identify when you are outside your comfort zone. That's why improv classes can be found today at top business schools such as Duke, MIT, UCLA and Stanford. And last July, the University of Notre Dame joined the ranks with its Executive MBA.

Unproductive meetings, poor leadership and poor communication are no joke. In contrast, some organizations are using comedy to help their teams notice and correct deficits in these fields. These companies hire improv coaches to develop communication, cooperation and leadership skills in employees.

Companies such as Google, Farmers Insurance and Dow Chemical use improvisation techniques to develop creativity, collaboration and and communication. This is crucial because MBA graduates leave school well equipped with hard skills but no longer necessarily soft skills.

Managers focused on developing creativity often use the popular phrase "go outside the box." They do this to encourage employees to look for original solutions. But improviser Patricia Ryan Madson has a better idea: "See what your schema is and look at it with fresh, innovative eyes.