Let's talk about how improv intersects with real life and business.
Professor, researcher and CSz Philadelphia improviser Dannagal Goldthwaite Young joins the Hidden Brain Podcast on a brilliant exploration of uncertainty vs certainty, and how these traits may divide or unite us.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sitting-with-uncertainty/id1028908750?i=1000671334611
CSz Portland’s Ruth Jenkins appears in Season 3 of the ComedySportz Podcast, discussing applications of improv in Speech Language Pathology, her CSz Nickname, her CSz origins and her personal meet cute story that involves 5 Things!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-38-ruth-jumping-jack-jenkins/id1493584575?i=1000673149911
CSz Portland's Patrick Short on the system of improv that can help businesses thrive.
The "action images" are from a recent engagement with healthcare providers and caregivers. Video by Cowan Jenkins.
The great improvisational teacher Keith Johnstone pioneered the idea of using status as a tool in improvisational theater. Human beings give each other physical and verbal cues to establish status. If someone has high status, they’re calling the shots; if someone has
low status, they’re the peon.
Status is a seesaw, Johnstone explains—you push one end down, the other end pops up. You can raise my status either by saying “I’m smart” or “You’re dumb.”
If you’ve ever walked toward another person on a sidewalk, or in a hallway and had to do an awkward little dance to figure out which side you’ll pass each other on, you’ve experienced one of the simplest example of a status battle.
We use the tool of status onstage to make our scenes more dynamic. We find that equal status situations aren’t very interesting to watch. It’s interesting that in real life, equal status (or near equal status with give and take) gets positive results.
These on-stage status battles aren’t too far removed from reality. In many organizations, maintaining one’s status is more important than getting anything done. We teach it to business people to help them understand the sub-textual power struggle at work in any human interaction.
Caught in a status battle? See what changes if you match the other person’s status. See what happens if you raise their status. Since status attacks are often the work of insecure people, try a little flattery. And look how status games connect to bullying.
In our work, we’ve found Status to have profound effects on Customer Service. We’ll post more on that soon.
Excerpted from Jill and Patrick’s Small Book of Improv for Business. Thanks to Jill Bernard for her essential contributions.
What do you learn from building with LEGO?
They're just pieces of plastic that kids play with.
In April 2013, I participated in a workshop led by Aneta Key, Chief Executive Muse from AEDEA Partners, LLC (aedeapartners.com) in the Bay Area. One portion of it was devoted to building a "library" using LEGO pieces. A group of us had to share a bag of bricks and other parts, while each quickly designing and constructing our own library.
We had to begin and complete the project with very little instruction
Each of us had to decide what was meant by a "library"
We had to use what was in front of us
We had to deal with sharing limited resources
Some of us even had to negotiate trades for the pieces we needed
Following the building, we were given some time to "present" our designs within our groups, and then to respond to each others' presentations.
In my own small group, we had interiors, exteriors, whole libraries, parts of libraries and a a representation of a "digital library" - someone built a computer server with their LEGO pieces.
It took me a couple of months to get my LEGO kits together; I convinced my teenage son to part with his bucket of LEGO pieces (delivered to my office with a laugh). After a couple of hours of sorting and dividing, I headed off to the store for a set of "plain" bricks to give the sets enough pieces so that 4-6 people could share them. (Do you know how hard it is to find plain LEGO bricks? If you want to build Hogwarts, you are in business, but just old school bricks are hard to find.) I persevered, and found a 650 piece set. Later, I found out about a used LEGO store, so Alex Falcone and I went there after a nearby corporate workshop and bought a bunch of flat pieces - bases, if you will.
So I'm set - we have 8 big Ziploc baggies with a variety of pieces in them.
We used this exercise 5 times in the first week with wildly different groups:
In one amazing week, we witnessed colleges, apartment complexes, restaurants, places to work and tree houses being built. Many tree houses included pools, flying ability, an aquarium and amazing ways to climb aboard. My favorite college looked like a microscope. One of the apartment complexes featured an unpaved part of the parking lot - "we haven't paved that part yet."
All we did was play with LEGO, but we also learned about:
Is that all?
What have you learned?
Patrick Short has been teaching applied improvisation for business since 1989, used Duplos (large, little kid LEGO pieces) in an exercise he's always called, "LEGO", and now he has a naming problem. Follow him on Twitter @patrickshort4
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