The Four Virtues of Improvisation

Courage.

Rather than acquiring brand new skills through study, improvisation reveals skills you already have. Since "skills" sounds technical, I call them virtues.

Recently, I began a workforce development workshop for a group preparing for interviews. "Who's scared of the interview?" I asked at the beginning. A few hands went up.

Then we played games, and talked about what the games were teaching us. In one game we examined our relationship to making mistakes, and learned to celebrate them as opportunities for growth and connecting with others.

The final part of the workshop was a structured improvisation in which one of my actors does a comically terrible job at a job interview. After discussing interview best practices, I asked if anyone wanted to "play in", and nail the interview. A young woman raised her hand - one of the hands that admitted earlier to being scared of the actual upcoming interview.

She did nail the interview, even handling some curve balls our other actor tossed at her. She took her seat to raucous applause from her classmates, as her latent courage was revealed to them, and to her.

Sometimes all we need is a safe environment and a playful mindset to discover how strong we really are.

Empathy.

When I ask for feedback after a customer service workshop I deliver, I frequently hear the critique "She showed no empathy!"

My experience has shown me that we all have a pretty good - and pretty general - idea of what empathy is. But at my workshops I drill deeper. I ask, what does empathy look like, sound like? How does it behave through real human connection?

Recently, I led a keynote presentation for the nonprofit leadership group Blue Ridge Institute (BRI). One of the scenarios I designed depicted an elderly person at a loud and boisterous fundraising event. My actors played this older person, and a very extroverted executive director. In the scenario, the ED misses the opportunity to cultivate this prospective donor, who leaves feeling more bewildered and overwhelmed than when she arrived.

My audience of accomplished nonprofit leaders were rightly outraged - no empathy! And they gave my actors new words to say, and new ways to behave, so that in the replay the new guest was attended to with sensitivity and care, and the ED had a much better chance of creating a beneficial relationship.

It hurts our hearts when we see a situation play out in front of us that calls for empathy but doesn't get it. We feel WITH the person who is being treated poorly. And we want to help.

Applied improvisation - used in every workshop of bxlloyd consulting - creates a kind of relationship laboratory in which we rediscover the virtues we already have . . . like empathy.

Creativity.

Here's what the improvisor has on stage:

- themselves
- their partner
- that's it.

No set. No script. No costumes or props. No wonder some people are terrified of improvisation! But here's the amazing discovery we make under the guidance of a sensitive teacher or facilitator:

That's enough.

We (my partner and I) are all we need to tell a story, go on a journey, and make people laugh along the way. It's not the paucity of our creativity that scares us - it's the infiniteness. We discover our creativity is endless. Tapping into it is an act of permission we give ourselves once we know we can trust our partner.

Do you see the obvious application this has to virtually every relationship - personal or professional - in our lives?

My workshops ease groups into improvising through games, exercises, and by viewing others improvising before they are ever asked to. Because it is scary - which is why traditional role play is such bad training. What can we learn while we try and get a grip on our terror? At my workshops, you enter an improvisation you've already seen once or twice. This creates a safe "scaffolding" you can hold on to.

And discover the creative genius you have always been . . .

Faith.

Happy workshop assistants and participants at The West Philadelphia Skills Initiative. 

Faith is such loaded word.

The fundamentalists make us confuse it with indoctrination. We think we have to understand or accept some version of "God" to have faith. But I believe it's much simpler than all that.

Faith is the assumption of abundance, not scarcity. There is enough: money, love, friendship, opportunity. This leads to a posture of confident vulnerability. Even if something is wanting now, in a few moments it will all change and something new will be born.

Faith is the belief that I will be caught when I fall. Faith is the belief that the fall itself is funny - and a source of learning.

Faith is a product of "yes, and . . ." It accepts what is, and it co-creates from there. It doesn't waste time being bitter about what isn't, or resentful about what others have.

Faith is an essential piece of any enterprise. Edison said he didn't fail 1000 times as he attempted to create the lightbulb. He said the lightbulb was an invention with 1000 steps. Faith got him from step 608 to step 609 - and every other step too.

In my workshops we discover the extraordinary power of faith, especially when it is shared creatively amongst a group, or between partners.

Dare to fail gloriously. And have faith that the sun will rise - face the east!