Kysen's Serious Night Out at The Comedy Store set me thinking (between chortles) about the "improv mindset" and what we could learn about workplace team-playing. After a Twitter exchange that evening, I spoke to Comedy Store Players co-founder Neil Mullarkey, (who was once the comedy partner of Mike 'Austin Powers' Myers no less), about the comedic skill of riffing off another person. There's a reason so many comedy acts come in pairs: if you think Mitchell & Webb, Armstrong & Miller, etc, it's clear that today double acts are less about a stooge and a funny man, and more about two comic heads being better than one. And seeing how much the improvisation skills displayed by the Comedy Store Players in the various skits and games they laid on for our entertainment relied on their ability to read team mates' minds and together act as one single comedic body, the link with team-working in the office is clear. (And yes, we do expect work at Kysen to be this much fun.)
Digging in to the background to the Comedy Store Players'
improv routine after the show, I was fascinated to learn that Neil runs improv workshops for businesses
specifically to promote better teamworking, in addition to his glittering TV
and film career (this former Cambridge Footlights president appears in two of the three Austin Powers films, International Man of Mystery and Goldmember). Makes total sense! When he told me his
philosophy about how much people and teams in business have to gain from embracing
the improv mindset, and when I realised that clients of his training business
include professional firms such as Deloitte and global corporates such as
Google, Microsoft, GlaxoSmithKline, not to mention Walt Disney ... I was all
ears.
"Working with others in improv situations is all about
collaborating and highly attentive listening", he tells me, "which is why the skills are so
relevant to the workplace environment and can be so effective in transforming
teams. In creating "Super Teams" in fact. But other key aspects of
improv are more alien to business culture, for example concepts of "being
in the moment" and "vulnerability". It's an entirely different
kind of thinking, as much about instinct and intuition as about cerebral
activity. We encourage people and businesses to embrace their creativity and
enhance their communication skills in new ways.
"Improv actually started in the Chicago of the 1920's with Viola Spolin who was working to enhance the language skills of deprived children. Only decades later did it evolve into the type of theatre performance we know now. What I and others are trying to do (in the Applied Improv Network) is return to the roots of this ethos to help even the stuffiest and most diffident (and those who don't know they are suffering from over-confidence) to become more creative communicators and leaders."
This showreel will give you a glimpse into the sorts of things Neil covers in his workshops. The sessions are designed to improve participants' skills in listening, influencing, rapport, assertiveness and presenting, so individuals can learn how to tell a story in a far more engaging way. It also teaches them how not to get thrown by the unexpected, but be nimble enough to use it to their advantage.
"Improv actually started in the Chicago of the 1920's with Viola Spolin who was working to enhance the language skills of deprived children. Only decades later did it evolve into the type of theatre performance we know now. What I and others are trying to do (in the Applied Improv Network) is return to the roots of this ethos to help even the stuffiest and most diffident (and those who don't know they are suffering from over-confidence) to become more creative communicators and leaders."
This showreel will give you a glimpse into the sorts of things Neil covers in his workshops. The sessions are designed to improve participants' skills in listening, influencing, rapport, assertiveness and presenting, so individuals can learn how to tell a story in a far more engaging way. It also teaches them how not to get thrown by the unexpected, but be nimble enough to use it to their advantage.
My favourite of the improv games we saw at The Comedy
Store was a storyline created by random suggestions from the audience for
setting, plot, theme, characters, etc (Winston Churchill and doilies seemed to
be a recurring motif), with the comedians taking turns to improvise a line each
to take the story forward, the compere pointing to direct the switch between
comics mid-sentence and sometimes mid-word, and doing this faster and faster as
the game went on. The best, most hilarious lines came as a single sentence was
shared between three or four people, and as the actors had less time to think.
Interesting how sometimes the best team-working comes when there's no time for
individuals to think independently at all!
Now that's an inspired take on best practice teamwork. F
un too :)
un too :)
***
The learning starts by asking participants to share and discuss classic scenarios that commonly threaten their best ideas for profiling their clients.
They are then asked to turn these into "chance cards" for a board game that will either send players backwards or forwards a number of squares depending on how the challenge is handled.
Did Julie and Victoria enjoy the game? We all did, most definitely. Helped by The Hospital Club roof terrace and some rare sunshine! But Julie topped my idea by suggesting a Christmas Special version where players are invited to dress up in SuPR Hero costumes themselves and move round a person-sized board (think Twister) using giant dice. What a great idea! Perhaps I should start making plans for a special December Tonic event. Are you up for this? You need to tell me if you are!
***

Not sure we've ever had such an impressive book of cuttings and video clips at Kysen - and such quality results delivered by so many different members of the team, new and old: regular showings on BBC and Sky News channels, and across all the broadsheets on a regular basis as well as the leading trades. And all tightly focused on where clients' need to be placed to make PR work hard for the needs of their business.
Well done Team Kysen! I'm proud of you all. A great summer finale before starting a new term!
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