Using improvisational performance to shift mindsets, liberate creativity, and get great results
***NEEDS HEADER IMAGE REPLACED (MEGAN WORKING ON THIS)
*** IF VIDEOS ARE READY, EMBED WITHIN TEXT WHERE APPROPRIATE.
You want to be a better marketer? Get your team unstuck. Start by summoning your inner Tina Fey or Steve Carell. Improvisational performers know how to improve collaboration. That’s because improv isn’t just about making audiences laugh. Improv can be a powerful tool that enables you to smash through the barriers that keep your team from moving forward—that keep them stuck.
We’ve all been stuck. It’s part of the gig. Sitting around a conference table with the team. The clock loudly ticking. Some slumping in chairs, others shooting down ideas like they’re playing Call of Duty. Hearts pounding. Throats closing. Mouths drying. Your brainstorm has dwindled to a sad little drizzle.
Getting stuck is a nightmare. Improv wakes you up with two positively powerful words: “yes … and.”
Yes, the principles of improv can get your team unstuck. And they will take you down paths you hadn’t thought to explore (or even knew existed). We’ve found this cardinal rule of improv so useful at Yes&, we named ourselves for it!
The Science of Stuck-edness
Our brains are hardwired to keep us safe—and alive. We’re programmed to scan the environment for anomalies and aberrations. These perceived threats trigger the brain’s amygdala, which readies us to fight, flee, or freeze. When teams are stuck and pressure mounts, dominant people fight for their ideas and shoot down rivals; others flee, hiding in silence—or they leave the room. Some freeze, diverting their attention to their phones or simply checking out, intellectually and emotionally.
If we understand why we get stuck and what it looks like to be stuck, we can begin to unstick ourselves. Maybe these feel familiar to you...
- We get trapped by familiar ways of thinking.
- We become blocked by emotional barriers: fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of disapproval. Fear is the wellspring of emotional blocks.
- We self-judge, filter, and reject our own ideas because we think they’re not good enough.
- We become bewildered when something unexpected enters the scene: unwelcome parameters—deadlines, budgets, rules—and we don’t know how to deal with them.
When we ’re stuck, we enter the realm of “NO,” a place that’s comfortable, predictable, and limiting.
Here are a few improv tenets that help us become more creatively tenacious:
- Say “yes...and” When something—an idea or thought—is offered to you, accept it then add to it.
- Take risks. Improv tells us that “mistakes” are good. Too often we try to “do it right.” There is no right, because “right” is what we’ve always done … Success is where you land after a lot of trying. Open doors. Be brave. Even better, allow yourself to be absurd.
- Make your partner look good. When we do that, there is no leader. (Hierarchy squelches creativity.) Trying to be the star is usually counterproductive.
- Don’t plan. Hear what is said in the moment. Take it in. Then send something out.
- Let go. If we think we know the answer from the start, we’re probably pursuing something that’s we've done before.
Improv Games for Getting Unstuck
Improv helps us move beyond ‘pause’ to play. And the more we practice, the better we’ll be.
Here are a simple improv games you can use to open a more positive, creative space:
- “What Are You Doing?” A/B-style. A good warm-up to get free up the room. The first person asks a teammate “What are you doing?” The two-word response must use a first word beginning with the letter “A,” the second word starting with “B.” (Question: What are you doing? Answer: Analyzing breadsticks.) The game moves around the room until everyone has had a turn. This is one of many improv games that imposes parameters to force creativity.
- The Question Game. An entire conversation unfolds with participants asking only questions; or Next Letter Game. A variation on Questions ... Every next sentence begins with the next letter of the alphabet. In these games, parameters force the remarkable.
- The Vacation Game. Two people plan a vacation, accepting whatever their partner offers and adding to it—with unexpected outcomes. If you’ve ever planned a vacation with a partner, you know that the idea of both parties accepting whatever is offered never happens. In this game, it does. This is a great game to demonstrate the value of saying, “Yes… and.”
- The Limerick Game. The first person makes up the first line of a limerick, handing it off to the second person for the second line. Five people, five lines. Built-in parameters (rhyme scheme and meter) generate results that are almost always wildly creative and unexpected.
- The Jibberish Expert. One participant, a presumed expert on a topic suggested by the audience (e.g., horse plumber), speaks a suggested language (German, Russian, Walrus, etc.). The Walrus-speaking horse plumber answers an interviewer’s questions while another improv performer translates.
- Enter the Incongruous. This improv exercise requires marketers to write ad copy for a product (e.g., a zero-calorie bagel) using an incongruous photo, such as an image of astronauts on the moon. This exercise could set you free.
Conclusion
Conclusion? There are no conclusions. Only possibilities. So the next time someone has a great idea that the team thinks it can’t afford, don’t say no. Because “no” kills the scene. Try a reset. Maybe something like, “Hey. That’s a great idea. Yes, and what if we shot it on an iPhone? Yes, and with the money we saved on studio fees we could get Taylor Swift to write a jingle. Yes, and my cousin knows Travis Kelcie’s mother. Yes, and …”
You get the idea.
Next Scene
We would love to engage your team in an improvisation workshop. Josh Golden, Yes&’s president and chief creative officer, has on many occasions used improv techniques to get his team unstuck. Before becoming a professional marketer, Josh was an actor, writer, director, professor, historian—and, yes, an improv performer.
