Training & Development. Rigid structures

Rigid structures are all very well but they can and do inhibit free thinking, which is vital for creativity, improving business performance and engaging with your audience when giving presentations or just talking to your team. Report by Erika Lucas

There can’t be many people who haven’t watched programmes like Who’s Line is it Anyway? or listened to the radio programme Sorry I haven’t a Clue and marvelled at the panellists’ ability to think on their feet and come up with witty ripostes in the blink of an eye.

But improvisation is not just an entertaining technique for stage, screen and radio, it’s slowly starting to make its mark in the business world too.
Organisations are toying with improvisation to help managers work together better in teams, release creativity and improve their presentation skills.

Improvisation is being viewed as a useful management skill that can be applied to help hard-pressed staff deal with the unexpected, respond rapidly to change and make the most of the resources available to them.

Improvisation may seem an unlikely resource for businesses, but the parallels between ‘the stage’ and working life are numerous.  Like their counterparts in today’s workplace, improvisers in the world of entertainment work with limited resources, under pressure and in unpredictable and rapidly changing circumstances. If they are to be successful, they need to co-operate with each other to find new and creative ways of tackling the situations facing them.

The key difference, however, is the way improvisers approach their work.  “People in business face constant, rapid and unpredictable change, but they tend to talk about the change as if it were possible to isolate, contain, control and plan for,” says improvisation expert Robert Poynton in his book Everything’s An Offer. “Improvisers take a much more intimate view.  If they don’t engage with the changes that occur on stage, they look wooden and flop. They know they can’t deflect or duck change and that without it, they won’t create any action.”

Mention the idea of improvisation in the workplace and you’ll probably find most managers heading for the nearest exit. They imagine it’s a complicated, creative technique they won’t be able to master – and fear being singled out and made to look daft in front of colleagues.

The reality, however, is that improvisation centres round a few key techniques, which can be learned by anyone, and some of which we already use every day without even knowing it.

This is an extract from a feature on developing and applying improvisation techniques in the office published in the July issue of Professional Manager.

Everything’s An Offer – How to do More with Less, Robert Poynton, On Your Feet, www.everythingsanoffer.com

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