WE16 - 4 Ways Improv Can Improve Your Career
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4 Ways Improv Can Improve Your Career
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WE16 - 4 Ways Improv Can Improve Your Career
- 1. 4 Ways Improv Can Improve Your Career
- 2. Introduction to Speakers Amber Iraeta Mechanical Engineer Bio-Rad Laboratories Jessica Kiefer Hardware Engineer Cisco Systems
- 3. What is Improv? Improvisation (Noun) ‘The art or act of improvising, or of composing, uttering, executing, or arranging anything without previous preparation.’ Source: "improvisation". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.
- 4. Learning Goals 1. Take risks and not be afraid of failure 2. Collaborate effectively 3. Become a better listener 4. Let go of judgement
- 5. Yes, But… • Find a partner • Assign partner “A” or “B” • Follow our example, but describe a kitchen • Remember to always say “yes, but” before anything else
- 6. Yes, And… • Find a partner • Assign partner “A” or “B” • Follow our example, but describe a bike • Remember to always say “yes, and” before anything else
- 7. Recap: “Yes, but” and “Yes, and” This was a lesson in accepting offers • Being a supportive team member • Being collaborative in a positive way • If people are positive, offers get more daring, people will take bigger risks and move forward faster
- 8. The Circus Bow Learn and practice the circus bow! Any time you make a mistake or the team messes up, remember the bow
- 9. Mirror Exercise • Find a new partner • Assign partner “A” or “B” • Person “A” mirrors person “B” while person “B” tells a story about their day • Switch
- 10. Recap: Mirror Exercise • We do this because it’s not easy. There is no way to get it perfect • Don’t be afraid of failure • Practice listening both inside yourself and outside yourself at the same time • Be fully present in the moment
- 11. Collaborate Exercise • Find a new partner • Back and forth, one word at a time to create a story • Try to go as fast as possible, don’t censor yourself • Take a risk and see where the story goes
- 12. Recap: Collaborate Exercise • Small contributions can change the story in a big way • Active listening • A single partner didn’t have complete control and you had to work together as a team
- 13. Status Status is how you carry yourself and how you are perceived by those who interact with you
- 14. Status Exercise • Everyone stand up • Shoulders back, chin up, make eye contact • Greet those around you with high status • Your confidence will help give others confidence
- 15. Summary 1. Take risks and not be afraid of failure 2. Collaborate effectively 3. Become a better listener 4. Let go of judgement
- 16. Summary 1. Take risks and not be afraid of failure • Circus Bow • Celebrate taking a risk • Learn from failures
- 17. Summary 2. Collaborate effectively • Active listening • Not blocking others’ ideas • Taking care of your partners/team and ensuring they look good as well
- 18. Summary 3. Become a better listener • Be in the moment and don’t let your mind wander • Others will want to open up more when you give them your attention • Sometimes you don’t need to say anything: just listen
- 19. Summary 4. Let go of judgement • Be willing to change. Don’t hold on to your own ideas—also listen to other’s • Don’t censor your own ideas—have confidence in your abilities and intelligence. Be willing to fail!
- 20. Thank You! Thank you for coming to 4 Ways Improv can Improve your Career If you would like to learn more or have further questions, feel free to email us at: Amber.Iraeta@gmail.com or JessicaKiefer@gmail.com
Editor's Notes
- Life is improvised and unscripted, so it’s important to learn techniques to improvise <number>
- Ask audience for an example of something we can describe. Always repeat the suggestion and say thank you <number>
- How did that feel? Overaccepting. The failure is not having a supportive team. If you have a supportive team, you’re more likely to take risks in the future. A big risk allows us to move forward in life and business. Being afraid of failure makes us not do this. You can support OTHERS risks’ by practicing overaccpeting. if someone is giving ideas in a meeting and you don’t personally like the idea and you don’t accept it positively, they may stop contributing. Thus stopping the possibility of ideas. This is especially important in Brain storming! There will come a time when you can’t positively accept all offers, and that’s OK! It’s important in idea generation meetings that all offers are accepted positively and looked at more in depth later. <number>
- In improv we celebrate risk taking. Think of this. When you go to see a circus show and see a tight rope walker perform a trip, she climbs up high, takes a deep breath, walks along the rope. Suddenly she falls into the net. She gets up, gets out, raises her arms in the air. What happens? Everyone cheers for her. It’s not because she fell into the net. They are celebrating that she took a risk and put herself out there. In improv, when something doesn’t go quite right, they put your arms up and yell “I failed” and everyone climbs. We encourage you to use this the rest of the session whenever you feel the need. Having a supportive environment will allow you to do this. <number>
- Mirror exercise: listening, collaborating, and failure. Person A mirrors person B person B tells a story. When you switch, it’s hard to remember to follow and tell a story at the same time—need to not be afraid to fail. Forced to listen both inside your head and outside your head at the same time and to be in the moment <number>
- How did that feel? Was it harder to tell a story or to be the person listening. Distractions make it hard to listen. Be aware of distractions when you know you should be listening. Tell a story about how you may be thinking of something else while someone is talking to you. There is no way to get this perfect. You will never be able to fully listen and you can never perfectly mirror. When you are telling the story, you are not as effective in your story telling because you are also at the same time focusing on following the other persons movements which are distracting you to some degree. Amber: Tell story about how when you listen to people and then you forward thinking about your next meeting, what you are doing after work. Then missing out on what the person was really saying. Learn to turn off that voice and have your full attention on your partner, or you will miss important information When you messed up or failed, were you able to move on quickly? You kind of got over it and kept going. <number>
- Have everyone start with once upon a time, and have the group use that prompt too. <number>
- How did that feel? This is a game where you don’t know what’s coming next. You have to allow yourself to be changed. For example, when we played this game together for the first time. Jessica said “two”, but Amber interpreted it as “to” and Jessica was really thrown off and had to recover. Allows you to collaborate together and every single word matters as you volley back and forth. This exercise enables you to really pay attention to what your partner is saying. This will help at work to help listen to your coworkers, as well as to think quickly to positively add to ideas. <number>
- Have Two people come up to the front of the room Ask audience: Who portrays higher status? Why? A lot of non verbal cues. When you do a scene and come in—you come onto the stage with a status even before you say anything. For example, I could come into a scene as a child who did something wrong, I would come in with a low status. Generally people who talk in front of others, CEOs, VPs, portray higher status or even power. You are trying to portray strength and knowledge. Important for meetings or presentations. You can always do a status check as you walk into a meeting. Coworker that wears polo shirt. If Amber has a bad day, she will dress nice the next day to recheck her status. <number>
- Generally people who talk in front of others, CEOs, VPs, portray higher status or even power. You are trying to portray strength and knowledge. Important for meetings or presentations. You can always do a status check as you walk into a meeting. Coworker that wears polo shirt. If Amber has a bad day, she will dress nice the next day to recheck her status. <number>
- Remember that failures come from taking a risk. If you’re not willing to fail, you will never take a risk. Failure shouldn’t be something to be frowned upon. That if you try something and it didn’t quite work, you learn from it for next time. When you do fail, you don’t dwell on it. Failure can be hard to take. But try to let it go as quickly as possible so you can move on to something new. This will allow you to move forward quicker. Languishing in should of-would of-could ofs doesn’t equate to progress. In projects if you try a new design idea, and it fails, letting go of that failure can help you move on quickly to the next idea and the next risk. Amber: Project cancelled story. Worked on a project for 6 months, very far into the project and the project was cancelled. There was nothing I could do or would do to have that project continue forward and not dwelling on the amount of work I put in that won’t be used due to the cancelled project made me shelve the project quickly, efficiently, and get ready very quickly for the next project. <number>
- This takes active listening. Making sure that you are hearing what your teammates say so that you can add in a positive constructive manner. Yes, and is important because it teaches you how to not block others ideas. A lot of this is about taking care of your partners and your team. You should all be in it together. You may have differences and not agree all the time, but you want to succeed as a team. Make sure you don’t put down your team in front of others, positively collaborate and take care of your team. This will contribute to a positive team atmosphere as well as letting others know that you respect them and value them as team members. When amber is in improv her main task is to make partners look good no matter what. <number>
- We did the mirror exercise to learn to be in the moment and try not to think about other outside distractions. When you are not actually listening, you could nod your head but if you aren’t actually listening to what they are saying you aren’t getting everything including non verbal cues, intonation, etc. people can tell when you are actively listening and are more likely to open up and think you are an easy person to work with. <number>
- We’ve done a lot of exercises where we have worked in times. You were making up a story one word at a time. You had to let go and be changed by what your partner said very quickly because what you and your partner were working on together would never happen. This is a way to also make your partner look good. You are more likely to yes and and make them feel included if you accept their ideas and hear them out and accept the parts that will help the company or project move forward. There are always times when we don’t agree with someone we work with. The main goal is to listen to the other person’s ideas, and try to come at problems from their angle, and if what they are saying makes sense or is correct, then be willing to change and acknowledge that their ideas are correct. There is no problem being wrong. The important thing is that your team gets to the correct solution together. If you have an idea and you never say it, no one else will ever know it. The exercises that we did work on all 4 together. <number>
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