To Advance, Go Slow

“There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.” Mohandas Gandhi

“Slow down, you move too fast.” "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)," Simon & Garfunkel

Many improv performers (and many writers, for that matter) have a tendency to want to “cut to the chase” in creating stories. That is, in their rush to tell “just the facts” of the story, they barrel past the details of characterization, description, and emotion that can give color and life to a story. Color-Advance is a workshop activity that can remind improv performers that creating a scene involves more than just “What happened?” and “Whodunit?”

In Color-Advance, a team member begins telling an impromptu story – e.g., “My brother and I heard a loud noise in the basement and went down the stairs to investigate.” At that point, another team member might call out “Color the stairs!” – at which point the teller must stop the narrative and begin describing details about the stairs (“they felt solid under my feet but for some reason they seemed to creak more than usual”). After a while, another team member might call out “Advance!”, a directive to the teller to resume describing the events of the story. Team members continue to alternate the “Color!” and “Advance!” commands until the teller completes the story.

I was reminded of Color-Advance while watching a tv news report on a project called Slow Down London, intended to “inspire Londoners to improve their lives by slowing down to do things well, rather than as fast as possible.” The report focused on the Big Slow Walk, in which scores of Londoners ambled at a snail’s pace across Waterloo Bridge at rush hour. As the project’s website described it, the walkers “enjoyed some of London’s loveliest river views in a relaxed and leisurely manner as stressed and anxious commuters rushed past oblivious to the joys to be had of slowing down.”

I can’t think of a better real-life application of an improv exercise than this. All that was missing was someone hanging from Big Ben with a super-megaphone calling out "Color London!"

How about your own approach to your daily routine – and to your entire life? Do you equate “advancing” only with going faster and farther? Or do you also view it as going deeper?

The Signs of Change

One of the themes I’ve been developing in the Daily Improviser blog involves the ways in which messages can be sent other than by words. As described in the post about the improv exercise Neutral Scene, our words can be either supported or subverted by our vocal inflections and volume, our posture, our gestures, and a host of other vehicles.

The Daily Improviser as Change Leader must stay particularly attuned to this “language beyond words.” For better or worse, in times of great change, a leader’s every move will be closely charted by her people for indications of which way the winds are blowing – and the followers will usually shift accordingly.

As a Change Leader, are you saying the right words about the change – but doing it through gritted teeth? Are you walking just a bit faster through the halls with an air of preoccupation, as if you can’t get through the gauntlet fast enough? Or are you keeping your shoulders square, your stride confident and optimistic (with even a bit of a spring in your step), your gaze direct, and your expression at least calm if not cheerful?

Just as important as the signals you’re sending are the ones you’re picking up from your team. During times of change, people commonly go through a series of phases similar to those experienced during grief and loss – Denial, Anger, Resistance – before they’re able to pull themselves up and Explore, Accept, and Commit to the new way. Nobody wears a sandwich sign that says “I’m in Denial today,” so you need to be attuned to the nonverbal signals that tell you how your people are really feeling.

For example, the Resistance phase and the Exploration phase both typically involve the asking of questions – for example, “Why do we have to do it like that?” However, as the Daily Improviser knows from Neutral Scene, a team member can ask this in a spirit of curiosity, as if he really wants to know the answer – OR he can ask it like this:

“WHY do we have to do it like THAT!!??”

The Daily Improviser as Change Leader should recognize that these two ways of saying the same thing are very different indicators of the speaker’s position on the change cycle. Most people can probably pick up on the Resistance in the second example. Unfortunately, however, many leaders also treat the first example as a sign of Resistance rather than a healthy emergence into the Exploration phase. As a result, they discourage true questions and unintentionally block the team from moving forward to meet the change successfully.
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"If You're Not Failing ..."

In my previous post, I dealt with the topic of making friends with your mistakes. I concluded the post with the quote: “If you’re not failing, you’re not living.”

Now, I admit that I selected that quote after sifting through a lengthy Google search result on the phrase “If you’re not failing.” In the name of full disclosure, here are some other things that Google says you’re not doing if you’re not failing:

… you’re not trying.

… you're not moving forward.

… you're not growing.

… you’re not learning.

OK, OK. I don’t know about you, but reading this list of things I’m not doing is starting to bring me right down. (And this is exactly the effect the Strengths Movement would predict – i.e., if you focus on what you’re not doing, you feel weak and somehow lacking.)

So what would these professional quotesters have us do – try to fail more? Well, that doesn’t seem to cut it either – does the Daily Improviser’s Creed say that we should aspire to subpar performance? Somehow I don’t think the concept would fly with too many customers expecting things cheaper-faster-better.
Well, to quote Neil Young: Don’t Let It Bring You Down.

I think what the quote starter “If you’re not failing” is really getting at (no matter how you finish it) is this: Of course you’re failing, in the sense that none of us is succeeding all the time! And the sooner each of us recognizes that – that is, the sooner each of us befriends our own personal brand of missteps, flubbed cues, and attempts to reach beyond our grasp – the quicker we’ll recognize and appreciate the fact that we are actually …

… trying.

… moving forward.

… growing.

… learning.

It’s only when we try to deny our human capacity for error that we bump each of these outcomes up into the “not” category.

With this realization, I think I can now cheerfully pick myself up, dust myself off, and appreciate the delicious irony in my favorite result from my Google search:

“If you’re not failing …

… you’re not succeeding.”

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Don't Worry - Be Human!

In my previous post, I mentioned a list of some suggested development areas for people looking to improve their Change Leadership capabilities – e.g., “suspend your critical judgment,” “promote a positive climate,” “get out of your comfort zone.” As with any individual development process, of course, knowing what to change is one thing – actually changing is another.

As my Applied Improvisation Network colleague Gary Schwartz always says, in order to put knowledge to work, you need to somehow get it “in the bones.” And this is what improvisation training can do for the Daily Improviser: Take your knowledge out of the head and put it into the body, where it can permeate your whole being.

For example, take one of the items from the Change Leadership list – “Watch your emotional reaction to mistakes.” Performance improvisers know that if they fear failure, they’ll do everything they can to avoid it rather than take the risks needed to create interesting scenes. One exercise they engage in to acquaint the whole body with mistakes is called Circus Bow.

In Circus Bow, participants form a circle and take turns walking into the middle – but purposely trip and fall before getting there. Each time, the participant picks himself up, dusts himself off, and performs an elaborate bow with great panache, as if to say “I meant to do that!” The other participants then applaud wildly and commend him on such an entertaining spectacle.

A small thing? Yes – but a physical one. Circus Bow is intended to provide a visceral reinforcement of the “head knowledge” that beating ourselves up over mistakes is counterproductive if we want to conduct ourselves as risk-taking, envelope-pushing Change Leaders. As Kat Koppett says in describing a similar activity in her book Training to Imagine, “It is only by making friends with failure that we will be willing to risk enough to succeed.”

So does that mean that, the next time a Daily Improviser’s Powerpoint presentation goes awry, she should drop to the floor, spring back up, and give a Circus Bow to her CEO? Of course not – and that’s not the point of her practicing the exercise in an improv class. Again, it’s not about developing skill as much as it is about cultivating an attitude - in this case, an attitude that says, “Hey, if I’m not occasionally failing, I’m not living!”
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Improvisation: Down by the Old Mainstream

In 2002 I helped found a professional network called the Applied Improvisation Network, a global association of people dedicated to spreading the word about the application of improv theory and practice to daily life. In the seven years that I’ve been associated with the AIN, I’ve seen improvisation increasingly become part of the mainstream of organization development – even if it isn’t yet widely recognized as such.

My belief in the connections between improvisation and OD was recently reinforced by a list I ran across which contained suggested development areas for people looking to develop their capabilities as organizational Change Leaders. As I scanned the list, I couldn’t help noticing how each of the items described a characteristic of the Daily Improviser. A sampling:

0 Suspend your critical judgment – that part of you that says “It won’t work.” Instead, think in positive terms: “It might work because …”
0 Promote a climate in which people initially encourage rather than criticize new ideas.
0 Get out of your comfort zone.
0 Don’t assume that standard procedures are the best.
0 Don’t be satisfied with your first idea. Push yourself to generate other ideas before committing to one.
0 Watch your emotional reaction to mistakes.

Do you see the components of ExploreFlexSupport embedded in these items? Again, it’s striking to me how this list reveals that there is nothing off-the-wall or outré about the application of improvisation to organizations. In fact, improvisation as a body of knowledge takes these items once step further to show how the Daily Improviser can develop her facility with each listed item (a topic I’ll address next time).

Finally, here is an item from the list that sums it all up:

0 Let your employees lead the way. Tell your employees what outcome you support but allow them maximum freedom in how they achieve the goals.

I can’t think of a better, more succinct, more … mainstream statement of a concept I addressed earlier: An organization in which everyone acts as a Daily Improviser around a strong Commander's Intent!

How Now!

I concluded my previous post with the somewhat rhetorical question: How can your thinking and attitudes benefit from daily applications of the improvisational model of ExploreFlexSupport (supported by The Now! and The Wow!)?

Well … here’s The How!

(To take a Coaching approach, I’ll frame these in the form of questions to ask yourself rather than a list of “shoulds,” since I’m sure you’re shouldering enough shoulds as it is.)

EXPLORE
· In solving problems or seeking opportunities, do you stop with the first answer that seems to work? Or do you push ahead to the “next answer,” where the real creativity may lie?
· What do you think may just be over the rise up ahead? Do you expect the worst? Can you think of past situations where something unexpectedly great and wonderful poked its head above the horizon? Can you approach the rise expecting the same thing to happen again?
· Has your daily routine become a straitjacket – or worse, a sedative? Are you even aware of how many things you do on autopilot? What can you do to push beyond or break out of these mixed metaphors – even a little bit?

FLEX
· Are you able to shift comfortably with the winds of your day?
· Do you fail with grace - or fail alone? Are you able to bounce back quickly after a stumble? Do you beat yourself up mercilessly over a mistake, or do you quickly move past it – and even question whether anyone else noticed?
· Can you see beyond your own mental filters and really get behind someone else’s eyeballs? Can you see the world as they see it?

SUPPORT
· Do you say “Yes and” to new ideas – your own as well as others’?
· Do you know, respect, and leverage the strengths of those around you?
· On the job, do you treat other people as work processors – only there to give you input and receive your output? Or do you treat other people as (gasp!) people? Do you go beyond a Joe Friday “just the facts” level and inquire into feelings as well?

THE NOW!
· Are you fully present – head, heart, and gut?
· Do you go beyond just listening to others and fully attend to them?
· In the lunchroom, are you really giving that co-worker your attention, or are you looking him in the eye while your feet are pointed toward the door? (Made you look.)

THE WOW!
· Are you saying “Ain’t it fun”?

Improvisational training can help you develop in each of these areas – again, by helping you change your thinking and your attitudes.

Give 'em Some Attitude!

So far in this blog, I’ve been emphasizing how “applying” improv in daily life doesn’t require you to fit the mold of the onstage performer who runs through the Rolodex-of-the-mind at lightning speed and reacts accordingly. Such a performer may be skilled at doing improv, but, as I wrote in my very first post, improvisation involves both skills and attitudes. For the Daily Improviser, adopting the attitudes may be enough - especially if doing so respects your natural strengths and helps you appreciate the strengths of others.

I once experienced a simple yet powerful exercise in a Coaching workshop that reinforced my thinking about the distinction between skills and attitudes, especially as it relates to helping people learn, grow, and change.

At the start of the workshop, the facilitator asked the participants to respond to a simple question: “What are the characteristics of a great coach?”

As the participants called out their responses – “Creates trust,” “Actively listens,” “Shows empathy,” “Asks questions” – the facilitator jotted down their words, quickly filling a flipchart page.

He then started back through the list and asked the participants to determine whether each response represented primarily a skill or an attitude. It quickly became apparent that, except for such items as “provides expertise,” almost everything on the list primarily described an attitude.

The key point, I think, was that learning and behavior change are as much – if not more - about changing your thinking as they are about developing proficiency.

This is great news for the prospective Daily Improviser, especially if you’ve ever watched an improv show and thought “I could never do that,” quickly followed by “Even if I could, I don’t see how I could apply it in my daily life.”

First, examine those thoughts – are they accurate? Do you really lack improvisational skills? How do you know? Like Ducky from an earlier post, are you prematurely rejecting a potential avenue of great benefit to your daily life – an avenue where a hidden talent may lie?

But even more important, ask yourself: How can you apply the improvisational model of ExploreFlexSupport (accompanied by The Now! and The Wow!) to your thinking and attitudes on a daily basis?

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Answer to Music Trivia Question: Floyd Sneed was the original drummer for Three Dog Night.

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Have You Got the Beat?

I recently ran across an intriguing observation by Tommy Chong of the comedy team Cheech and Chong. In his book, Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography, Chong describes his former brother-in-law and bandmate, the drummer Floyd Sneed:

Floyd’s humor was natural and very real…. Most, if not all, drummers have a wicked sense of humor because of their timing. Rhythm and timing are everything in music and comedy. Peter Sellers, the legendary comic, started his career as a jazz drummer.

Chong might have also referred to two other legendary comics – Johnny Carson and Bill Cosby – who were noted for wielding a mean set of drumsticks.

Although Chong refers specifically to comedy, I think his observation about timing applies to any form of communication. To paraphrase another musical source (with the proper timing indicated): It ain’t what you say, it’s [b'dup!] how you say it.

This “what vs. how” distinction is also reflected in the performance improviser’s toolkit. Improv uses an activity called Neutral Scene to train performers how to convey meaning beyond the words themselves.

In Neutral Scene, two performers exchange lines from a very mundane script (e.g., “Hello.” “Good day.” “Have a seat.” “Thank you.” “Where’s Dave?” “Dave’s not here.”). The first time through, Player A conveys his dominance over Player B through just his voice inflection, volume, and body language. The second time through, each player says the very same lines he said in “Scene One,” but this time Player B assumes dominance over Player A through her use of nonverbals.

Kat Koppett, in her (highly recommended) book Training to Imagine, describes this contrast between high-status and low-status behaviors.

HIGH-STATUS BEHAVIORS:
· Take up as much space in the room as possible, physically and vocally
· Move smoothly
· Make eye contact and hold it comfortably
· Make (appropriate) physical contact directly and comfortably
· Hold your head still but not stiff

LOW-STATUS BEHAVIORS:
· Take up as little space as possible
· Say “um” and “uh” when you talk
· Touch your face and hair often
· Try to make eye contact but find it sort of painful
· Want to make physical contact, but it kind of stings

As a Daily Improviser, are you aware of the nuances of meaning you communicate in the way you present yourself to others? Do you think you’re choosing the right words but sense that they’re not having their intended impact? Instead of feeling in synch with others, do you often seem to be marching to a different drum?

Reflect on the way your nonverbals support or undermine your carefully chosen words. In the meantime, I’ll go listen to my Floyd Sneed records and get some sorely needed practice on my b’dups!

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Music Trivia Pop Quiz: Floyd Sneed was the original drummer for what classic rock group? Answer next time!

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