Last week I conducted a two-day leadership program in Orlando, Florida. On Day One, I had the 14 participants play the improv game Word at a Time Story. In this game, players spontaneously create a story by taking turns calling out only a single word when their turn comes around. The players keep the story going until one of them feels that it’s reached its logical conclusion, at which time he says “The End.”
In last week’s activity, the first four players had it easy:
“Once”
“Upon”
“A”
“Time”
[Full Disclosure Department: I don’t actually recall the exact words of the story, except for the two key words below, so the following is a re-creation that should still provide a flavor of the experience.]
Each of the next few players then had to come up with words (one at a time, of course) to begin forming characters and a plot:
“My”
“Sister”
“Went”
“To”
“The”
“Store”
[Side Comment #1: By now it should be clear that no individual person can possibly control the direction of the story – it truly has to be a collaborative effort, requiring total presence in the “now” and a reliance on gut instinct to come up with a word. The players with control issues usually have the hardest time just going with the flow of the group and letting the story emerge on its own. Back in the workplace, this controlling attitude can take several forms: unwillingness to rely on the wisdom of the team, failure to delegate, micromanagement, a need to direct and dominate, and a tendency to solve problems for others rather than coach them on how to come up with their own solutions.]
“And”
“Bought”
“A”
“Puppy”
[Side Comment #2: At this point, I figured that some of the next players in line were formulating ideas about what they might say when it became their turn, with a likely focus on playing with the puppy, feeding the puppy, walking the puppy, etc. This reflects a common practice that people engage in during business meetings – i.e., scripting and rehearsing their responses in their heads while they should be fiercely listening to the other participants in order to truly understand the “story line” of the meeting as it unfolds.]
“Pizza”
[Side Comment #3: PIZZA??!! Now the next person has a challenge: To keep the story going in the face of the weird combination the previous player created. This is another workplace lesson from the game: Rather than treating seemingly incongruous ideas, opinions, and perspectives as irresolvable conflicts, proceed with positive purpose and see how you can integrate all the elements into a constructive result.]
“Which”
“Really”
“Surprised”
“Us”
“All”
“THE END”
At this, the participants let out a huge collective laugh at their success in reaching “The End,” at the rough sense of the story that they had collectively created - and at the idea of a “puppy pizza.” (In fact, one woman was laughing so hard that she had to call “time out” and leave the room.)
We then debriefed by discussing some of the points in the “side comments” mentioned above. However, we never did answer the lingering question: What is a “puppy pizza”?
If that had been the end of the “story,” that would have been enough – but improv is the gift that keeps on giving, as I discovered after the day’s session was over - and as I'll reveal in my next article.
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