The extraordinary improviser and improv theater teacher, Paul Vaillancourt, gave me a list of sayings compiled and passed around the improv community over the years. Legendary teachers Mick Napier and Del Close get some of the credit, though the exact origins of most of these are as hazy as the roots of any folk wisdom. Here are a few of the sayings from what I call ‘Vaillancourt’s List’, with my comments following. As you go about your business, keep these concepts in play:
When the original idea starts repeating itself, the scene is over. The mandate of the improviser is to help the scene evolve. The great basketball player Bill Russell said he knew it was time to quit playing the game when every play gave him a sense of deja vu. He was talking about changing his career, but this bromide holds true for smaller scenes as well. When you begin your Monday morning meeting with a review of the previous week’s business, the meeting is over when the previous week’s business comes up for a second time.
Start in the middle. It is perfectly okay to begin your Monday meeting with a screening of your brand’s freshest online media.
The rule of threes is inflexible. If something is done twice, it must be done a third time. If you hold two Monday morning meetings, you must hold a third.
Remember give and take. In improvisation, ‘giving’ is the art of offering something (known in the parlance as a ‘gift’) to your scene partners that they can build upon. Initiating a scene with the line, ‘Dude, thanks for coming’ is not much of a gift. Initiating a scene with the line, “Dude, welcome to the Big Lebowski Fan Club.” is good giving. In business, initiating a scene with the line, ‘Thank you all for being here today.” is a worn cliche that does not give your scene partners or your audience anything to hang their hats on. Initiating that same scene with the line, “Lebowski Limited exists to make people happy.” is better. Good improvisers ‘take’ just as skillfully as they give. This means doing something with what one has been given so that the scene continues moving in a productive direction. It means ‘yes-anding’ your scene partners. “That’s good.” is an example of a response that does not take from the line before it. “Well alrighty then, show me the happy.” is an example of how an improviser might take, or yes-and, the ‘Lebowski Limited’ line. The most basic, most foundational, improvisation exercises are grounded in the concept of giving and taking.
Recognize the space, own it, use it, and make it yours. How many times do we ignore the space we’re in? So much of business is conducted in familiar environments — the conference room, the office, the restaurant, the convention floor — that if we do not ‘make the space ours’ we (and our brands) will get lost in the neverending sameness of it all. This is true of PowerPoint presentations, when we let the presentation shine its light on us, instead of the other way around. Maintain your vital human presence in the room. It is also true of digital space, which is a big blank canvas until we put our brands, our networks, into play. It is true of every scene we are in. Understand the space you’re in. Define it. Work it.
Adopt, adapt, improve. If there is a better way to describe what improvisation has in common with business in the Networked World, I have not heard it. This is a beautiful mantra. Scratch these words your desk with an Exacto knife. Write them on random white boards. Take down that ‘Hang In There, Baby’ poster, and have an artist friend paint this phrase in its space.
Tags: Bill Russell, Coaching, Del Close, Environment, Improvisation Sayings, Mick Napier, Networked World, PowerPoint, Teaching, The Big Lebowski, Vaillancourt, Wisdom, Yes And