Back in January of this year, Barack Obama tossed out an aside at a coffee talk with a couple dozen senior citizens in Indianapolis, an aside that was probably lost on most of the audience listening in person: If he got elected, he and his team were going to re-design the White House web site to become more of a utility for citizens. I pointed out at the time what a brilliant initiation this was, with implications related to technology, jobs creation, art and design, and citizen activism, to name a few of the themes that could be explored as a result of it.
In yet another example of how the Obama administration will use the internet to put the principles of improvisation into play, the people that brought us a truly gamechanging campaign site (and are no doubt already hard at work on the White House web site re-design) have rolled out www.change.gov, a utility that connects people with government in new and productive ways.
Improvisation principles at play in Change.Gov.
ENVIRONMENT. As Viola Spolin used to say, if you act on the environment, the environment will act on you. The ‘environment’ for Change.Gov is much friendlier and more inviting than a typical government site. Which means that people are more likely to engage with it (’the environmment acting on’ its authors) The clean, cogent, artful design of the site presents a huge contrast with a typical government web site. Take a look…
SMALL IS SIGNIFICANT. Improvisers learn not to over-reach for big moves or big jokes, but to let their performance evolve from the events that occur organically in the scene. A particularly potent move can be to elevate a little idea or aside to prominence, like the little robot Wall-E becoming the most animated character on the planet Earth. The air bag sensors in automobiles that are sensitive to passenger weight, for example, came from a castoff little experiment at the MIT Media Lab whose only commercial application, until it was spotted and adapted by Honda engineers, was as part of a prop in a Penn & Teller magic show. In the improvisational sense, it is significant that Change.Gov’s stated mission is to make things ‘a little bit better’ for our children. This is not only more realistic and achievable, it honors all contributions, all ideas, and acknowledges their importance to the mission. Stopping global warming? That’s an overwhelming, daunting, super-human task requiring super-human effort, and you’ve got company coming over for dinner. But making things a little bit better? Everyone can do that. A little less gravy on those potatoes? Good move.
AGREEMENT. In casting its ensemble, the new administration has been ultra-quick to send signals that there are no vendettas in play–that loyalties to a shared objective transcend personal or political loyalty. Joe Lieberman keeps his chairmanship. Hillary Clinton looks like she’s coming aboard. Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner is apparently more conservative than Obama on economic issues. It is, as Lincoln described his own cabinet, a team of rivals. Obama understands that his job is not to sway or strong-arm other folks into his way of seeing things, but to synthesize two distinct points of view into a third, shared point of view, which then paves the way for productive action. Finding agreements that bridge disparate viewpoints and desires which may seem, on a cosmetic level, to be at odds with one another, is the improviser’s job.
LISTEN! Improvisers use suggestions from the audience to kick off a performance, and so does the Obama team. Listening, to the Obama team, is not just lip-service, and it is not just about reading poll numbers. It extends beyond cosmetic data, to the more emotional and meta levels of communication that come about through conversations and the sharing of stories. From conversations and stories come themes that inspire and inform the performance. The ability to listen is one of Obama gifts as a politician, and if Change.Gov is any indicator, it will be one of the many gifts he and his band of able improvisers bring to his administration.
Tags: Administration, Agreement, Environment, Improvistion Principles, Listen, Listening, Obama, Significant, Small, Viola Spolin, web site, White House