Posts Tagged ‘Yes And’
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
The most basic concept in all of improvisation is ‘Yes and’. If we are in a scene together and you make a statement, it is my obligation as an improviser to ‘yes-and’ your statement. By ‘yes-anding’ you, I not only agree to your reality, I add to it with perspective of my own. In this way, we can ‘triangulate’ on the problem to be solved, and also bring dimension, and new levels of collaboration to the scene.
The words ‘yes’ and ‘and’ do not have to be spoken literally, of course. It is the spirit of the phrase that matters. A common improv exericise invokes this spirit by having players begin every exchange of dialogue with those two powerful words, spoken literally.
If we are in a scene together and are ‘yes-anding’ one another, by the third line of the scene, it will not be about your reality, or my reality, it will be about our reality. Now we have the ability to work together toward an objective. It is the ‘and’ that makes all the difference. Anyone can say ‘yes’. It might get me a reputation as a being a positive person around the office, but it will not necessarily make me a productive player. (more…)
Tags: communicators, Crazy Town, Dialogue, entrepreneurs, Players, Positive, Productivity, reputation, Sales, salespeople, Scenes, yes, Yes And, yes man
Posted in Additions and Edits, Agreement Principle, Communication, Dialogue, Entrepreneurship, Fundamentals, Games, Objectives, Sales, Scenes | 3 Comments »
Monday, September 15th, 2008
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: (more…)
Tags: Bill Russell, Coaching, Del Close, Environment, Improvisation Sayings, Mick Napier, Networked World, PowerPoint, Teaching, The Big Lebowski, Vaillancourt, Wisdom, Yes And
Posted in Coaching, Environment, Fundamentals, Gifts, Initiations, Scenes | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
(STORY NOTES: When we left my cousin, Rich, he was trying to get the (fictional) ‘MasterPro’ company’s Customer Center to retrieve the SuperChief Pro with Herculon they’d mistakenly delivered to his home and replace it with the SuperDeluxo with Fabulon, the model he had, in fact, ordered.
Nearly three weeks after he’d ordered the product, things are more confused and further from resolution than ever.
Those of you who enjoy the ‘Scream’ movies or novels by Franz Kafka about characters caught in nightmarish bureaucracies in Eastern Europe in the 1920s, are going to love this. Customer Center = Corporate Communists? Now there’s a concept that deserves some dialogue.
Like Kafka, we have assigned algebraic values to the names of the MasterPro characters, who, as you’ll see, are neither masterful nor professional.) (more…)
Tags: Blocking, Conseco Fieldhouse, Customer Service, Denying, Fabulon, GameChangers, Indianapolis, MasterPro, Parking, Rich Kapp, Scenes, SuperDeluxo, Yes And
Posted in Communication, Entrepreneurship, Issues, Listening | No Comments »
Friday, August 29th, 2008
(STORY NOTES: My cousin, Rich, manages Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, one of the best designed and operated athletic facilities of any size that I have ever experienced. Conseco’s architecture combines the intimacy and nostalgia of the old Hoosiers-style high school gyms with the seating capacity, comforts and luxury accommodations expected of modern arenas. Likewise, the Conseco staff expresses both friendly, Hoosier-style hospitality, and the sophistication that is required to manage large and diverse crowds on a regular basis. Like all good designs, Conseco works from the big picture down to the tiniest details.
When Rich wrote me this week to describe a recent unhappy ‘customer service scene’ in which he was a player, I knew to pay close attention. First of all, Rich is a very even-tempered guy. It takes a LOT to agitate him. Second, nearly every customer service experience pales in comparison to Conseco’s, so I knew that for him to write to me about this one experience in particular, it must have been extra bad, and that there’d be a lot to learn as a consequenc. In fact, there is so much to learn that it’s a two-parter. A mini-series of customer misery.
The names of the company, its staff and its products have been changed to protect these goofballs from themselves. Those of you who grit your teeth as a habit may want to go get the mouth guard or pop a couple of sticks of Wrigleys before reading.) (more…)
Tags: , Conseco Fieldhouse, Customer Service, Fabulon, GameChangers, Indianapolis, Rich Kapp, Scenes, SuperDeluxo, Yes And
Posted in Agreement Principle, Branding, Communication, Scenes | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Dear GameChangers:
What are some of the worst things a person can say in a work setting?
All the Very Best,
Lalita Amos
Total Team Solutions
Setting aside the volumes of sexually graphic or suggestive, offensive, uncouth, uninteresting, drunken, gossipy, charmless, and downright stupid things people are capable of saying in a work setting…there are volumes more composed of statements made every day in workplaces the world over that masquerade as helpful but are actually unproductive or counter-productive. These constitute their own category of ‘Bad’. Here are three of the more insidious that come to mind: (more…)
Tags: Behavior, Dear GameChangers, Issues, Productivity, Questions, Yes And
Posted in Dear GameChangers | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
OBJECTIVE: A Heineken.
ENVIRONMENT: A Southwest Airlines 737 going from Salt Lake City to Reno/Tahoe. Full flight. Early evening.
ROLES: My friend Martin Gastanaga and a Southwest Airlines flight attendant.
RULES: Normal commercial airline procedures apply (Martin’s not already drunk, he’s of legal drinking age, etc.)
SCENE: Martin asks for a Heineken. The flight attendant hands him the beer. He offers her a twenty. She doesn’t have change. Without hesitating, without missing a beat, she keeps wheeling her cart up the aisle and says,”This one’s on me.”
What a great gift that flight attendant gave on behalf of the Southwest brand! Think about it. (more…)
Tags: Branding, Brian Lusk, Communications, Energy, Flight Attendant, GameChangers, Gifts, Heineken, Marketing, Martin Gastanaga, Southwest Airlines, Yes And
Posted in Gifts | 2 Comments »
