Episode 65: What is Improv and How it Can Transform Your Company Morale
Happy Wednesday, improve it! Fam! Thanks for tuning back in. We’re so excited to drop this episode and chat all about improvisation and how it can improve your company morale. There’s a lot to unpack from the actual definition of improv and how it relates to your company, to how it can transform company morale, and even a tangible exercise on how to use improv today to boost team spirit, collaboration, and connectivity. We can’t wait for you to listen and implement these actionable steps today!
Connect with Erin:
About the Host: Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
Episode 65 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Here is one of our biggest beliefs at improve it! And something that I truly believe improv helps in general. When people take off their hypothetical masks at work, not the ones that are protecting us from a global pandemic, but the hypothetical masks that we wear when we feel are uncomfortable, or we need to shield ourselves from being vulnerable. When those masks come off, people start to become their true, authentic selves, and improv helps those masks and those barriers come off. And when people start to show who they truly are and show up authentically, they then feel like they can share ideas and they can collaborate. And when those ideas are actually heard, oh my God, productivity runs wild. And we all know what happens when that happens. Productivity soars and organizations and the people within those organizations thrive.
Erin (01:07):
Are you a leader or change maker inside of your business organization or corporation? Are you looking for new, innovative ways to drive morale through the roof? Are you looking for fun and exciting icebreakers, team-building exercises and activities that will foster team growth, friendships, loyalty, and completely transform your organization from the inside out? Have you been searching for a fun and unique way to create change instead of this same old drab, boring leadership books and icebreakers that aren't actually working? Hi, I'm Erin Diehl, business improv edutainer, failfluencer, and professional zoombie who is ready to help you improve it. My mission in life is to help you develop teams and leaders through play, improv and experiential learning. In this podcast, we will deep dive into professional development, team building, effective communication, networking, presentation, skills, leadership training, how to think more quickly on your feet and everything in between. We have helped everyone from fortune 500 companies to small mom and pop shops transform their business, their leadership, and their people through play. So grab your chicken hat. We are about to have some fun, welcome to improve it! The podcast!
Erin (02:42):
Improve it! Family. We are so excited to give you today's episode all about improvisation and how it can improve your company morale. By we, I mean, me and the team behind the scenes here at the improve it! Podcast. So we have so much to discuss team in today's show from the actual definition of improv, to how it relates to your company, to how it relates to company morale, and even a tangible exercise on how to use improv today. I mean today to boost morale, collaboration and connectivity. So let me just start off with this. All right improve it! Fam. This is a personal story we're going to get real. So improvisation was something that used to scare the living crap out of me. I'm not even joking. This may come as a shock to you because I am so subtle. But it really did scare me.
Erin (03:53):
I grew up as an actor, believe it or not I sang, high school show choir. Okay. and I also danced my entire life and I always had a script right. With every single thing I was doing, whether it was choreography, whether it was a musical number, whether it was actual lines of dialogue. I had this script and this also may come as a shock. I am type a and a control freak. I'm working on it. Okay. Recovering perfectionist and a recovering control freak. But in my early twenties, I decided to give improv a try and I would be lying to you if I told you that I didn't walk into each class with butterflies in my stomach, sweaty armpits, and feeling like I was ready to vom. Okay. I mean, I was so used to the control of a script of choreography of knowing what I was going to do next.
Erin (04:57):
And it took me so many classes and so many failed. I mean, shows that I really stunk up the place for me to get over this fear. Some may call it exposure therapy if you will. So whenever I say this word, improv, to leaders or teams, people start to get what I like to call the ick factor. Now, what is the ick? And it helps if you say it just like that, okay. It's that feeling where your armpits get really sweaty. And you're like, wow, I need to apply a very strong antiperspirant. And you just feel so achy in your own skin. The point of improv, my friends is not to embarrass you, but it is to make you comfortable with the uncomfortable. That ick factor over time starts to subside. Let me help you reframe improv before we start in a different way. We are all improvisers.
Erin (06:08):
You are improvising day in and day out. For example, that conversation that you had with your kids this morning, that was improvised. That team meeting that you led this afternoon, improvised. Sure you may have had an agenda then, but within that agenda was a lot of improvisation. That crucial conversation that you had in a one-on-one you best believe my friends that you were thinking quickly on your feet in improvising in that one. Right? So when I start to describe and tell you about this word improv, I want us to take those icky feelings and just put them down. Okay. Right now, if you're feeling like, okay, I'm listening to this, I'm going to be a little nervous. Nope. Take that ick factor. Put it aside because life is improv. We are constantly improvising. It's just not labeled improv. I've noticed that when this word comes up, automatically people think, oh my gosh, I'm frozen.
Erin (07:23):
I've lost a script. What do I do? I can't think, but in those moments, that's when the magic actually happens. So my goal today is to help you understand this magic. So you can use it in your day today, not only with your teams and with your organization, but in your life. So let me start by giving you the proper definition. And I can literally say this definition with my eyes closed in my sleep. I might even like right before I go, I might even be just like reciting it to like write my last breath improvisation because I know it by heart. So here is the actual definition of improvisation. Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking, and reacting of making and creating in the moment in the response to one's stimulate and environment and inner failings. Thank you Wikipedia so much for that definition, that's the actual definition given to you from the Wiki itself.
Erin (08:28):
However, in my personal opinion, improv cannot be defined on paper. It is inexperience. It is a feeling. It is something that you have to experience and feel in order to receive the benefits from it is a magical teaching tool that takes individuals and creates one cohesive ensemble. It's like doing a ropes course and yoga for your brain at the same time. And it becomes addictive, it becomes something that you want more of because you want that rush. That feeling, that high. So improv is a drug. No, I'm just kidding. Improv is an art form and there are thousands upon thousands of hours of practice that strong improvisers have put into motion to make it look so easy on stage. So I did most of my improv training in Chicago, which is the Mecca of improvisation. So there are so many schools of thought when it comes to improvisation, there is short form improv, which are game based, improv sets similar to something that you would see on whose line is it any way.
Erin (09:54):
And if you haven't seen that show highly recommend, but there's short little games where you're making up things on the spot, you know, the rules, you know the games and the audience can clearly know the game and the point and give you suggestions and you incorporate those suggestions into the game. So you're really making it up on the spot. Okay. Then there's something called long form improv. And one of the most famous forms of long form improv is called the Harold. And the Harold is an art form in itself. And it uses a team of improvisers. You usually have seven or eight improvisers on stage, and you have a suggestion, one suggestion from the audience. And from that one suggestion, the team has to create this Harold, which is a 30 minute improvised set. I can literally do an entire show about the Harold and its form because it is so interesting.
Erin (10:55):
And if you watch a long form improv set, you may wonder how in the world they're coming up with a 30 minute show based on one suggestion from the audience. And when you watch a Harold from the viewpoint of an experienced improviser, you see the form come to life. You notice the opening segment, you notice the beats, the repeated beats, the end date, anybody else viewing as an audience member may be perplexed. And thinks, Hey, that is scripted. There is no way that they're coming up with this material on the spot, but after you train in this art form, you can see how the form itself brings the show to life and how it creates pure magic right before the audience's eyes. And here is a very fun fact for you all Seinfeld fans out there. If you actually study the Harold, you can go back and watch any Seinfeld episode.
Erin (11:53):
And it is a Harold. It's amazing to witness and watch. So there are two forms of improv, short form and long form. And within that, there are many different improv theaters and many different schools of thought when it comes to improv itself. Okay. So I have trained at all of the schools in Chicago, our improvisers have as well. And what we do at improve it! Is take these many different forms and fundamentals and lessons, and we apply them in a professional setting. So we have 22 improv professionals at improve it! And like I said, they are all trained in the various schools of improv comedy. And they all have some type of corporate experience because they have to really be able to see the two worlds and marry the two worlds together. So as you can imagine, recruiting for this role is so easy. You just find a haystack and you search very, very meticulously for a tiny, tiny needle, and that's our recruitment process.
Erin (13:00):
But on a real note, I am so proud of the team that we have and the family we have at improve it! They are also the improve it! Family and literally they are some of the best human beings on this planet. They're so kind and empathetic and energetic and loving. And we always say that the traits of a great improviser make up the traits of a great human and it is so true. I'm so thrilled with a family that we have internally at improve it! But what I want to talk to you about is how this relates to you and to your company. So how do we take this art form and apply it to your company or your team or your organization? It is a fascinating thing. And I'm going to spill the beans for you here today. So like I said, there's so many rules and sayings in improv that are so applicable to the business world.
Erin (13:55):
So for example, if you've heard of improv, you have most likely heard of the rule, yes and. So, yes, the end means you postpone judgment to let everyone ideas be heard and to help individuals collaborate more effectively with their teams. Then there is the rule that created the failed it! Podcast, RIP, but y'all are still with me now, no longer failed it! Fam. Now the improve it! Fam, but that rule is there are no mistakes, only gifts. And what that means on stages. Anything that happens on the stage is not a mistake. It becomes a part of the scene. So the same can be applied to business. If we look at our mistakes as mistakes and not opportunities to learn, we will just be stifled in our innovation. It takes allowing these mistakes to happen and seeing them as opportunities for growth to allow change and innovation to occur.
Erin (14:56):
So we've also taken the rules from the stage and applied it to training on soft skills and all soft skills that help make you the best professional that you can possibly be. So we have workshops that range from team building to effective communication, to thinking quickly on your feet, to leadership, to sales, to networking, to presentation skills, all of which use the fundamentals of improvisational comedy to help you be the best you, you can be at work and in life. All right. So let's say for example, that you have two teams who have merged together and you have new leadership for both teams and they're experiencing some issues with collaboration. Well, we would suggest our team building workshop, which focuses on showing up supporting each other and collaborating, right? So let's say you have a group of creatives who are trying to understand how in the world to present in this new hybrid workforce, right?
Erin (16:00):
We would recommend our presentation skills workshop, and we take the fundamentals of improvisation. We break them down into an overarching objective or thesis statement, if you will. And then within each sub section of this, we have improv based activities that are rooted in play and rooted in experiential learning that help your team feel what it is. We want them to feel. We truly believe that by feeling and experiencing things that we want them to feel. They can feel that, and they can feel the right way. So in a hypothetical environment, they feel that feeling. And when it comes time for the real deal, pun intended, that's my last name. They can go out and do that in the real world. We always say, we don't measure the ROI of an engagement. We measure the ROO, it is so hard to measure soft skill development.
Erin (17:06):
It really is so hard. What is the ROO? It's the return on your objective? So we get so specific on what it is that your team needs. What are their challenges? What are their pain points? What do they do on a typical day to day? And then we make a recommendation based on one of our 11 different soft skill training workshops. So that's me, you how we do what we do with improv, how it can help your company. But how does this all relate to company morale? My friends, improv helps your company in the morale because no matter what soft skill you're training on it is automatic team builder. The underlying root of every single workshop is collaboration. We help companies collaborate more effectively, which results in things like more productive and efficient team meetings. More because when that happens, there's more opportunities to connect and to relate to each other on a human level.
Erin (18:14):
Let me say that again on a human level and by helping team members think more quickly on their feet you're also leading them to faster problem solving or leading to solution-based meetings or leading them to be able to take initiative and creative risks and helping them to be the best leaders or emerging leaders that they can be. This is helping your company morale. Your morale goes through the roof when these things are in place, we even have workshops that help with early career development, which is huge and generationally. We know that the gen Z and millennials, I'm an elder millennial, are looking for those opportunities to professionally develop themselves. And as you probably can tell, our professional development and improv as a professional development teaching tool is out side of the backs. All right, this, isn't your normal stuffy professional development training, where you're sitting on your computers, drooling on your keyboard and taking notes and doodles and your notebooks.
Erin (19:26):
Okay. If we're in person, we have people standing in a large circle. There's no technology present and they are constantly interacting with one another, as well as answering questions that help us get back to that overarching objective. On zoom and in our virtual trainings, they are constantly engaged in the chat boxes and in and out of breakout rooms. And this collaboration and connectivity is something that can not be replicated. You cannot see the same workshop twice. The people in it make up that session and you never know what's going to happen. Although we are improvisers and we have everything planned to a T, the workshop participants really take us on the ride with them because we are listening and responding to what their answers are to our questions. So with that said, the participants are also laughing. And I know this sounds mean, but we trick them into learning through laughter.
Erin (20:31):
It is such a magical teaching tool and improv truly fosters a safe space for people to play, learn, and have fricking fun. So truly to take a step back, here is one of our biggest beliefs at improve it! And something that I truly believe improv helps in general. When people take off their hypothetical masks at work, not the ones that are protecting us from a global pandemic, but the hypothetical mask that we wear when we feel are uncomfortable, or we need to shield ourselves from being vulnerable. When those masks come off, people start to become their true, authentic selves, and improv helps those masks and those barriers come off. And when people start to show who they truly are and show up authentically, they then feel like they can share ideas and they can collaborate. And when those ideas are actually heard, oh my God, productivity runs wild.
Erin (21:44):
And we all know what happens when that happens. Productivity soars and organizations and the people within those organizations thrive. So I promised you an activity. And if you've listened to the show before we touched on this in one of our minisodes with Rosie Moan, but I want to dive deeper into it today because it just is all encompassing. So let me give you an example of how we use improv in our workshops. So this overarching fundamental of yes, and is what we use to help teams understand how to brainstorm, how to connect and how to collaborate. So here's how this activity works. So your large team will be split up into smaller teams. And each small team is tasked with coming up with a back to work bash that's right. Fireworks, fireworks, fireworks. I mean, there is no COVID. There is no Delta variant, life is crazy awesome.
Erin (22:48):
Everyone's healthy. We have no risks. It's so fun to plan. And they have to come up with food, entertainment and a location for this party. And everyone on that small team has to share ideas on what can happen with the food, entertainment and location. The caveat is when anyone wants to share an idea, they have to say yes, and to the idea that was just said, so it may look something like this, because this is just me. I'm going to show you my acting chops and play multiple characters. So let's say it's me. And I'm saying, okay, I'm so excited for this party. Beyonce is going to sing and she's going to bring up Blue Ivy and the twins. And they're going to do a remixed rendition of the single ladies. Then we got Susie from accounting and Susie chimes in with yes, and when you walk in the door to Beyonce, everyone receives the puppy.
Erin (23:44):
Okay. Then we got Cheryl from IT and Cheryl says, okay, well when they come in, yes, and when they come in on that puppy has the little bow tie. And inside of that bow tie is a $100 bill. So we've got myself, Susie and Cheryl just like throwing out ideas. Yes. Handing each other left and right. We keep going and escalating this party to come up with so many different ideas. Now are these ideas actually going to happen can beyonce actually show up to our party. Maybe it depends on who we're connected to, but probably not. Right. So what we can do is start to see the themes from this party to see what it is that we want. So this game is going to keep going, right? And let's say, there's a facilitator part of our game here. And that facilitator starts to see who's the most vocal and facilitator walks up to Susie and says, Hey, Susie.
Erin (24:40):
You're not going to say yes. And you're going to say yes, but to everything that's being said, so everybody's yes. And then we got Susie saying yes, but, and this continues and the energy of the group starts to shift. Okay. And the facilitator lets that linger for a little bit and then finally looks for another person who's pretty vocal and whispers in their ear to start saying no, because to every idea being said, so we got Susie saying yes, but I'm yessing anding, we're going to go ahead and give Cheryl the no, because okay, so now we have the larger group. Let's say there's more people in our group saying yes, and. And we've got that. Yes. But, and that no, because person, we start to see the energy of the group start to shift dramatically here. And people start getting angry when their ideas are getting shut down.
Erin (25:31):
So we allow this to go on for a little bit longer until people literally start getting upset, which has happened. Okay. And then we call the game. The takeaway here is how did we feel in the very first round when everyone was yes, anding. So when we ask this question, we hear things like, well, I was coming up with so many ideas, energy was so high. Then we ask, how did you feel when that person started yes ,butting. Okay. And the answers from the group typically range from the energy shifted. I was getting upset because there were supposed to say yes, and my ideas weren't being heard as well. And finally, we asked the group, how did it feel when we brought in that No, because person, people start saying things like we wanted to kick them out of the party or out of the group.
Erin (26:24):
And we really dissect that with the team. All right. And then we take note and we ask them, did you notice the volume of the room? So round one when everybody was yes, anding the volume of the room is at a really loud, noisy level. Then when we had that, yes but person come in, it died down just a bit. And would that no, because it's almost like that like negative tense energy, you start to feel it. Right. So we also like to ask them in this activity, how does this activity remind them of meetings that they've been in, in the past, maybe even in the past week. And we start talking about our, sorry, we start talking about why yes and-ing and not using the word no. Or just shutting down somebody else's ideas is so important for morale, for company morale, for team morale.
Erin (27:20):
So when people start to feel like their ideas were heard, they wanted to share more. That energy was buzzing. When their ideas were shut down, the energy of the group was shut down with it. This is a very, very common game in the improv world. But I wanted to share it with you today, improve it! Fam Because it encompasses a lot of what improv comedy can do for a team or a company to boost team morale. It can cause teams to feel connected once again. And now one thing we started to do pre pandemic is follow up our workshops with e-learning courses that are built in conjunction with the actual workshops because after a two hour in-person session or an hour and a half virtual session, people leave with this energy, this buzz and leaders of those teams want that energy to continue. So we created an e-learning course called improve you as a follow-up to this workshop or any of our 11 workshops.
Erin (28:29):
And it's a DIY course that participants get three times a week for three weeks. That reinforces the key takeaways that they learned in the workshop and then adds in a couple of extra learning elements. So in our in-person workshops, we can host up to a hundred people. And in our virtuals, we can host up to 50. And I'm going to tell you, the time flies, each workshop has about four to six different improv based activities. And you best believe we use the chicken hats in our workshops. What is the chicken hat? Why do you have a chicken hat in your part, your podcast art or in your workshops? I thought you would never asked my improve it! Family. Let me share why the chicken hat is a part of us. It is who we are. And it started years ago when I created the very first improve it! Workshop, I wanted something number one, that was interesting and different. Number two, I wanted to engage the audience throughout the session. So how we use it is whenever you hear the word improv, we used to have this very, that chicken hat you see in the photos passed around from two participants. And whenever they received it, they could accessorize with it. They could wear it on their head, on their arm, as a Fanny pack, whatever. And we would all do the chicken dance. Like you would see at a wedding because it kept people listening. It kept people on their toes. And at the end we crowned an improv chicken champion, given COVID 19, And the fact that we are virtual, we have now stopped with the chicken hats because we can't pass a lot of things. Get all those germy germies. So instead we do the most enthusiastic chicken dancer.
Erin (30:19):
And I'm telling you these chicken dances, aren't like, just like, oh, well, things silly, like your chicken I'm talking about. We get like funky. We do some sways. You can't see me right now. But in my podcast closet, I'm doing like some head nods. I'm getting funky with it. And then the most enthusiastic and committed chicken dancer receives the coveted prize of the improv chicken champion. It gets people number one, comfortable with the uncomfortable number two. It reminds them that just like their jobs improv is something that is constant. You have to be thinking quickly on your feet in order to pay attention and change and grow. So there's a lot of meaning behind it. But just to give you that I wanted to share with you the chicken dance, the chicken hat, because it is a big part of us.
Erin (31:08):
Our workshops bring me so much joy to watch a group of 20 individuals walk out a cohesive group of one is so breathless to watch. It still gives me chills to this day. And I'll never forget when I made the leap to starting improve it. And I would be in front of a room of people. There would always be this moment where I just felt this like presence. And it was almost as if it was saying you were exactly where you're meant to be. And it really gave me chills every time. And I still witness that in our virtual workshops, which we've been in, why am I going to cry? Why am I going to cry here? But I it's my gift to the world is to share the gift of this teaching tool. I know it's what I'm here to do. And I know it's what this team of people at improve it! Are here to do. It's so magical to watch the two hour in-person sessions or the hour and a half sessions over zoom. They truly transform the way that participants and team members connect, the way that they think. It puts everyone the same playing field. So for that period of time, you can have an intern and a CEO in the same room. And every single person, regardless of title is on the same page together. The point is never to embarrass anyone, but it's to get them to collaborate and to function together differently. We never ever, ever intend to embarrass anyone or get them to stand up on stage and say, bark like a dog. We do the chicken dance, but that's together as a group. Okay. It's made for introverts and extroverts and it is not made for the person who thinks they're the funniest person in the room.
Erin (33:21):
Great improv is all about listening and reacting in the moment. So the biggest jokester on your team is going to have a hard time if their goal is to tell one line punches. There's truth in comedy. And it's just beautiful to watch someone who you think may be the most introverted person on your team shine. I have witnessed it time and time again, improv can change your company's morale. And from the warmup of the workshop to the very end, I have witnessed it time and time again, I've watched over 26,000 participants be transformed. And then I've talked to clients after about how that workshop they did brought so much joy. It started those hard conversations and it forced a sense of togetherness for their teams. You feel my passion here because it is my passion.
Erin (34:25):
I am so grateful for the opportunity to share this with you. Please share today's show with someone who needs to hear it. If they have some type of challenge with their team, share it with them because improv can help change the team dynamic the group dynamic. It can change the individuals within that team. And if you've witnessed improv change your team's morale. I want to hear from you. I want you to drop me a note on LinkedIn. I'm Erin Diehl. You can find me the only Erin Diehl at improve it, or you can find me on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl. We'll link to those in the show notes as well. I would love to hear from you, and if we can ever help your team improve it, go to learn to improveit.com. We would love to help your team improve it, whatever it might be. So until next time, improve it fam keep improving. Keep yes, anding, keep failing because the world needs that special. It that only you see you next time.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Friends, thanks for tuning in to improve it. I am so happy you are along for the ride. If you enjoyed this show, head on over to iTunes to leave us a five star review and subscribe to the show. So you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Now, if you're really feeling today's show and you've improved it even just a little bit, please take a screenshot and tag me @keepinitrealdiehl on Instagram and share it in your stories. I'll see you next week, but I want to leave you with this thought, what did you improve today and how will that help your future successful self? Think about it. I am rooting for you and the world needs that special it that only you can bring, see you next time.