Minisode 16: Planning Your Team Off-Site? Why Improv Is Better than any Trust Fall
improve it! Peeps, do you need ideas for creating connection within your team? Would you love it if these ideas included activities that facilitated laughter, spontaneity and cause your team to radiate positivity at the highest possible frequency?
Then you are in the right place because today’s episode is (spoiler alert) includes ways you can do just that using our beloved art form, improv! Today we will discuss:
Why improv is such an awesome teaching tool
Why it’s better than any trust fall
How Erin has used it personally in her own life, and how it’s helped transform her as well as the lives of others
Grab your notebook and pen – these are ideas for your next off-site you don’t want to miss!
Connect with Erin Diehl:
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!
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Minisode 16 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Welcome to improve it. The podcast
Erin (00:11):
Improve it peeps. Oh, I'm gonna give you some words here. And I just want you to give me like your gut reaction. So when I say this word, I just, you just, in that moment, field, whatever emotion to mind, we happy. All right. If you told me that the emotions you felt were that's, I just made wouldn't blame you. Now. I'm not these team activities, or that can be used to create connection with your workforce. However, I do know ways that you can improve pun intended your team, building your team off sites, and anything that you need that needs to create connection, gets people laughing, get them learning, and also gets them to create positivity and radiate positivity at the highest frequency possible within your organization. Spoiler alert, it's improv. I'm sure you're shocked. I am. You're sitting here listing in shock right now that I'm gonna talk about improv.
Erin (01:39):
I also know that it says it in the title, so you're smart humans, but I wanna use today's mini. So to talk to you about why improv is such an awesome teaching tool, why it is so much better than any trust fold that you're going to experience and why I have used it personally in my own life and how it's transformed me and helped me transform others. So let's just start with the definition of improv. And I know this by heart. I'm not looking at the internet. All right, I'm closing my eyes. Here I go. Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking, reacting of making and creating in the moment in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment. And thank you Wikipedia so much for that definition. I literally know that by heart today, improve it pees. I'm gonna share with you what my definition of improv is.
Erin (02:34):
And then hopefully through that lens, that definition you can use it and apply it and see if it's something that you wanna use for your team. So here's my definition. And again, this isn't written down, I'm shooting from the hip, all right, improv it's finest. So improv to me is postponing judgment. I said judgment my mouth, just my judgment it's judgment. So I'm judging myself for saying judgment right now. Improv is also, you're a one space to me is allowing things to happen. It's looking at mistakes as opportunities and gifts, and of really being able to, in that moment, see the positive side and turn it into magic. It is what has helped me helped 28 help 20,000 chicken dance, and also has allowed 28,000 people to walk into a room as an individual and walk out feeling a part of a team, feeling cohesive, feeling like they just connected on a deeper level with Susie and accounting, Bob and finance, all of the people, all right, improv was something that scared the living PTO out of me.
Erin (04:05):
If I'm being honest, prior to starting improve it, I really had to allow myself to let go of control as a type, a recovering perfectionist, you know, found myself really wanting control moment. And to really just this flow, right, this flow state was the moment that I allowed everything I was holding on. So tightly to in my own life to let go and to surrender and to flourish. And I started to see things in my life really take shape. I started to really support my own team. I was working in business development at a recruiting firm. At the time I started to communicate differently and listen more empathetically. I started to think more quickly on my feet and be more present in those conversations. I started to take more creative risks. I started to present in a different way and really think about my audience versus what I wanted to say.
Erin (05:18):
I started to network differently and become across as a more authentic and more present and caring networker. So at, so those six things I just listed were the first six offerings that we created here at improve team building, effective communication, thinking on your taking initiative, creative presentation, skills, networking, those six things were the first six workshops that we created. And then we started listening to our clients, which is, again, something that improv taught me. And we said, OK, what are we hearing that people want more of? So we started working with a ton of intern programs. We created a career 1 0 1 workshop. We worked with so many sales teams. So we created a sales workshop. We worked with tons of leaders and aspiring and emerging leaders. So we created a leadership workshop. And then we also started to hear people wanted to use yes, and as a brainstorming tool.
Erin (06:17):
And they really wanted to be able to set priorities for their team and create a vision for the future of their team. So that was our final workshop, vision setting. Those are 10 things that improv has helped me as well as the people we serve do it's helped them become the highest potential self that they could possibly become. It's allowed them to break down barriers and take away those hypothetical shields and masks that we all wore to work even prior to 2020, and maybe still wear and allow us to be more human and connect and feel, and do, and see, and laugh and play and experience each other as human beings. And not just these people that do work as a robot and transaction send an email or slack message. So I wanted to share that story with you. And I share another sort of anecdotal story that just makes me laugh every time I think about it because have helped so many people and it is not industry specific.
Erin (07:37):
It is not team specific. It doesn't matter what team you are, what industry you work in. We care about what you objectively want to achieve. So we always say, we measure your roo. The return on your objective. One time was early years. I people, mostly men who work on roofs of homes, buildings, what have you. And they really wanted an opportunity for all 100 of them to come together and team build, be together, laugh. I mean, if you think about it, these men are on top of roofs, so they have to trust each other. Right? There has to be an element of trust there already, but they wanted to that. And so called. This was a traveling workshop. So we were in Michigan and Myers and I'm gonna be honest. The energy when we walked into the space was not great. They did not want us to be there.
Erin (08:53):
They were very apprehensive as to what we were going, do, how we were gonna teach them. But as soon dance started happening, as soon warehouse was warehouse, they stored all of their roofing equipment. Oh my God, the magic happened. These roofers got so into the activities. And we end our workshop, our team building workshop with a an activity that requires them to act out a movie trailer. We had so many props from this warehouse, these roofers hundreds of a hundred roofers, right? So like a hundred different roofers grabbed hoses and hammers and tools, and started showcasing us these movie trailers that were so funny, so innovative. And they were, and were playing on a building of help. A if we can help a group of 100 roofers laugh, let go of inhibitions and play. We can help anyone. That's what that story taught me.
Erin (10:20):
And we, as a team, drove back from Michigan to Chicago, just in shock of what we were able to do. We walked into this very arms crossed negative environment, and we changed the tone within two hours to laughter play excitement, high vibe. It was awesome. So know that we can take the most introverted of teams and help them see themselves differently through this beautiful, beautiful tool. So I wanted to be able to tell you that story. And I wanted to share with you that through the pandemic, we, like I said, you know, if you listen to the show, we were completely in person business. We became completely virtual. And now we are back Baba doing a hybrid of the two. I love the combination of both. It's so awesome. And I wanted to share with you some testimonials of clients that we've worked with most recently here in 2022.
Erin (11:21):
So first is supply ABC supply. This was a sales team and it was an offsite for a group of sales professionals who are regional. And this team does a lot of selling contractually. I loved working with Adam who you'll hear from in just a minute. He is one of those leaders, and this is so great part of my job. I get to work with people who care about their people and Adam cares. He cares so much, and he wanted his team of sales associates to be able to network differently, to be vulnerable, to get outside their comfort zones when it comes to prospecting and to feel confident, reaching out to other branch managers and leaders in different markets to gain support and build rapport. So we did our sales training workshop with his team recently in April and Florida. And I'm gonna let him tell you his thoughts.
Adam (12:21):
Hey Erin, this is Adam Bruce with ABC supply company. I wanted to share my experience with improve it. My team was fully engaged and really loved how practical the workshop was moving forward. My team will have a greater understanding how to achieve empathy and true perspective. Thank you so much.
Erin (12:41):
Okay. So you heard from Adam who again is just one of those people who loved his people. And it was a magical time. I remember walking in the room and we actually went to a dinner the night before and got to know the team a little bit. And watching this group of sales professionals really have vulnerable conversation, listen to one another, think differently about the way that they connect with each other. And more importantly with the clients that they serve was awesome. So improv was a tool that was used to connect with the sales team. I also wanna talk to you about another client that I absolutely love. And this is Kelly Burr from lineage logistics, Kelly, and I have known each other for a while. And she actually was one of the I wanna say co-founders or leaders of disrupt HR in Chicago.
Erin (13:39):
She's just a fantastic human being to work for. Kelly is a treat. And to know Kelly is a treat. So we were able to go to Michigan recently to work with her team. And we, this is a team of talent development, talent leaders, talent acquisition, and a newer team to be exact. And we wanted to really get them together to establish some trust, to get them, to collaborate with each other and to get to know each other because they were all hired at different times, but hadn't had that chance to come together and as a team. And so this was their big offsite and opportunity to do that. I'm gonna let Kelly tell you about her experience. Here is Kelly from lineage logistics.
Kelly (14:24):
Hi, all my name is Kelly bur and I am the global vice president of talent acquisition with lineage logistics, my team, and I had the pleasure of having Erin and Christie host an onsite in person event aimed at using improv as a way to increase communication, collaboration and trust with a newly formed or relatively newly formed talent acquisition function. And honestly the outcome was better than I anticipated. I have had several unsolicited pieces of feedback about the golden nuggets that people gain from the event and have heard several terms used that were prevalent in the training. I honestly could not endorse or support, not only the improve it session and the individuals that hosted it, but the methods, the fun and the comradery as a result in my opinion is totally priceless. So I guess you'd consider me a raving fan
Erin (15:16):
And I'd guess you considered me a raving fan of Kelly and her team. It was such a pleasure. And an honor to get to work with her. Her team is fantastic and witnessing their aha moments and moments of just pure connection was something I'll never forget. So these are two offsite that we've had. I mean, we've had so many great opportunities as the world starts to come back together in person in 2022 to connect with people in person. Also, we love working online, but I wanted you to know that it is something that is always an option. And if you can't have improve it, Google improv activities for your team and incorporate them into your offsite. This is in a cell. This is me showcasing to you how magical this art form is. It is absolutely the most accessible, easy, fun, enlightening, empathetic, and exciting team building opportunity that I know that exists, and we just keep refining it and using it and finding ways to incorporate it into more day to day things here at improve it internally and then teach those methods to you.
Erin (16:37):
So here's what I wanna ask you to do. You know, I, I love giving you a tangible, if you're offsite, if you're offline and you wanna be off technology, you wanna have your team in person present and connecting with each other in real time use improv. It is a magical teaching tool. There's episodes of this show. If you scroll back through that, give you some little nuggets of wisdom and games that you can incorporate. If your team doesn't have budget, or you just don't have the bandwidth to bring in a company like improve it, find ways to incorporate fun, laughter, levity and positivity into your offsite. It is so important. It will change the game for your team. And just remember this, you could have all the PowerPoints in the world, the fancy Nancy's brochures, all of the words, and perfectly written communication for your team.
Erin (17:40):
But you know what? They're gonna remember how you made them feel. If you can make them feel like they were seen, like they were heard as if they belonged in that room. If you can make laugh, make laugh so hard that they got little tears coming out, the retina, then you have succeeded. If you can let them with a smile on their face and as if their cup has been filled, that is what an offsite is. And that's what improv can do for your team. So in core, find some way it's, it doesn't have to be us, but find some way to incorporate it into your next offsite. And I promise you, you will build trust, rapport, and gain the love and support from your team that you're giving to them. I believe in you improve it. Peeps. You are doing wonderful things for the world.
Erin (18:42):
You are changing the lives and the trajectory of your teams. So you know what I'm gonna say? Keep failing, keep improving because the world needs that special it that only you can bring, go out there and do some improv. See you next week. Hey friends, thanks for tuning in to improve it. I am so happy you were along for the ride. If you enjoyed this show, head on over to iTunes to leave us a five star review and subscribe to this 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 at keeping it real deal on Instagram and share it in your stories. I'll see you next week, but I wanna 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.