I love us

By Kat Koppett

Back in the old days of Theatresports NY (now known as Freestyle Repertory Theatre), I had a habit of exclaiming "I love us!" in the middle of rehearsals and meetings. The joy and awe I felt hanging out with a group of such wickedly talented people, just could not be contained. Over the years, as my jadedness has grown, my impulsive utterings have waned. Last month, a client reminded me to shout it again.

I love us!

When I first began delivering improv teambuilding and creativity workshops to corporations, I knew nothing about the world of business. I am not even sure how we attracted clients. After a while, I decided to go to grad school to study Organizational Psychology. I wanted to feel confident I wasn't selling snake oil. I also wanted to have answers for the HR directors (and my parents) who would say, "Well, sure improv is fun. But it is kind of fluffy, isn't it? How do you know it works as a tool in our environment? What proof do you have?"

I left grad school convinced that there was some "hard data" to back up the value of improv. Of course there was. How could I have doubted it? All sorts of studies on creativity, teamwork and motivation backed up what we knew intuitively. What I had gained from my masters program was pretty simple -- the ability to understand business culture better and to speak the language of business more fluently.

The benefits of being familiar with the business world are obvious. It enables us to:

• Speak in a language our clients respond to
• Identify and understand client needs more effectively
• Tailor workshops to specific cultures
• Balance the improv activity with other useful tools
• Benefit from the knowledge and techniques of the wide world of trainers and consultants that live outside our field
• Claim status and legitimacy
• Feel secure that we are "adding value"

But there is a downside to becoming too comfortable with the corporate context. After years of training, writing, speaking and consulting, I find myself more prone to:

• Using language that is more utilitarian or jargon-y than expressive
• Thinking only about those benefits that are tied clearly and measurably to a bottom line
• Taking fewer risks
• Adding more mainstream activities and models to my training courses
• Separating myself from my own creative opportunities
• Forgetting that I am useful to business professionals because I have something different to offer

I was recently reminded of the true value of improv. I was designing a program for a major health care organization. I was pitching our design to the client, using all the right lingo, telling her all of the ways improv could enhance communication and improve creativity and innovation. I told her about some models showing that this made folks more effective, blah, blah, blah…. She listened. She said it sounded great. Then she said, "But we really want to focus on improv. You know, that life is like improv. That it's a performance. That it's fun…" She trailed off questioningly. "Oh!" I said. "Sure, we can do that."

The session went well. I was lucky enough to be co-facilitating with Dan Klein, a fabulous improv colleague and a tremendously skilled coach new to the business environment. Dan wowed them. He took improv to them. He gave improv examples, not business ones. He made fewer links to their work lives than I had learned to do, which let them make more of the links on their own. He trusted they would find value. They ate it up.

Nonetheless, I was terrified. Where was the tie-back? How could they justify this back home? But by the end, the participants shared with Dan how moved and inspired they were. I was overcome with gratitude for him and my clients for remembering to value what I had dismissed. Improv is magic because it nurtures us as creative, connected beings -- not because it increases shareholder profits.

As we embark on this collaborative endeavor and our field continues to grow, I wish for us:

• The ability to be bilingual -- to learn the language of business and continue to speak our own
• The courage to practice what we preach and distinguish ourselves
• That giddy, gleeful feeling at an improv show that prompts us to shout "I love us!"

You can contact Kat at kat@thestorynet.com