Can Business Solutions be Found in Improvisational Comedy? (Opinion)

“Every act of communication is, in some way, an act of translation.”  Author and translator Gregory Rabassa offers this insight, as shared by comedian Chris Bliss is his recent TED.com talk titled “Comedy is Translation.”

And improvisational comedy isn’t just for the clichéd extroverted funny-people. In fact, the introverted quiet-thinkers will surprise you in astonishing ways. I think comedy transcends as it translates, which is perhaps why so many companies are merging this art form with business thinking.

In the world of improv, there are three core rules:

• Yes, and… Yes, and… means that you accept whatever is offered to you. Character, location, story line – it doesn’t matter. Your response is Yes, and… then you simply add to what you are given.

• Pay attention, listen, stay in the moment! You can’t plan anything. You can’t control anything. You just have to see where the scene leads you. And the best way to do that is by listening to what you are given. Focus on what you are offered, not on what you want to say.

• Trust. You have to believe in yourself, in your partner, and in the scene. Trust that something magical will come to you when you need it. Trust that your scene partner will set you up for success. 

Applying these rules in the business world brings many benefits.  Improvisational techniques help you:

• Create executive presence. Being confident and comfortable on the business stage takes deliberate practice. Executive presence is as much about finding your voice as it is about how you use it.

• Share compelling stories. Storytelling is a nuanced art. It’s the packaged content of voice and executive presence. And it is quite possibly the center of the human experience. That is why organizations all over the world look to storytelling as the most promising tool for sustaining organizational culture.

• Increase divergent problem solving skills. As the scene develops, and you have no idea what you will do next, you become much better at divergent problem-solving (when there are multiple right answers). Often in business we get stuck looking for the one answer, when in fact there are several best answers.

• Understand exposure to risk. You basically have a free pass to mess up and nobody will care; it just doesn’t matter. The pressure is removed if we don’t feel we can fail. Error is endlessly diversified. 

• Maintain a sense of humor. Let’s face it, life is serious, business is serious, and the whole world is serious. It can be rather daunting.  We need to embrace a sense of humor in order to balance out all of life’s seriousness.

I think maybe it’s OK to be hysterically funny every now and then. And just to prove this point, I pulled four cards at random from “The Storymatic” (a little helper-tool I use when facilitating Improve Thru Improv workshops). Our character is a slowpoke video game tester, and our story line is a 3 a.m. phone call about a box of kittens. I think we can have some fun with that! 

Chris Bliss ends his TED talk with a challenge: “Take a little time each day to practice thinking funny … because you might just find the question that you’ve been looking for.”

How are you translating your world?

Stacey Mason is the owner of Mason On Leadership, and uses insight, perspective, and humor to move people towards greater self-awareness and thought leadership. More information is available at masononleadership.com.