By Clemens Rettich, on November 22nd, 2011 
The biggest misconception about improvisation is that it is all about making stuff up… that anything goes.
The reality is that good improvisation, whether it is jazz, classical Indian music, or improv theater, is always grounded in a strong set of rules and guiding principles.
A new improv game for business
The next time you are onboarding a new recruit, here’s a little improvisation I would like you to undertake. The rules:
Confirm that the candidate has the basic skills (and only the basic skills) required to do the job Present the candidate with the current written objectives for . . . → Read More: The Ultimate Business Improv
By Clemens Rettich, on October 6th, 2011 
It’s never what it seems…
We’ve all heard the stories so many times we’ve kind of come to expect them: the stories of celebrities who seem to have everything until the mask slips. Then they seem to have nothing.
Alcoholism, addictions, emptiness, abuse, loneliness, issues with debt, self-esteem, shattered families.
Yet even though we know all that, we still too often find ourselves in a new environment, surrounded by seemingly successful people, feeling a serious case of ‘imposter syndrome’ coming on. Why do we do that? Why do we understand the pains and struggles of our own journeys, and the repeated . . . → Read More: It’s Not What it Seems – Finding Your Confidence
By Clemens Rettich, on August 8th, 2011 
Saying yes is a frame of mind. It is an approach to life, creativity, and leadership.
Say yes until you have to say no. In everything.
Even in sales, it is one of the oldest tricks in the book to get people into a “yes” mindset by warming them up with questions to which “yes” is the most likely answer:
“Hello, are you having a good day?” [good manners usually have us answering ‘yes’]
“Are you looking for a car today?” [of course, that is why we are on the lot]
“Are you . . . → Read More: Improv in the Cubicles: Yes Let’s!
By Clemens Rettich, on August 4th, 2011 
Patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time…
Carrying on a conversation with a customer while preparing their complicated order at the counter…
Calling in sick when you are actually on your way to the beach for the day…
Coming up with a new idea when all around you people are trotting out clichés…
Throughout life we are asked to do more than one thing at once, and be creative about it to boot. To do any of those things successfully requires that we get past the normal ‘grooves’ of behaviour that are our first instincts.
. . . → Read More: Improv in a Suit: What are you Doing? (Dissociation)
By Clemens Rettich, on August 2nd, 2011 
One of the fundamental tactics for success in improv theatre is to use the “Yes and…” approach. This means that instead of rejecting an offer made by a member of your improv team, you accept it and attach the word “and” to move the scene forward. Read more about this and its connection with good management here.
It turns out that not only does the ‘yes and…’ approach make for better teamwork, it actually is a key to authentic authority in the 21st century.
Historically, in the world of top-down hierarchical structures, what was valued in leaders was the ability to . . . → Read More: Yes And… The Root of Authority
By Clemens Rettich, on July 20th, 2011 
We spend our life waiting for cues.
It’s all about trying to get the timing right. We look for cues to speak our turn, to ask for a raise, to lean in for a kiss…
Act too soon, and it sends the wrong signals of pushiness or desperation. Too late and the moment slips by.
Getting it right takes skills they don’t teach at school. It’s one of those things we have to figure out on our own, usually painfully. It takes empathy, good listening skills, confidence, some intelligence, and a fair degree of luck to make our entrances . . . → Read More: Improv in Heels: Exit Game
By Clemens Rettich, on June 21st, 2011 
In the movie Being There, Peter Sellers, in his last major role, plays Chance the Gardener, a dim-witted gardener who through a series of accidents ends up being seen as a sage with answers to life’s deepest questions.
Chance the Gardener [Riding in a car for the first time]:” This is just like television, only you can see much further.”
To get a sense of the dialogue and of the other characters’ desperate desires to hear answers where there are none, read this excerpt at IMDB.
Meaning is determined by the audience. As speakers or ‘broadcasters’ we can try . . . → Read More: Improv in the Cubicles: The Oracle
By Clemens Rettich, on June 2nd, 2011 
“There was never enough bread in the house.”
“She jumped as high as she could, and finally saw what she was looking for.”
“You really should go get that checked out you know.”
Three unrelated sentences; an infinite number of possibilities when combined and used as material for a story.
That is the magic of the creative process where you take a number of deliberately unrelated items and bring them into proximity to see what surprising new options emerge. The author Edward de Bono has made a career out of an approach called lateral thinking that uses this approach . . . → Read More: Improv in a Suit: Three of These Things…
By Clemens Rettich, on May 27th, 2011
If you’re a guy and a loyal boyfriend or husband, you have spent many hours sitting just outside the fitting rooms of clothing stores waiting for your partner to try on clothes. Personally, I’ve never minded this little ritual because those sitting areas are great places to people watch. Except of course for those chambers of Satan that don’t provide seating for the guys. May your knit coordinates wither on the rack.
One day I was sitting and waiting for my wife to reappear in something lovely. I was people watching and pretending to play with my Blackberry. A . . . → Read More: Communication Improv Games: Secrets Endowment
By Clemens Rettich, on April 8th, 2011 
A little girl is taking dinner to her grandmother. A wolf intercepts her and finds out where she is going. The wolf arrives at the grandmother’s house first, eats the grandmother, disguises himself in her clothes, and waits in bed for the little girl. The girl arrives, is a little bit suspicious, impolitely comments on her grandmothers’ appearance, and is promptly eaten. Drowsy after his meal, the wolf falls asleep. A woodcutter arrives, slices the sleeping wolf open, rescues the grandmother and the girl, fills the wolf up with rocks, and sews him up. The wolf wakes up thirsty . . . → Read More: Act Fast! Fairy Tale in 60 Seconds
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