Connecting with the moment and the people in it

by educ95si

This was posted on “Improv Connection” LinkedIn group by Paul Levy who is Founder,Director of FringeReview. He describes his experience facilitating a workshop on leadership. This highlights, i think, the very important fact that improv is about noticing what is in the field of now. It is about laughter, making a connection and fun…of course but most importantly, fundamentally…it is about the acknowledgment and non-denial of what is happening right now.

 

Working through misery using Applied Improvisation

– Paul Levy

So, you are the facilitator of a workshop on leadership. A group of managers sit in the room, ready for the session. They look miserable as sin. The company has been in recession crisis and there have been job losses and there’s been uncertainty. They really look demoralised. They really look like they could do with cheering up. Some improv games would SO tickle the funny bones and bring some healing laughter. The brief is to help them become better leaders of change; and there’s plenty of challenging change ahead for the company. They look like they haven’t smiled for weeks…

So here I am – the facilitator… I’m feeling tempted to reach into my improvisation kit bag and “get them” laughing. Now, THAT game always works.. It would be so easy to do. I could shake them out of it. And then the voice inside speaks …

“That misery is theirs and it is sacred. It is there for a reason and it is not yours to so easily and casually tamper with. Do not take their misery away, nor go around it. Work THROUGH it. Even if your feedback sheets at the end are the worse for it.”

Improv and its cult of “yes and” lends itself far too easily in my view to laughter. It’s become a bias in the field of applied improvisation. I am a pretty joyful person, but I also know the value of pain in reflection and learning. In some ways a physical frown is a kind of spiritual smile, especially when it leads to a deeper physical smile of realisation further down the line. Laughter should not be the too-ready default for applied improvisation – it should sit in a more balanced way on the shelf of possibility. Suddenly my traditional improv kit bag feels much emptier and I am now standing in THIS specific context and needing to encounter, not this misery, but THESE people. THESE individuals and THIS UNIQUE SITUATION. Oh, indeed, joy will most likely figure in this. I often find that to be the case. But now we have to step through this misery together, respecting it, acknowledging it, working with it, towards some understanding and practising of the leadership THESE people need in THIS situation. And, of course, the kit bag is put aside as I become an improviser in the room. I lead by example by BEING improvisational in meeting these challenges in the present. A new exercise is invented there and then. Some new thoughts arise linked to a new set of questions. Tears flow. Frowns are further creased. And then, towards the end of the last hour, the dawning light of realisation and the twinkling of a few pairs of eyes. But not all.

And then – a smile…