Noticing

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My challenge to myself during April is to notice more - to really be present and notice what’s happening around me.

Improv for Small Business

At a small business networking meeting I introduced the principles of improv theatre. It became clear to me that improv, and other creativity activities, enables us to make the subconscious conscious.

Here are the key points from the workshop:

• Successful businesses are agile and creative

• Improvising means combining your existing skills and knowledge with the resources at hand and an immediate need for something to happen

• When things don’t go to plan we may need to improvise

• Improvisation is a skill anyone can learn and is governed by a series of rules

• Useful improv principles for small business include:

Accept offers: say “Yes! And…”

Be present: attentive, alert, curious

Do something: act, start anywhere

Be average: excel by not trying too hard

Make mistakes: take risks

Let go: be open, not attached, to the outcome

• Using the principles of improv enables you to be more spontaneous

• Being spontaneous enables you to be open to new ideas, creativity and innovation

And what small business wouldn’t want that?

More ‘Yes, and…’ insight

Accepting offers - saying “Yes, and…” is fundamental to improv. Without it there is no action, no progression. When applying this principle in business and organisations, the criticism is often that many ideas are not worth accepting. In other words, (”yes…) it’s OK in improv (”but…) not at work. In trying to shift the mindset from ‘Yes, but…’ to ‘Yes, and…’ I came across this explanation by Robert Lowe in his book Improvisation,Inc.

‘Yes’ is about acknowleding. Letting the other know that they have been heard. It doesn’t presume agreement. ‘And’ is about addition, rather than substitution.

Works for me.

This is why I love improv - ‘Frozen Grand Central’

This Improv Everywhere stunt is great fun. While it’s been replicated in dozens of cities throughout the world, it hasn’t yet been done in Melbourne. This would be great at Southern Cross Station at peak hour. Where do I sign up Melbourne improvisers?

And when you’ve finished watching it go here to find out more about how it was done and some agent reports.

Noticing

I wonder if people in organisations are so focused on what they are doing that they are too busy to notice what’s happening.

And does it matter?

This week I was talking to a client about 3 - 5 year planning. I suggested that anything further than one-year planning was a nonsense. Actually I believe that all but simple planning is a nonsense. I can plan what to have for dinner tonight, and then go shopping with intent. Some people I know can even plan meals for a whole week. I’m not that advanced! Alternatively, I can poke my head in the fridge and the pantry, open a bottle of wine and improvise with what I’ve got. Presupposes some basic skill in cooking, yes - but you get the gist. I can also plan a holiday. Work out where and when I want to go, make bookings and start crossing days off the calendar. Or I can be spontaneous. Maybe I won’t get the holiday I imagined: I will be surprised, probably. Plan for my organisation’s response to climate change though? Give me a break! Beats me how rational humans, even scientists, who scoff at something like astrology can put the same faith in strategic planning. It’s all guesswork. Even if it’s a ‘best’ guess, what does that mean? So what should people do instead of all that time-wasting planning? I think they should do six things:

1. Stop doing and start noticing 
Make space to notice what’s going on - within yourself, around you, in your family, within the organisation, in the world. As humans, we are innately good at noticing - maybe we’ve lost the ability by being too busy.

2. Let go of needing to be right
We can often only know what ‘right’ is on reflection. Analysis of options, multi-criteria analysis and all other approaches to identifying the right, or even the best, option do no more than waste more time. Do something. If it works do more of it. If it doesn’t, stop it and do something else.

3.  Do - reflect - plan
Rather than plan - do - reflect, or even worse plan - do - plan - do, (leaving out any reflecting, or noticing) or worse still plan - plan - plan…

4. Set a strategic compass (hat tip to Stephen Shapiro)
Rather than a strategic direction that presupposes a straight line, a strategic compass sets the general course and enables us to manouvre within that course and respond as opportunities arise.

5. It all depends on your point of view 
Be inspired, be challenged (and challenge others), have fun, discover, experiment, set self-imposed boundaries to encourage creativity - look at your world through the eyes of others and notice what you see.

6. Identify your organisation’s premise - what underpins your story?All movies have a premise (the idea that inspires the story) - often an open-ended question or statement: What would happen if…?  From Wikipedia: Most premises can be expressed very simply, and many films can be identified simply from a short sentence describing the premise. For example: What would happen if a lonely boy meets an alien; What would happen if a small town is terrorized by a shark; A small boy sees dead people. So what premise inspires your organisation’s story?

Need a laugh? Watch this

Dedicated to my fried Andrew Rixon, check out this TED video on juggling. It made me laugh out loud. I think I need more of that.

A few random thoughts from Banff

The AIN (improv) conference in Banff was a source of many ideas and connections. Here’s just a few.

• Ecoductions - introducing yourself using place as the focus; a way to avoid the trap of defining yourself based on what you do and to revisit the way the environment shapes who we are.

• The Medici Effect - intersectional innovation: bringing together diverse perspectives to the centre. This is one of the ways the Banff Centre helps people discover their leadership potential. Practically, it means bringing art to the centre - sculpting clay, singing, movement, improv, being in the environment - as ways to discover personal truths about leadership.

• From ‘de-storyation’ to ‘re-storyation’: “Just as clear cutting of forests leads to deforrestation, our culture has also been devastated by the loss of storytelling.” (Richard Stone). Story seems to have lost some credibility over the years. Re-storyation is about rediscovering the power of story in our personal and professional lives.

• Alistair McIntyre: “I can’t answer the question what am I to do till I answer the prior question of what am I a part.” via Nick Nissley, Executive Director, Banff Centre.

• Strategic ambiguity - allows space for…anything really.

• Notice your first thought and act on your second. (Patti Digh & David Robinson) In other words, be pro-active rather than re-active. Slow down.

• Also from Patti & David: Wicked problems and tame solutions… When wicked problems are unearthed, deal with them, rather than impose a tame solution. Tame solutions provide immediate gratification but don’t effectively deal with the wicked problem which will re-emerge.

• Do one less thing - thanks to Johnnie Moore for again reminding me how powerful this can be.

The Improvised Life

Today I did a workshop with David Matthew Prior at the improv conference in Banff. He introduced us to three principles for living an ‘improvised life’:

1 - Take a chance

2 - Effort over effect

3 - Sing your self

This story from my friend Geoff Brown epitomises all of these.

… through a bit of improv I managed to reframe a very negative mindset this morning. I had Kinder duty and months ago agreed to come in and play some kiddy songs for the group. Woke this morning with a very croaky voice and unable to sing. Ingrid suggested I pull the pin but decided to “accept the offer” … “throw out the plan” … just do something.

At 11am Sue (Kinder Teacher) assembled the mob of 4 year olds on the mat and introduced me with my guitar. I said “Hi Kids … I lost my singing voice last night and it’s time have some fun! At that point I had no idea what I was going to do next … so I just “did something”.

I drew on some inspiration from the Wiggles, last week’s Crowded House concert and my trust in be spontaneous. Here’s what I did:

1st … I asked the group if anyone had seen my pet Dinosaur? “No!” they all shrieked. After some banter and laughter I convinced them that it was hiding inside my guitar.

2nd … I said “We had better wake him up and to do this we all need to sing … can you help me out?” … “Yeesss!” they all cheered. At this point I was away and had them in the palm of my hand.

Every step (for the next 15 minutes) was completely improvised and spontaneous. I was completely present … responded to all offers … and when faced with the unknown I just trusted my instincts and “did something”. I also “let go” of where the gig might end up and celebrated my many mistakes (including poems that didn’t rhyme and stories that made no sense) with the kids. In fact the mistakes ended up being the funniest moments.

As for the dinosaur inside my guitar, one child asked “Is your pet dinosaur awake?” I had no idea how to respond so I pretended to fall asleep myself. I began to snore. The kids were wondering what to do. The Kinder teacher finally “got it” and said to the kids “I think we better wake Geoff up” … 1 … 2… 3… “Wake up Geoff!”

As in Open Space … it’s over when it’s over. They applauded … I took a bow.

On my way to Banff

I’m at LAX waiting for a connecting flight to Calgary then on to Banff for the improv conference - a highlight of my year for sure. It’s always fun to hang out with improv types and I also learn lots. Looking forward to it - and also at least two other Aussies will be there this year - Andrew Rixon and Christine Carlton.

Which one?

My friend Fiona in Indonesia asked me if I could only attend one conference, what would it be? In fact, I think she actually asked which one was the most useful - I can’t remember that well cos, like my previous post, we were exploring the workings of the world with the aid of a particularly fine bottle of McLaren Vale cabernet sauvignon.

I pondered the Asian Facilitation Conference I attended this year, but as good as it was, it doesn’t quite match the annual Applied Improv Network Conference. This year it’s in Banff and I am really looking forward to it. My friends Andrew Rixon and Christine Carlton are making the trip. It will be good to have a couple of Aussie mates. And I’m also looking forward to catching up with others I’ve met over the years at annual improv conferences.

So why are they so good?

They’re smallish (about 100 or so) which suits this introvert - and like the Annual Open Space on Open Space Conferences (next year it’s in San Francisco) I can hear from, and talk with, people I might never ever meet if I stayed here in Bells Beach. Sure, I can read blogs and books - but nothing beats meeting, and learning from, real people.