Chapter 4 Using Improv to Develop Leadership Excellence

Don Waisanen

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Chapter 4 Using Improv to Develop Leadership Excellence

Don Waisanen
Don Waisanen

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This chapter is in the book Improv for Democracy

107Chapter 4Using Improv toDevelop Leadership ExcellenceI’ve run a class called Improv for Leadership for many years with students in Executive Master’s in Business Administration and Master’s in Public Administration programs. There’s always a great deal of tension in the room when I enter on the first day of class. Although this has changed in recent years, topics like improvisation have not traditionally been under the purview of educational curricula. To break through these barriers quickly, I have the students up on their feet and engaging in the “Working with Change” exercise described in box 1.1 as soon as possible. All they have to do is say the numbers one, two, and three back and forth to each other as fast as they can. That’s it. Yet most students go into their heads, slow down for fear of making mistakes, exhibit nervous laughter, start judging themselves and their partners for not doing this exercise well, or find other ways to sabotage themselves.In my debrief, I like to highlight that they are all students who have, to this point, passed graduate courses in subjects like accounting, finance, and statistics, but for some reason they can’t count the numbers one, two, and three back and forth to each other well. What does this experience prove? To put it squarely, there’s a knowledge and performance gap that formal education has failed to provide them, in improvising in real time, managing the unexpected, and leading adaptively—all skills that the class will address. What’s most stunning, however, is how much alignment exists between improvisational training and the most supported ideas about leadership.There’s a lot to be said about the subject of leadership. A Google Books search on “leadership” returned an estimate of 191,000,000 hits. It’s no

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107Chapter 4Using Improv toDevelop Leadership ExcellenceI’ve run a class called Improv for Leadership for many years with students in Executive Master’s in Business Administration and Master’s in Public Administration programs. There’s always a great deal of tension in the room when I enter on the first day of class. Although this has changed in recent years, topics like improvisation have not traditionally been under the purview of educational curricula. To break through these barriers quickly, I have the students up on their feet and engaging in the “Working with Change” exercise described in box 1.1 as soon as possible. All they have to do is say the numbers one, two, and three back and forth to each other as fast as they can. That’s it. Yet most students go into their heads, slow down for fear of making mistakes, exhibit nervous laughter, start judging themselves and their partners for not doing this exercise well, or find other ways to sabotage themselves.In my debrief, I like to highlight that they are all students who have, to this point, passed graduate courses in subjects like accounting, finance, and statistics, but for some reason they can’t count the numbers one, two, and three back and forth to each other well. What does this experience prove? To put it squarely, there’s a knowledge and performance gap that formal education has failed to provide them, in improvising in real time, managing the unexpected, and leading adaptively—all skills that the class will address. What’s most stunning, however, is how much alignment exists between improvisational training and the most supported ideas about leadership.There’s a lot to be said about the subject of leadership. A Google Books search on “leadership” returned an estimate of 191,000,000 hits. It’s no

You are currently not able to access this content.

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