Blog
Three tips to increase beautiful layering in meetings, workshops and conferences
Three tips to increase beautiful layering in meetings, workshops and conferences Clever layering is a hallmark of the excellent facilitator Layering is the idea of having more than one thing going on at one time in a meeting, workshop or conference. For example,...
Why you don’t have to pretend to be a wardrobe
Why you don’t have to pretend to be a wardrobe We are seeing a lot more articles about the use of improvisation in organisations. Much of the action is on the West Coast of the USA, especially centred on Silicon Valley. Although we are seeing more applied...
How our Small Stories add up to a Big Story
How our Small Stories add up to a Big Story The biggest story is our view of the world. We might favour one political party (with their Big Story) because we like the sum of its policies (the Small Stories). Others, might accept the policies without further ado merely...
The Power of ‘I’
The Power of 'I'There is a power in telling a story in the first person. It’s only you who can share this story from this perspective, which gives the appearance of authenticity and means the story cannot easily be challenged. You also know enough about yourself to...
Transports of Delight
A New Improvisation GameMy colleague was inspired to invent a new introductory game for our London improvisation group session the other night. She saw a new electric scooter hire service and fancied giving it a try. So, at the beginning of the workshop, she asked...
What if communication goes right?
Your storytelling is more than just the story
Your storytelling is more than just the story "The art of storytelling is centred on the storyteller's involvement with character and plot. He cannot, in James Joyce's words, sit back godlike and pare his fingernails. He must have an attitude towards the contents of...
Changing the innovation agenda
Moving away from Problem Talk to Solutions Talk How facilitators can move away from problem talk to solutions talk When developing an agenda for a government-backed think-tank event on innovation, in climate risk insurance practices, we were wondering what would make...
Getting beyond the fear when we drop our scripts
Getting beyond the fear when we drop our scripts I’m always glad to see new books about applying improvisation. From a random dip, there’s a lot to like in Jeff Katzman and Dan O’Connor’s ‘Life Unscripted’. I was particularly looking forward to this one as I’ve...
Why it’s important to celebrate risk-taking rather than mistakes or failure
Why it’s important to celebrate risk-taking rather than mistakes or failure It’s in our nature to make mistakes, notably in everyday life. We pour the wrong drink, utter an incorrect word and leave the house without an umbrella. We get unintentionally overcharged, on...
Playing to play – on and off the sports field
Playing to play - on and off the sports field One of my favourite tenets of Applied Improvisation (AI) is 'Play to Play'. It reminds us that most people play most games to win - which, to be fair, is inherent in the nature of many games. Take for example the Cricket...
Big idea from Harvard – Excellent!
Big idea from Harvard – Excellent! ‘Excellence is not the opposite of failure… Excellence is idiosyncratic and cannot be learned by studying failure… ‘ At last! It’s what they call your ‘HBR Moment’. That’s when your big idea gets recognised in an article in the...
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