Play Without the Failure Fetish
What if we’ve misunderstood what AI actually...
How to be AI-literate
Being AI literate means using it for clarity, planning and synthesis, while recognising its limits. It’s about understanding strengths and risks, and keeping human judgement, responsibility and decision-making central.
Join the Anti-Perfectionism League
What happens to you when you make a mistake? Do you have tendencies towards perfectionism? And, if so, what’s a life-enhancing response for dealing with it?
In our improv courses, we’ll explore how mistakes can become creative springboards – not setbacks.
Positive Thinking or Possibility Stance?
The most famous phrase in Improvisation circles is ‘Yes… And’.
It’s a phrase that reeks of positivity. It’s grammatically positive, with a resounding ‘Yes’ chasing away any ‘But’ or a ‘No’.
And yet there are limits to the value of ‘positivity’ alone..
How the world changed from VUCA to BANI…
Suppose you are asked to describe your current experience of the world.
Which words would feature on your list?
There are many improvisational stances which will help answer this question…
Getting your session off to a great start – 58 1/2 ways
Learn how to get your session off to a great start with the Category Cruncher!
And for more unique ideas to get a roomful of delegates motivated, you can purchase a copy of my book – 58 1/2 Ways to Improvise in Training…
When are lessons from improv lessons for life?
If you teach improvisation, how much of what you say to your improvisation students can you say with equal assurance to students in other groups?
Pick up your free copy of LIFEPASS today and learn how context matters!
Life is a story..
Your new story has already begun: how do you want to shape it from here?
Learn more about storytelling with our upcoming Improv in 6 Acts courses running regularly in Oxford!
How will you be reshaping your story?
Creative journeys and the secrets of Improv: A conversation with Ed Smith
Listen to this podcast featuring Anthony Errington & Ed Smith as they chat about their creative and comedic journeys and how learning improv has been inspiring and helping them.
Have you tried this Handful of Reflections?
We’ve been discussing the importance of ending sessions well, and one of my favourite tactics is to facilitate a sharing of personal reflections.
Engage from the start – or face the big switch off!
Online it’s easy for participants to turn their attention elsewhere. If we are all physically together in a room, the audience is likely to sit and listen to a speaker, at least for a while. How do you engage from the start?
Are you a journalist, poet or diarist?
A key characteristic of the Third Wave of improvisation is one where everyone succeeds to some extent. Your creative writing style can be divided into one of three types: journalist, poet or diarist. Which one are you?
What has to happen in an Applied Improvisation workshop or class?
Delighted to announce the waiting list for our popular Inspirational Facilitator online course is now open!
Is Applied Improvisation fun? Yes and no…
‘What about fun?’, I hear you ask.
Does fun matter in the serious context of work? And is fun really at the heart of Applied Improvisation?
What helps learners learn most – what they get right or what they get wrong?
In a previous post I described an improvisation activity for speakers and story-tellers which determines the outcome: The better the player improvises, the better the resulting story.
An improvisation activity for speakers and story-tellers: ‘Fish, Cable, Catapult’
I’m often asked, ‘What makes a good activity in applied improvisation?’. Well, more truthfully I was once asked this once in an interview.
Here’s what I said…
Three steps to banishing apathy and replacing it with rich and useful feedback
Your team has been working hard in a difficult and novel working environment, and you’d like to reward them for their efforts. In your next online team meeting you want to involve them in deciding on a treat.
You ask them for ideas, but it’s a struggle to get them to put forward suggestions..
How to banish ‘Zoom Fatigue’ and bring energy back to your meetings
We’re told that people are getting ‘Zoom Fatigue’, which results in meetings that lack energy and get too little accomplished. If you’re struggling to get what you need from your virtual meetings, it’s useful to know that a well-structured design can deliver results and leave people wanting to come back.
Encouraging constructive conversations online – Virtual Facilitation #6
If you put your participants into breakout rooms, you can’t expect great conversations online to break out automatically. This is where you need to take even more care in an online world than when facilitating at a f-2-f conference or workshop..
Defusing dangerous dogma in improvisation
This week a group of us re-watched, via Facebook, one of the most impactful talks ever given at an Applied Improvisation Network Conference. Pablo Suarez spoke about adapting what we know (i.e. improvisation) to the field of disaster preparedness.
What dogmas do you think can be let go from classic improv-theatre?