Applied Improv Concept: "It's Jazz."
My musical improv team, Redshirts, creating jazzy, improvised excellence in a song form called a fugue.
Dan Wieden, part of the two-person team that created the Nike slogan, “Just do it,” died in October, 2022. The New York Times obit had this quote from him:
“Excellence is not a formula… Excellence is the grand experiment. It ain’t mathematics, it’s jazz.”
Yes, Widen, yes! Managers can help their teams build trust by using active listening, teamwork, problem solving, emotional intelligence—like they’re a troupe playing jazz.
How do manager helps their team get to that jazzy place?
Trust. The core of collaboration is trust and jazz is about great collaboration, active listening, teamwork as well as supporting each player when it’s their time to shine.
How do you get to trust?
Applied improvisation exercises utilize the same core elements of jazz: saying “yes, and” building upon what’s being done/played/sung, active listening, collaboration, adapting, trust, and support the team.
Try “Counting”
A deceptively simple applied improvisation exercise that you can use with your team to build trust called “Counting,” also called “Numbers.” This is an excellent game to help with teamwork; whether the group is counting to 5 or 20, it takes so much trust to listen to each other and jump in and make an offer; to share space, and to contribute. (This game can also cause frustration, especially if a team lacks trust and/or can’t get to the required number. Best used with an experienced facilitator to debrief.)
Here is a definition of the game from Improv Canada (with edits by me): Have the team stand in a tight circle, shoulder to shoulder. (This game can also be done in a Zoom room.) The team looks down (or closes their eyes) and counts to 21 (or 5 or 20) by having one person at a time randomly contributing one number. There is no pattern to it, you’re not going “around the circle,” and team members are expected to contribute the next number when appropriate (they may, for example, say two numbers in a row if the need is there). If any team member speaks at the same time, the team has to start over from one.
How does your team trust everyone to contribute, to share space, to listen? Use this game and see what happens.
If you try “counting,” let me know in the comments!