So my buddy Karl and I finally recorded another podcast on the topic of Improv Lessons for the Corporate World. Give a listen and let us know what you think.
You can also find some previous resources at:
Karl’s guest blog on Give Feedback
Rules of Thumb for Improv in Life and Business: Embrace Failure, Reject Fear
Posted in behaviour, communications, creativity, focus, leadership, listening, teamwork
Tagged improv, improvisation, listening, teamwork, theatre, trust, workplace
Ever been in a brainstorming session that doesn’t come up with many ideas, or when brainstorming only comes up with a few ideas? Next time try this: have your session participants brainstorm ahead of their ideas around the topic, whatever it is. They mail you their ideas. You copy and paste it into a word cloud generator. Voila!
Present and validate their word cloud with them as a group, and decide what to do with whatever ideas float to the top.
(Remember: decisions include who does what by when. Otherwise you’re just making a choice that nobody will actually do anything about.)
Now you can avoid group think, and let people be creative on their own, but any convergence (and there usually is more than some) has more credibility.
With a nod to Archie Bunker (“Stifle yourself, Edith!”), a checklist of things you can do to suppress, oppress, and depress creativity. See what I did there?
What do you think is an essential skill for good managers? E-mail me bernie@practicalmanagers.com and share!
