Don't Believe Everything You Read...

Here's something I had never seen before... at least not in the US.

I was driving down El Camino Real (the Kings Highway, but that's another story) to my workshop in Los Altos last week. I knew that the Residence Inn was near the junction at San Antonio Road, at 4460 El Camino Real (click to enlarge the image).

When I crossed San Antonio, however, I saw that I was in the 2600 block... Look at the San Antonio Inn. The address is 2650.

"What? Twenty more blocks?" I said, with a few f-bombs mixed in...

Then I came to my senses, and did a lap of the block, finding my destination.

Not only is one side of El Camino Real in the 2600 block, while the other side is in the 4400 block - both sides are EVEN!!

Hmmm... don't see that everyday, do ya?

Once again, though, I learned the value of trusting my instincts, rather than following the signs.

Improvisation Games at Work

Oh, I get it... Whose FISHING line is it anyway!! Har, har...

As Abba so famously said, "Take a chance, Take a chance, Take a, Take a Chan-Chance".
The ability to improvise in the workplace is valuable. Few would argue with that proposition.

The problem is, most of us suck at it. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
Cognitive science tells us that there are very good reasons why we're creatures of habit and pattern (like... otherwise our species wouldn't have survived).

The good news is that improv is a skill that can be developed (or a muscle to be exercised, if you prefer). A cottage industry has developed, where improv troupes go to businesses and conduct improvisational workshops.

But you don't really need to pay some out of work actors to teach you how to goof off, do you? (Nothing wrong with out of work actors, but why should they have all the fun?). You probably have had a lot of practice goofing off as a kid - or a college student - or as an account manager.

Anyway, during our department's monthly get-together last Monday, I ran a 40-minute improv session. I surfed Youtube for some samples from "Whose Line is it Anyway?" and led the following four exercises in an event we called "Whose Job is it Anyway?"

We ran two cycles of this: Worlds Worst Boss and Worlds Worst Customer.

Then we moved on to "The Dating Game", which we changed to "The Interview Game"

For the first round, the contestants were a martial artist, Madonna, and our company CEO.

In the second round, the contestants were George Bush, Sarah Palin, and Frankenstein.

The game went really well. Stacy brought the house down as the martial artist and Brent nailed the 'Palin Wink'.

Next we played Three-Headed-Broadway Star:

Our song was, "Job, Don't Leave Me". Degree of difficulty is about 9.5 on this one. It was a little painful to watch, so I wouldn't recommend it to newbies...

Finally, we did a couple of rounds of Dubbing. Two of our group mimed a scene, while two others provided the voices.

In one scenario, we did a performance review that turned into the manager ordering the employee to do push ups. In the other, working on executive review turned into a little ballet.

How did it all go?

Well, we had fun. We had some laughs. We learned how hard improv really is.

And I can't wait to do it again!

Whose Learning Is This Anyway?

Improvisation seems to be cropping up everywhere lately.

In my Masters program last week, my learning team delivered a presentation on "Improvisational Theater Games in Corporate Training".

Then, Angie and I spent an evening watching "Three-Headed Broadway Star" clips on YouTube, from "Whose Line is it Anyway".

Finally, we were brainstorming at work for a low cost team building event and agreed upon an improv workshop. I been wanted to facilitate such a session for quite a while. I'm looking forward to it.

Improv is a powerful tool for many reasons:

1. It teaches "yes... and" thinking - you cannot reject an idea in improv
2. It encourages teamwork and collaboration
3. It encourages one to be present with all senses
4. It builds the creative muscles
5. It allows people to experience a 'safe' risk-taking environment
6. Finally, laughter is a power emotion

What workgroup couldn't use a little of all the above?

Links of Interest:

• Improvisational Theater
• Using Improv to Train (pdf)
• Improv Encyclopedia (pdf)
• Whose Line is it Anyway (DVD's)
• Whose Line YouTube clips

Creative Tools I: Magnetic Poetry

My Business Poem

Here's a fun site from the Magnetic Poetry folks.
You may have seen magnetic poetry kits in book stores.

It's a box full of words that are on magnets. You can toss them on a refrigerator and whip up a haiku (or a limerick - art is up to the artist...) while you grab a beer.

On this site is an online version that you can play with when you're not near a refrigerator.
This is the office version, so even if you get caught you can tell them you're working on your mission statement!

Creativity Exercise - Improv Golf...

Angie and I walked around Sonoma today, and found ourselves at a mini-putt course.
Humility prevents me from mentioning who won... but it reminded me to share a creativity practice with you.

In my mind, creativity isn't a part-time practice. It's something you need to practice all the time, so that you can rely on it on short notice.

To that end, Angie and I sometimes invent our own games.
Kids do this all the time and it's a great practice. If forces you to move beyond just being creative within the rules to being creative with the rules.

Our favorite improv game is 'host-rules mini-putt'.
We have a putter, a ball, and a portable putting cup. For each hole, players take turns designing the course.

We played 'host-rules mini-putt' (this really needs a better name!) on this past Tuesday night with Brent and Ken at the Sonoma Valley Inn. The event took place in our hotel room.
For one hole, Ken put the hole in a bedside table drawer, set up a ramp with my Leadership Challenge Facilitator's Guide, and defined the tee-off point.
Each golfer needed to launch the ball up the ramp, into the drawer, and then into the hole.
Not an easy task - as demonstrated by Ken's score of 30 (exceeded only by Brent's 32!).

On the next hole, I had us putt from the bathroon, under the couch, and then to the hole.
And on we went. Each player had a chance to design a hole, knowing they would be the first to play it.

I've also done this with Frisbee golf - "throw around the birch tree, to the left of the lamp post, and land on the 2nd sidewalk square" - with great success.

This game is a simple way to remember that the only rules are the ones we decide on.