BRX Pro Tip: Improv for Business Agility
Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips, Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, share with us a little bit about your insight, your perspective on the value of improv as it relates to business agility.
Lee Kantor: Yeah, I’ve been around improv a long time. My son is an improviser in Chicago, a professional improviser, and he has been involved in improv for decades now. And so, early on I was kind of reading what he was reading and learning what he was learning when it came to improv, and I immediately saw an application for it when it came to doing the interviews and an application for our business directly.
Lee Kantor: So, some ways to use improv techniques to develop the quick thinking, a more risk tolerant team can happen if you kind of know some of the basics of improv. You know, a lot of people are familiar with the “yes, and” concept of not negating anything, but just building upon it. But there’s other kind of foundational elements about improv that makes them apply to business in general.
Lee Kantor: Number one is encouraging acceptance and collaboration. Instead of being kind of that contrarian or the person who’s trying to negate anything, if you lean first when a new idea surfaces and try to build on them instead of shutting them down, and then use that kind of basic tenet of “yes, and” to explore the solutions together, this is going to foster an open and creative environment. If you always lead with no, you’re shutting people down. You’re eliminating the opportunity for them to contribute, and they’re not going to keep contributing if they feel like your first move is to negate whatever it is they’re saying. So, lean into saying yes first.
Lee Kantor: And then, it’s so important to embrace failure as fuel. There are so many improv games that reward the risk-taking and reward the failure. They say fail happily, so any type of exercise where mistakes are cheered is a good thing, because teams have to become less afraid of making mistakes. Otherwise, they’re not going to experiment. They’re not going to innovate. They’re not going to really take those big swings that you want your people to be taking.
Lee Kantor: And then, thirdly, this is where active listening and building these listening and observation skills really are critical in the Business RadioX business, and I recommend this to every host I talk to and that I mentor. Active listening is at the heart of being a host in the Business RadioX system.
Lee Kantor: And there’s certain activities you can do to kind of help that. But during meetings, have team members paraphrase what others just said before they add their thoughts. This is going to ensure that everybody feels heard and then the ideas can build rather than they’re competing with each other. And this type of active listening develops stronger understandings. There’s less miscommunications. And you’re able to adapt to information a lot faster.
Lee Kantor: One of the books that I read about improv in business is called Getting to Yes And by Bob Kulhan, and I highly recommend checking it out. And there’s a bunch of other books about business and improv out there nowadays, but it has really made a mark in our business.
