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improvisation

Think Like a Jazz Combo

The jazz musician's ability to improvise, take risks, adapt to change and forge new ground are the exact skills we all need to develop in our current economy of bureaucratic sameness. READ»

Corporate Storytelling

Every civilization uses or has used story telling as a way to communicate social values, skills, and to change or reinforce behaviors. While stories are often the basis of interaction they are also the building blocks of knowledge and the foundation of memory and learning. They connect us to our humanity and link our past, present and future by teaching us to anticipate the possible consequences of our actions. Stories can help us define what is authentic about something or someone. The stories we tell and hear about our companies comprise our corporate cultures.READ»

Improvisation and the Jaws of Life

Improvising and being creative in real time under pressure is a skill that we appreciate in the arts such as music and theatre. We also admire athletes who develop an ability to ‘read the game’- especially a fast paced sport such as basketball or hockey. However, when I started researching improvisation for business applications I came across applications of its use in other professions as well.READ»

Creating Corporate Strategy & Making Movies – Together?

it’s a windy cold February afternoon, looking out of the floor to ceiling windows of the skyscraper the day looks like night has already taken over. The darkness is perpetuated by the tinted windows, its 4:30pm in Chicago and the sun has indeed set. It’s been a long week but the team is looking forward to this evenings Team Building session. It’s not a cooking class nor is it trust exercises, this group is going to become movie moguls and create movies as preparation for their Strategy Workshop scheduled over the next 2 days. The client is the Foreign Exchange (FX) Traders and Sales team from a major Financial Institute. The objective of the strategy session is to find new markets and clients for a traditionally reactive division of the bank. Combining the fun and comradely of making a movie with the ‘heavy lifting’ of strategy creation may seem odd companions but there are several reasons why having these two disparate activities on the menu makes sense.READ»

From Brazil to Your Boardroom

Forum Theatre as an Effective, Empowering Means of Problem- Solving in a Corporate SettingREAD»

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Sales and Status - Business Improvisation at its Best

Status awareness and manipulation is one of those allusive attributes that people often think a great sales person is ‘born with’. Like most value sales skills, some come to them naturally and perform them in an unconsciously competent state of mind. Status awareness and manipulation, your own and how you use it to affect a situation, is a key ingredient in sales and leadership. We are constantly keeping track of our status relative to others. Status is also about pecking order, real or imagined. We hold a metal representation of our status in our minds during interactions and it affects our metal processes. If your target relationship with a client is as a trusted adviser and if your purpose is to obtain an insider position then observing and manipulating status is a critical success factor.READ»

Sense and Sense Ability

A lot of talk about sense floats around the internet and in business. A sense of accomplishment, followed by a sense of doom. We like to make sense of the market, use common sense to unravel conundrums and have a sixth sense when it ...READ»

ChangeThis: Business Improvisation

ChangeThis was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu and Michelle Sriwongtong. You can read their bios in this blog entry. The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin. ...READ»

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Viral Narrative

Earlier this year, prankster group Improv Everywhere staged an event called "Frozen Grand Central," in which the participants synchronized their watches, and at a prearranged moment they all froze in place in the middle ...READ»